Country Joe McDonald’s Final Rolling Stone Interview: ‘Woodstock Changed Everything’

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...