John Fogerty doesn’t want to talk about strategy. He’s not here for career chess moves or legacy preservation. “If I had a strategy, I probably would have kept my mouth shut a long time ago,” he says with a laugh that sounds like it’s been aging in Southern rock barrels since 1969. “Lord knows I’m not the guy with a strategy."
So naturally, he made a duets album.
But Wrote a Song for Everyone isn’t just another legacy artist phoning in their own greatest hits. It’s Fogerty handing the keys to his back catalog to a murderers’ row of collaborators — Jennifer Hudson, Foo Fighters, Miranda Lambert, Bob Seger — and seeing what happens when you twist “Proud Mary” through New Orleans brass or stage a Telecaster duel with Brad Paisley.
“It was my wife’s idea,” Fogerty admits. “She said, ‘Why don’t you get a bunch of the artists you love and have them do your songs with you?’ And I thought, yeah, that sounds like Christmas.”
Jennifer Hudson came in hot. “She had a demo that sounded a lot like Tina Turner’s version,” he says. “And, you know, what a great role model for a little girl.” But his wife had a flash: forget Tina. Go New Orleans. “Her eyes got real big and she said, ‘Proud Mary.’ I said, ‘What are you talking about?’ She said, ‘We should do that with Proud Mary.’” Cue a musical second line that Fogerty calls “a journey through everything you know about New Orleans.”
Miranda Lambert showed up for the title track and, in Fogerty’s words, “sang her tail off.” He paired her with Tom Morello. “Who would put those two together?” he shrugs. “It’s beautiful. You just kind of melt.”
But if you want to hear fear in a rock legend’s voice, ask him about going toe-to-toe with Brad Paisley. “He said, ‘I kinda want to have a shootout down on Main Street…a guitar duel,’” Fogerty remembers. “And in my brain I’m going, I’m already dead. Brad’s probably the greatest Telecaster player in the world. So I had a plan. I didn’t try to whoop him — I just did what I do best instead.”
Then there’s the Bob Seger moment. Fogerty grins as he tells it: “He calls me on his cell and sings ‘Who’ll Stop the Rain’ to me. Just strums it out, does the whole thing, like he’s already at the gig.” Followed by Fogerty catching him later — mid-order at Wendy’s. “I could hear the guy behind the counter: ‘Okay, was that a chocolate shake with the Whopper?’ And I’m like, ‘Bob, I’ll call you back, man. You gotta eat that burger.’”
Even the Foo Fighters make an appearance, slamming through “Fortunate Son” like it’s still 1970 and the napalm’s still warm. “You gotta have a lot of little boy in you to play rock and roll,” Fogerty says. “That little devilish grin when you know you’re gonna pull a prank? That’s how I feel out there in front of people.”
He says he doesn’t think about legacy much — he’s got kids, bills, and a 6 a.m. alarm like the rest of us. “I’m the most boring guy you ever met,” he deadpans. But when legends like Seger and Hudson and Grohl line up to sing your songs back to you, it’s hard not to admit the weight of it all. “Sometimes I’m surprised I’m the guy that wrote ‘Proud Mary.’”
And yet, here he is, doing what he’s always done — turning the wheel, burning the wood, and rolling on the river.
Watch the full interview above and then check out the video below.
