<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cWho is John Tristao and why do I<\/span> not<\/span><\/i> remember him being in CCR?\u201d is no doubt the question that pops into one\u2019s head when reading the above title.\u00a0 Join the club, because when I first heard his name attached to CCR, it didn\u2019t ring any bells for me either.\u00a0 Perhaps this will help:\u00a0 CCR here stands for \u2018Creedence Clearwater Revisited\u2019 and not \u2018Revival\u2019.\u00a0 Not enough information?\u00a0 We last discussed Creedence Clearwater Revisited in 2019 (<\/span>FTV:\u00a0 CCR 10-16-19<\/span><\/i>)<\/span><\/p>\n As they were making plans to get back on their COVID-19 interrupted touring schedule.\u00a0 This last go around was special as the plan was to put their version of CCR to bed nearly 25 years after getting their second wind.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The \u2018they\u2019 mentioned above included original CCR drummer Doug \u2018Cosmo\u2019 Clifford and bassist Stu Cook who formed what we will refer to as \u2018CCR2\u2019 in 1995.\u00a0 After playing a set of CCR tunes for a charity event, the two original members put their heads together and said, \u201cHey, why not?\u00a0 We were part of the CCR legacy, too.\u201d\u00a0 Ah yes, but the other part of CCR was John Fogerty – the voice, songwriter, and vision of the band.\u00a0 He was there (along with his older brother Tom) from their first gigs in 1959 through their late 1960s-early 1970s hit making period.\u00a0 One does not recreate CCR\u2019s legendary sound without the guy who represented 90 percent of the formula.\u00a0 John Tristao\u2019s involvement with CCR2 was a little rocky at the beginning because he consciously avoided trying to be \u2018just like Fogerty\u2019.\u00a0 Although he exited the band in 2016 after 21 years and was not in the band when they wrapped up their final tour in early 2020, <\/span>Rolling Stones <\/span><\/i>writer Andy Greene caught up with Tristao in September of 2022 to hear his side of the story as part of a series called <\/span>King for a Day<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Growing up in San Jose, California, Tristao was part of the army of kids who caught The Beatles on <\/span>The Ed Sullivan Show<\/span><\/i> in 1964.\u00a0 The first live concert he took in was Corny and the Corvettes featuring future Doobie Brothers band member Cornilius Bumpus.\u00a0 Music was always part of his life as John recalled, \u201cI\u2019m Portuguese.\u00a0 My mother was a singer.\u00a0 She used to sing in Spanish and Portuguese on the radio when I was a kid.\u00a0 That\u2019s where I got it from.\u201d\u00a0 As it\u00a0 happened with a lot of high school musicians, Tristao cycled through a number of bands like The Rip Tides, The Chosen Few, and Uncle Wiggly\u2019s Philharmonic.\u00a0 Don\u2019t laugh – the 1960s was a hotbed of strange band names like The Chocolate Watchband, Strawberry Alarm Clock, and Marquette\u2019s own Self Winding Grapefruit (one of my favorites).\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Playing music in California in the late 1960s allowed John to rub elbows with other musicians, some of whom would go on to wider fame.\u00a0 The drummer for Uncle Wiggly\u2019s, Steve Price, would go on to play with Pablo Cruise.\u00a0 Tristao\u2019s high school band The Chosen Few opened for acts like the Grateful Dead, the New Delhi River Band, The Turtles, William Penn and his Pals (which included Gregg Rolie of Santana and Journey fame), and Big Brother and the Holding Company.\u00a0 Janice Joplin knew his name but wasn\u2019t all that friendly to their opening act.\u00a0 John recalled literally \u2018supporting her\u2019 at a Fairground gig.\u00a0 Joplin was quite drunk and he found himself pushing her up the stairs to the stage when she turned around and vomited what seemed to be gallons of red wine all over him.\u00a0 Tristao laughed when Greene asked if she apologized:\u00a0 \u201cNo.\u00a0 She just turned around.\u00a0 She was kind of going back and forth like she was carsick or had motion sickness.\u00a0 She just heaved and that was it.\u00a0 Then she grabbed a hold of the rail and pulled herself back up.\u00a0 What a woman.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Tristao\u2019s first big break came when he was hired by a band called People!.\u00a0 Just before he joined, they had a worldwide hit with <\/span>I Love You, <\/span><\/i>a song written by bassist Chris White of the Zombies.\u00a0 People! experienced several problems trying to find a follow up hit:\u00a0 \u201cOur producer at the time was the producer on <\/span>The Time Has Come <\/span><\/i>by the Chamber Brothers<\/span>.\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>He really felt that he knew what a hit was.\u00a0 And he passed up six songs that wound up being huge hits.\u00a0 He said, \u2018This is no good.