CCR’s John Fogerty jokes about using ChatGPT to make a setlist
Singer, songwriter, and leader of Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR) John Fogerty is apparently keeping up with the times. During his SXSW keynote on Wednesday in Austin, the musician joked about using ChatGPT to determine which songs to play for his shows.
In an interview conducted by Tom Morello (of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave), Fogerty was asked how he decided on a setlist for a given evening, like his concert at SXSW the previous night.
“I just go on ChatGPT or whatever,” Fogerty said, leading the audience to howl with laughter.
He then added that “you learn a whole lot trying to be an entertainer,” and said he just wanted people to have fun at the concert. “I want them to join in. I want them to sing along.”
The interview also touched on CCR history, music publishing rights, and the stories behind some of the band’s songs, among other things.
At one point, Fogerty also pointed out how the medium we use to consume music defines how it’s presented.
“Songs have always sort of been manifested by the medium that they’re on. I mean, the three-minute song or so was invented because of the 78 record. You just couldn’t put more stuff in there,” he said. Then the LP came along and CDs, which led to people having albums with far more songs, even 19 or 21-track albums.” (He said he didn’t think this was a great idea, for what it’s worth, adding that “after six or seven songs, put it on the next record!”)
Today, the medium we use to consume music is streaming, which means that distribution is in some ways more democratic, Morello said, although there’s less of a funnel as thousands of new songs are released daily.
CCR has over a billion streams, however, which Fogerty said was “magical and remarkable.”
“If your song is streamed, especially to a great degree, it means that young people are listening to it, because that’s their media: streaming,” he said.
