In 2019, Country Joe McDonald called into the Rolling Stone Music Now podcast to discuss the 50th anniversary of his career-making performance at Woodstock. In what turned out to be his final interview with Rolling Stone, he discussed his memories of the festival and much more. In the wake of McDonald’s death at age 84, here’s that full conversation, published here for the first time. (To hear the interview, press play below.)
How important is the Woodstock festival in your own memories? Did it feel important to you at the time, or did it feel like just another gig?
Well, it certainly didn’t feel like another gig. I was there for the whole three days. I was there listening to Hendrix play the “Star Spangled Banner.” It was a wonderful experience the whole three days. I got there on Thursday and I left on Monday. Was on stage watching a lot of the shows, and I had a wonderful time. I never thought about the historic significance of it, but I do believe that the Woodstock Festival, film and album changed everything in America. And the changes are still happening today, right? It’s still a challenge between the mores and the tastes of the World War II generation and the Woodstock generation, that battle is still going on. But everything else got ingrained into society. We take for granted all the things that Woodstock brought us. Colors, sound, fashion, music. It was the basis for modern rock n’ roll as we know it.
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You’ve said that you actually hadn’t planned on a lifelong career in music, and Woodstock kind of led you on that path. How did that happen?
You know, when I was in high school, I was in the concert band, the president of the band, the student conductor. I wrote my first rock and roll songs when I was 15, but by ’69 we had already been in the musicians union for several years and had toured. We played Monterey, we played quite a few festivals. We had a very, very busy schedule. And ’69 was the release of two LPs. So I would say that my musical career was chugging right along pretty well, but it was the birth for me of a solo career as Country Joe McDonald. The band was breaking up in ’69 and I don’t know what I would’ve done. I would’ve continued to be a musician I’m sure, just to pay the rent. And I had a lot of fun doing that. But that launched Country Joe McDonald, that impromptu performance of singing the cheer, which still cannot be said on radio and television.
Your fans at Woodstock already knew what you were going to do as soon as you called out for an F, right?
That’s correct. There’s a really simple, logical reason for that, which was that the year before at the Schaefer Beer Festival in Central Park, we had introduced the Fuck Cheer. We had changed the “Fish Cheer” to the fuck cheer that night. And we were banned from the Schaefer Beer Festival and The Ed Sullivan Show forever. And there was a station in New York that was playing the “Fixin-to-Die Rag” every day. People were being forced to go into the military and go and die in Vietnam. So that was a statement in the song that everybody could identify with. But I didn’t think about that when I was asked to perform, to just do something on stage, just to fill in some time for the Santana band to set up and get ready to go because they were running behind time.
So they just asked me to go out there solo with a guitar. So I did a few songs, which you can now hear on the [new] box set. I was saving the Fuck Cheer and “Fixin-to-Die-Rag” for the rock and roll Country Joe and the Fish set, which was later on that night, right? And I got off stage and my manager said, “What difference does it make? Nobody’s paying attention to you.” And so I thought, okay, that’s great, and then I went out and I yelled, “Gimme an F.” And they all stopped talking and looked at me and they responded. I didn’t know they were singing along until [producer] Michael Wadleigh brought me to LA and showed me the film, and then I could see that they were mouthing the words, you know, from the stage. I couldn’t see that. From the stage I couldn’t really hear them singing, so that’s why I was yelling at them to sing louder. But I was shocked. And then from the box set, I found out that the crowd spelling “fuck” and yelling “fuck” was overdubbed in the studio because the sound wasn’t loud enough because of the way they placed the microphones.
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How do you react to hearing that moment now?
I love it. It’s great and it really cuts through the bullshit of politics and everything. You know, I was banned from all the municipal auditoriums in America over that cheer. It gave me a lot of problems. Of course, you couldn’t play it on the radio, you know? So my most famous song couldn’t be played on the radio. Some people lost their jobs for playing it on the radio, but it’s great. It’s a great moment. I’m happy and proud that I could represent the Vietnam War and Vietnam veterans in that moment. It was very powerful, and we’re all lucky that Michael Wadleigh was there to capture it. He filmed the guy who shot the footage of me and made the executive decision to put it in the film. He also wanted to put in a giant “FUCK.” But they put the nix on that. They said, no, that was too radical. But when you think about including the cheer on that album in 1969, it was just unbelievable that they allowed it to go in the movie and on the album.
Since you were there the whole time, what else stands out in your memory from other artists’ sets or backstage moments?
Well, the Santana band of course was just incredible. I mean, that footage from the film was unbelievable. And over the years, the film and my live experiences have melded in a certain way, but Sly and the Family Stone, of course. It was fun watching Abbie Hoffman get hit in the head with a guitar by [Pete] Townshend. And I was there and I watched that. That was very entertaining. You know, everything was really entertaining and really wonderful. Spirit of peace and love. And just in the past couple days I’ve been watching some of these documentaries and I’m just astounded. I really am astounded at the size and the volume. The whole thing is just unbelievable. You know, when you look at that footage and you hear that music and all that music was brand new, you know. It was brand new at the time. It was so exciting to hear that music played so wonderfully. Wow. Just incredible. Really, really incredible.
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You were involved in the Woodstock 50 event before it got canceled. What happened there?
I never backed out of it. As a matter of fact, we kind of noticed like three months ago from Michael Wadleigh’s team, “Don’t worry, everything’s gonna be fine.” And I followed it in the news. Nobody ever told me anything. I followed in the news just the same way you followed it in the news. And I found out a couple days ago because I was afraid to back out because I was afraid that I would lose my deposit. ‘Cause I got a 50% deposit. And sometimes if you cancel, then the promoter can blame it on you. So I was waiting for it to fall apart. It became obvious like a couple weeks ago that it was gonna die, and then when it fell apart, I cashed the check and there you go.
Any other plans to commemorate the anniversary, or are you just going to go on with your life?
I’m retired now. I did a series of performances [recently], and now I’m done. I’m finished. I’m completely retired. I’ve been dabbling with being retired for a couple years and now I’m just watching the grandkids, staying home and getting to know my neighbors.