\u00a0 This is no good\u2026\u2019\u00a0 ugh.\u201d\u00a0 Among the songs their producer passed on were a Neil Young tune (<\/span>I Believe in You<\/span><\/i>), the Four Tops hit <\/span>One Chain Don\u2019t Make No Prison <\/span><\/i>(which they did record but the producer did not promote), and Redbone\u2019s massive hit <\/span>Come and Get Your Love<\/span><\/i> (which underwent another round of popularity recently when it was used in the first <\/span>Guardians of the Galaxy <\/span><\/i>movie).\u00a0 John said they played a bill with Redbone and the band gave them the song, but their know-it-all producer said, \u201cNope.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The other problems developed because the members of People! were also big into Scientology.\u00a0 \u201cThey would leave at eight in the morning to do their Scientology stuff, and they\u2019d be gone all day,\u201d John says.\u00a0 \u201cThey\u2019d come home at 11 at night.\u00a0 I was so bored.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t take it.\u00a0 After three weeks, I just said, \u201cI don\u2019t care what it is,\u00a0 I\u2019m in [laughs].\u201d\u00a0 As part of the higher echelon wing, Sea Org, they trained as able-bodied seamen.\u00a0 Their job was going to be spreading Scientology to young people via this private Navy and their music.\u00a0 Tristao moved on after three years when he was found \u2018unfit to be a member\u2019 because he kept getting caught smoking pot:\u00a0 \u201cI was the first person in history to be drummed out of Sea Org.\u00a0 When you\u2019re a Sea Org member, you get everything free.\u00a0 All the courses, all the auditing, all that nonsense.\u00a0 Well, they said, \u2018You owe us $300,000 for all the stuff you did!\u2019\u00a0 I said, \u2018Let me know how that turns out [even bigger laugh]!\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0There were two brothers who led the band.\u00a0 When they had a massive falling out (a fist fight, actually), People! began to fall apart.\u00a0 Another member named Denny Fridkin and John formed a new band featuring three drummers (naturally they called it \u2018Drum\u2019) which only lasted about a year.\u00a0 At twenty-two years old, Tristao was fed up with the music business.\u00a0 Married and living back in San Jose in 1971, John worked making tire treads, then moved on to janitorial work.\u00a0 From his desire to do something musical on a part time basis, he and Gary Wineroth began a Fifties throwback project called Daddy-O.\u00a0 John remembered having a lot of fun with Daddio-O:\u00a0 \u201cWe just started goofing around,\u00a0 We had a couple of terrible players but people started enjoying what we did.\u00a0 So I started writing skits.\u00a0 We got into doing full-blow theatrics and costume changes and that kind of thing.\u00a0 It was really, really fun.\u201d\u00a0 Their only other competition for the Fifties gigs was Sha Na Na on the east coast, so Daddio-O pretty much had the west coast to themselves.\u00a0 \u201cWe got a lot of opening-act spots for all the big acts that would come to San Jose:\u00a0 Alabama, Jerry Lee Lewis, Ricky Nelson, Ray Charles.\u00a0 It was just countless great bands.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0One of their enduring claims to fame is winning <\/span>The Gong Show.\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>At the time the show\u2019s creator, Chuck Barris, came calling, they were doing a brisk business at Disneyland and in Reno.\u00a0 They told his secretary, \u201cNo thanks, we don\u2019t do auditions.\u201d\u00a0 She called back and said, \u201cChuck really, really wants you guys on this show.\u00a0 Come on down.\u00a0 You don\u2019t have to audition.\u201d\u00a0 They said \u2018no\u2019 again but the third time she called, John got the idea that perhaps they would actually win the thing.\u00a0 The secretary said, \u201cCome and do the show.\u00a0 You won\u2019t regret it.\u201d\u00a0 Winning opened even more doors as Daddio-O found themselves warming up audiences for the likes of Tanya Tucker, Willie Nelson, and Sawyer Brown.\u00a0 When \u2018the usual band stuff\u2019 took Daddio-O to the end of its road in the 1980s, Tristao switched gears but kept performing.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Working as part of an advertising agency, John started another version of Daddio-O.\u00a0 He met and married a terrific singer who joined the band.\u00a0 \u201cA classic mistake,\u201d he says now.\u00a0 \u201cWe had the advertising agency together and with the band, we were together 24\/7.\u00a0 It was horrible.\u00a0 That\u2019s definitely a relationship-ender, which is what happened.\u201d\u00a0 A move to Seattle to open a deli\/gift shop followed, but this was also a mistake:\u00a0 \u201cI am not that great with the public.\u00a0 I had an abusive childhood, so I was carrying a lot of baggage.