John Fogerty Quotes

When I was a young guy, none of the people I liked got Grammys. That`s just the way it was. They honored a lot of great people, but they just weren`t in my musical universe. Then something changed 15, 20 years ago, where they started kind of getting a little hipper, honoring rock and pop and even rap. It seems to be not just reserved for old, gray white men anymore, kind of like our politics.

I work hard at that, but the fact that there are a lot of good songs means there are also a lot of really bad songs I`ve written that you never hear.

Even though James Burton was my idol, I didn`t think I could carry his shoes back then.

On Eye of the Zombie, I had so-called studio musicians.

That song has the full extent of my mandolin abilities; I`m not a good mandolin player at all.

I`m like a twenty-two-year-old kid in a new band trying to get noticed and break through, because the vast majority of people have never seen me play live.

Even though I have often recorded alone, I still feel the best music is made by musicians playing off each other.

I`m now comfortable playing a lot of the old songs, and I`ve gotten out a lot of the old equipment.

On Eye of the Zombie, I just got some studio musicians who were competent, but some of them weren`t right for what I was trying to do.

The Telecaster doesn`t really sound that good for the kind of rock and roll that a lot of people played.

But I think beautiful is simple and elegant, like a ballad with simple harmony.

I don`t know that all the demons have been beaten, but I`m very, very proud of those songs.

I`ve studied a lot of great people over the years - Pete Seeger, James Brown - and tried to incorporate elements that I`ve admired, though I can`t say I dance like James.

I`ve also become much more the musician I`ve always wanted to be.

Now that I`m older, I like almost anything that`s done well, even surf music and instrumentals; I really enjoyed the interviews with the Ventures in your magazine.

When I made Blue Moon Swamp, there was a lot of trial and error; I was trying to find people who would be simpatico with my style, and with what I had in mind for the album.

There`s just not a lot of guys around playing like that these days; a lot of steel players are plugging into stomp boxes, trying to sound like Jeff Beck on a steel guitar.

I thought what I was good at doing was playing real simple guitar licks, since I`d cut my teeth on what Duane Eddy was doing; licks that were simple but had staying power.

Washburn`s an old American name, but this one was assembled overseas.

I wrote that song for my wife, and it`s what some guy who`s sitting under a tree would be singing to the woman of his life, telling her how wonderful she is. To me, that`s more lasting than something that sounds like it belongs on a movie soundtrack.

I usually destroy unreleased material. It has a way of coming back to haunt you.

I stuck with that size because I could bend the strings so well, and somewhere along the line I must have gotten it into my mind that I had small hands, so I was thinking I`d never be able to play a full-scale guitar, but I also felt like I was cheating or cutting corners.

No, but I`ve always felt that with true talent, and a commitment to hard work, it is possible to achieve an enduring respect and appreciation. In other words, I don`t take my fans for granted.

You should play with real musicians; the best music comes from real people interacting with each other.

The only sliding I did was on the kind of instrument that you put on your lap; no Spanish electrics.

In the last two years or so, I`ve made a conscious decision to play American guitars; I don`t know of a more subtle way to say it.

I went pretty much for one tone, and I knew at that time that I wanted to play a Rickenbacker.

The ones I have got great necks; of course, all of the Fenders from that era are incredible.

And I now think that Stratocasters and Telecasters are way cool.

I`m much more energetic now; you might say live performance is my mission.

I loved Western Swing and Hank Williams` music, and I now know that it`s a 6th tuning that gives you all of those classic licks.