How Bob Dylan Helped John Fogerty Reclaim One of His Most Iconic Songs Mid-Performance: “I’ll Never Forget”

The only thing that could possibly be better than receiving validation from an artist you admire is receiving that validation while actively performing on stage with them, which is precisely the situation John Fogerty found himself in during an impromptu jam sesh at the North Hollywood Palomino Club. Fogerty was attending a show one fateful night in 1987, not with the expectation to play, but to watch Taj Mahal as a fan. But after hearing that George Harrison and Bob Dylan were also in attendance—and then seeing them take the stage with Taj Mahal—Fogerty wondered if there was a chance he could play that night, too.

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In an interview published on Fogerty’s Facebook page, the CCR founder recalled watching Taj Mahal call Harrison to the stage, then Dylan, then Fogerty. “It’s such a fragile thing,” he said. “You don’t know how long that’s gonna last.” Still, he couldn’t help but hope that what he wished would happen actually was happening. During a different recollection of the event (via Guitar Player), Fogerty said, “I’m usually kinda shy, but for some reason [I thought], ‘Man, I hope they have another guitar. Please call me up there!” Luckily for Fogerty, his wish came true.

“We were on the stage probably 45 minutes to an hour. I mean, all of us, all together,” Fogerty remembered. “I’ll never forget. I stood across from George, singing into the same microphone, while Taj sang ‘Twist and Shout’, and George and I went, ‘ooooh.’ I got to be a Beatle for three minutes. It was pretty neat.”

But that’s not the only formative thing that happened that night in North Hollywood.

How Bob Dylan Helped John Fogerty Reclaim His Iconic Song

It didn’t take long for the audience at the Palomino Club in North Hollywood to start requesting specific songs from the star-studded supergroup that was Taj Mahal, George Harrison, Bob Dylan, and John Fogerty. (What a wellspring of song opportunities among those artists alone!) Entertainers at heart, the performers obliged, bringing up songs from their individual catalogues to play together. The band played Dylan’s “Watching the River Flow”. They also jammed on a version of The Beatles’ cover of Carl Perkins’ “Honey Don’t”. Of course, there was Taj Mahal’s take on “Twist and Shout” as well. Eventually, the audience started requesting songs from Fogerty—namely, “Proud Mary”.

To play one of his most iconic hits with a band like that should have been yet another dream-come-true on top of what was already happening. But Fogerty was at a bit of a crossroads in that regard. Legal battles and interpersonal disputes led Fogerty to stop playing Creedence Clearwater Revival songs altogether, which put him in an awkward spot to field that particular request. As Fogerty racked his brain for what to tell the crowd, Dylan leaned over to him and said, “John, if you don’t play ‘Proud Mary’, everybody’s gonna think it’s a Tina Turner song.”

That was enough for Fogerty to put what he called his “legal and emotional entanglements” aside and perform the song with some of his musical heroes. Before he even took the stage that night, Fogerty knew that what was about to happen was “history,” per the interview on his Facebook page. And he was right. Had it not been for Dylan, that history might have looked (and sounded) much different.

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