\u00a0 I have a short fuse and that\u2019s not good in a public situation, so that didn\u2019t work out.\u201d\u00a0 John went back to janitorial work where he could mostly be on his own.\u00a0 He worked nights so his new wife could work days and together they raised a son.\u00a0 It seems he was finally in his happy place even though it did not involve music.<\/span><\/p>\n He was working as a custodian and weightlifting coach at the local high school when Stu Cook tracked him down.\u00a0 John\u2019s old Daddio-O bass player, Michael Connolly, was running Dean Markley Strings and knew Stu because he was Cook\u2019s only source of long-scale bass strings.\u00a0 When Cook told him he was having a hard time finding a singer for CCR2, Connolly told him, \u201cHey, I got the guy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Tristao knew he had a voice that could mimic other singers from his days doing the Fifties thing.\u00a0 He credits another Doobie Brother, Michael McDonald, for showing him how John Fogerty got the tone he used in his singing voice.\u00a0 When John asked McDonald, \u201cHow do you get up there with that amazing tone?\u201d he was told, \u201cThat\u2019s just it.\u00a0 It\u2019s not a note.\u00a0 It\u2019s a head tone,\u00a0 It\u2019s the way Bob Seger does it.\u00a0 It\u2019s the way John Fogerty does it.\u00a0 You close your palate and put your air in your sinuses, and you sing with that.\u00a0 You can actually make a sound that the mind perceives as a note.\u201d\u00a0 I got close to it, but the problem was John Fogerty was a true tenor, and I\u2019m not, so I fought for every note.\u201d\u00a0 The \u2018hitting the high notes\u2019 would become a problem as John\u2019s 21 year CCR2 career moved on down the road.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When he auditioned for CCR2, former Cars guitarist Elliot Easton was in the band.\u00a0 During a break, he told John, \u201cI don\u2019t know how much my vote counts, but you got it as far as I\u2019m concerned.\u201d\u00a0 Unlike others who were sent home after a few songs, Tristao spent the whole day with the band before they put him on a plane home without an invite.\u00a0 When he got home, there was a message on his answering machine saying, \u201cYou\u2019ve go the job.\u201d\u00a0 At that point, the pressure hit him full on:\u00a0 \u201cHow the hell are you supposed to stand in for John Fogerty?\u00a0 He\u2019s the most recognizable singer, on top of being great.\u00a0 People are going to expect me to sound like him and I don\u2019t.\u00a0 I sound similar, but I\u2019m not an impersonator.\u201d\u00a0 Doug and Stu understood and told him, \u201cLook, you do it as close as you can, but don\u2019t copy him.\u201d\u00a0 Still, John was still intimidated to front such an iconic group at that level.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The stress began immediately and over the 21 years he performed with the band, some days it bordered on feeling like torture.\u00a0 \u201cStu is a very high-pressure guy,\u00a0 He\u2019s a moody guy, so I never knew which Stu I was gonna get at rehearsal or shows.\u201d\u00a0 A great night would get a \u2018good job\u2019 from Cook but an off night was treated as unforgivable.\u00a0 Clifford was more laid back and he and John became good friends.\u00a0 The atmosphere around the band changed when Easton left in 2004.\u00a0 Any attempt by new guitar players to update the sound was met with strong resistance from Doug and Stu because people expected CCR2 to sound like CCR with as little change in the arrangements as possible.\u00a0 \u201cElliot and I grew up with the music so we didn\u2019t have a problem with it.\u00a0 I think what Elliot did was nothing short of genius.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Despite the friction with Cook over good and bad shows, Tristao enjoyed the experience. \u00a0 Having to drop the tuning a step on songs like <\/span>Up Around The Bend <\/span><\/i>may have rankled purists, but sometimes it is the only way to go.\u00a0 Playing a lot of state and county fairs put them in touch with old and new fans.\u00a0 Corporate gigs were less fun.\u00a0 John recalled people at corporate jobs being more interested in the buffet than the music:\u00a0 \u201cWe played one where nobody even came into the room where we were playing – they were all at the buffet.\u00a0 Those kinds of jobs are just a paycheck.\u201d\u00a0 Performing for 30,000 or more fans at country music festivals would bring out the best in the band so there were enjoyable moments to outweigh the occasional dud gig.\u00a0 Casinos fell somewhere in between:\u00a0 \u201cAt casinos, the front rows are usually people who got free tickets and the fans are behind them somewhere between the stage and the slot machines.\u00a0 It is hard to connect with the audience when they are sandwich between the comp tickets and the gamers.