John Fogerty Enlists Brad Paisley, Keith Urban and Dave Grohl to Reinvent His Best-Loved Tunes
WOnstage at New York City's Hammerstein Ballroom, a man in a red, white, and blue plaid flannel shirt is holding court amid an assemblage of musicians who boast punk and hard-rock pedigrees. Slung over his shoulders is a Translucent Blue Ernie Ball Music Man Axis guitar.
Spontaneously, he begins to conjure up a glorious racket on the instrument, peeling off fluid, neoclassical-style tapping licks and grabbing his instrument's whammy bar to perform several deep, Van Halen–esque dive bombs. Finally, he breaks into the hopped-up blues-boogie riff of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Keep on Chooglin'." The drummer counts off, the band joins in, and the crowd roars approvingly.
It's a short but impressive display of six-string prowess, and all the more so given the fact that the guitarist at the center of this musical maelstrom is none other than the chooglin' man himself, John Fogerty. Judging by the startled looks on the faces in the crowd, most of those in attendance are shocked to discover that Fogerty can shred with the best of them.
"I was about 48 years old when I decided I wanted to be really good," the 67-year-old guitarist tells me a few weeks after the February 13 show. "And the realization that I wasn't was a fascinating moment for me, a moment where I think most people go, [sighs] 'Oh well,' and move on. But I didn't do that. I went, 'Oh shit!' and decided I needed to get busy."
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