- Alright y'all we're back,
and I'm hanging with Kyle MacLachlan.
(audience applauds)
- Alright everybody, our next guest is a musical legend
who's been at it on his own and with his band,
Creedence Clearwater Revival for over five decades.
His new song is called "Weeping In The Promised Land"
What an amazing title.
And it's out right now.
Please welcome Rock and Roll Hall of Famer
and songwriting Hall of Famer,
John Fogerty.
(lively upbeat music)
( audience applauds)
I wish I could hug you.
- Hello hello.
- Go ahead, have a seat.
- Thank you
- So meet Kyle.
- Hi John.
- Hi Kyle. What a pleasure.
- The last time we met, it was at Yankee stadium?
- That's true.
- Yeah. It was a sports ball event, which I never am at.
(laughs)
- Well, you're missing some of that there.
It was the opening day of the brand new Yankee Stadium.
The Yankees went on that year to win the World Series.
- I think because of our presence in the beginning.
- There you go.
- Yeah.
- You sang the National Anthem.
- Yes.
- Which I usually don't touch.
(laughing)
And then, I sang Centerfield in center field.
- Which is amazing.
- It was fun.
Anyway, and then we ended up in the same area,
enjoyed the game together.
- Yeah and during the game they go and put you
in like the suites and whatever,
and it's like, I'm there for the food and the drinks, John.
(laughs)
- Well, they had a lot of hot dogs, I remember that.
- Well, I'm Texan, so I'm not against it.
(laughing)
- But you and your kids,
you actually recorded an album during the pandemic. Right?
- Yeah. This was a wonderful idea that my wife, Julie had.
It was right as the lockdown started.
- Yeah.
- She thought, it started out this way,
she said; "I want you to sing
'Have You Ever Seen the Rain'
"and we'll post it."
And I was kind of grumpy about the whole thing,
'cause there's probably 40 or 50 versions
of me on the web, you know.
- Yeah.
- Singing, "Have You Ever Seen the Rain."
So why do we need this?
- Yeah. It never gets old John, so just so you know.
- Uh huh?
- It doesn't get old. We still love it every time.
- Well, thank you for that.
But it doesn't get old for me either
in the right context but,
- Yeah. what she was saying was,
I think it would be very healing to people, you know,
uplifting, 'cause it is a hopeful song.
And I kinda
okay. And people, you know, were generally in favor of that.
So she,
this is Julie, my wife kinda kept it going, you know?
- Yeah.
- Like I said, I was kind of an old grump about it
except that I got to be with my kids.
- I was gonna say
that's the coolest part to me in that photo,
I've seen that photo.
I get, I mean my kids are only four and six right now,
but anytime, I mean, they love music.
And they, you know,
have seen me on stage, they've toured with me as well.
And when they get excited
and, like about the things I get excited about
and things that inspire me,
that's such a blessing as a parent.
But you're performing a new song today,
and can you tell me how the song came about?
I heard that you've had this title for years.
- Yeah. I started keeping a little notebook.
- Mm hmm.
- I mean, an official one in 1967.
I realized I wanted to get, you know,
it all had been haphazard up until then in my life.
And so I got a little book and called it "Song titles."
And the very first thing
that I ever wrote in there was "Proud Mary"
which I didn't even know what it meant.
But anyway somewhere along the way,
more than 30 years ago I wrote the title,
"Weeping In the Promised Land" Right?
And I looked at that and I went,
wow, that's pretty cool.
Wow. That's sounds Biblical.
You know, and it sounds really sad.
That's that's about all I did with it at the time.
So basically our country and the world were
very engulfed in this pandemic,
a health crisis all over the world.
And also about time again,
civil rights was coming to the fore
in the Black Lives Matter movement, it really got going.
My daughter even went down and was protesting.
She was in her senior year of high school then.
- Yeah.
- So, somewhere around June or July
that title, "Weeping In the Promised Land"
came across my consciousness again,
but this time it was, you know
it was more like bam, you know, and I,
Oh, wow.
'Cause now it meant, this.
- Absolutely.
- You know?
And I have to admit,
there was that kind of nanosecond where I could see it all.
- Yeah.
- You know, weeping and here we are and it was like,
"John, are you up to this?" "Do you really want it?"
If you take on this mission,
- 100% in. It's gotta be here.
And you can't let go until it's here.
And that's the course of all writers you know,
if you, and I use the words, brutally honest.
And so I hung in there.
It was the hardest song I ever wrote.
- But I think a lot of writers, we have that happening,
especially that block,
especially when it's so important to you it matters
and you wanna do it justice.
Then that's a lot of pressure.