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Naturally, the most pressure Tristao would face would be from the fans.\u00a0 Over time, his role was accepted by more and more of them, but there were always some who took it personally.<\/span><\/p>\n The \u2018how dare you try to replace John Fogerty\u2019 thing was real, but he wasn\u2019t even trying.\u00a0 John said they were more of a cover band and he was simply doing the songs as close to the originals as he could without trying to replace Fogerty.\u00a0 When Fogerty briefly tried to make them stop using the name \u2018Creedence Clearwater Revisited\u2019 (a suit he eventually dropped), Fogerty\u2019s lawyers accused Tristao of changing his name to \u2018John\u2019 when he joined the band.\u00a0 He had to bring his birth certificate to court to prove his name was actually \u2018John\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Did Tristao ever tire of playing the same songs every night?\u00a0 \u201cThere is a boredom that tries to set in, but I always did it with the thought of, \u2018These people have never seen it before, so I have to do it in a new unit of time.\u00a0 I have to do it like it\u2019s the first time\u2019.\u00a0 I kept the life and energy and didn\u2019t go out there and say, \u2018Oh jeez, <\/span>Proud Mary<\/span><\/i> again?\u2019\u201d\u00a0 Tristao was in the big time and he treated his time with CCR2 as a big deal.\u00a0 He must have enjoyed it to have played more than 1,800 shows and not tarnish the legacy of the music.\u00a0 He also wrote a book about his journey entitled <\/span>Creedence Clearwater Revisitor.\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>He sent a copy to Clifford but Cosmo took the parts about how Tristao felt he was treated in the band personally.\u00a0 John tried to explain he was not being critical of their relationship, but sadly, Cosmo hasn\u2019t spoken to him since the book came out.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Tristao left the band in 2016 when he suffered a dissection [type] B:\u00a0 \u201cMy aortic valve exploded,\u00a0 I had two aneurysms that popped.\u00a0 And I\u2019m only one of only three people in the world that\u2019s ever lived through it.\u00a0 That is why they call it the \u2018Widowmaker\u2019.\u00a0 I was out or in a coma at the hospital when the second one popped and but I remember hearing them saying, \u2018He\u2019s not going to make it.\u201d\u00a0 Besides the heart issue, John\u2019s arthritis was making it hard for him to travel and perform so he was replaced.\u00a0 The timing wasn\u2019t great, however, as Stu called him just after his surgery to tell him, \u201cWe\u2019re gonna move on and put Dan McGuinness in the seat.\u00a0 Thanks.\u201d\u00a0 Ah yes, the compassion shown by some band leaders to their hired guns can be negligible, but Tristao wasn\u2019t surprised.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The medical bills topped out at $2.4 million and he and his wife had it whittled down to about $700,000.\u00a0 John\u2019s wife was painting a heart surgeon\u2019s home and when he heard the story of how their insurance company had dumped them, the good doctor apparently took it upon himself to intervene.\u00a0 He called an old friend who happened to be the insurance commissioner for the State of Washington. In what Tristao calls \u2018an act of divine intervention\u2019, he has not received another bill.\u00a0 He is broke and unemployed save a volunteer turned paying job at a local hospital, but still thankful for what CCR2 did for him:\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019ve met most of my idols.\u00a0 We played with Paul McCartney at the Super Bowl.\u00a0 Ringo invited me to a show.\u00a0 Some of the best bands in the world opened for us, including Lynyrd Skynyrd, Doobie Brothers, Deep Purple.\u00a0 I mean, Paul Rogers!\u00a0 It\u2019s indescribable.\u201d\u00a0 We would have to agree with you John.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Top Piece Video:\u00a0 CCR2 with John Tristao performing\u00a0LODI<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cWho is John Tristao and why do I not remember him being in CCR?\u201d is no doubt the question that pops into one\u2019s head when reading the above title.\u00a0 Join the club, because when I first heard his name attached to CCR, it didn\u2019t ring any bells for me either.\u00a0 Perhaps this will help:\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8,6,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bands-musicians","category-from-the-vaults","category-new-music","category-woas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2708"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2708\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2711,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2708\/revisions\/2711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}