Quotes By John Fogerty

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

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

I don't know that all the demons have been beaten, but I'm very, very proud of those songs.

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.

The Telecaster doesn't really sound that good for the kind of rock and roll that a lot of people played.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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'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.

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.

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

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

Even though James Burton was my idol, I didn't think I could carry his shoes back then.

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

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 had so-called studio musicians.

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

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.

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

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.