Nowadays, Creedence Clearwater Revival’s immortal classic “Fortunate Son” has become more than a simple song. Rather, it’s become a timeless representation of countercultural rebellion, especially when discussing turbulent past eras like the Vietnam War of the 1960s.

As iconic a song as it’s become in the decades since its release, “Fortunate Son”‘s songwriter, John Fogerty, has admitted it only took him less than a half an hour to actually compose the chart-topping ’60s single.

In a recent video shared on YouTube, the 80-year-old Fogerty went into detail about “Fortunate Son”‘s creation, including the fact that the song was primarily inspired by the singer’s personal observations about wealth and power disparity in the U.S.

“This song is unusual in a couple of ways,” the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer began by saying. “First of all, it’s a song that’s probably took the longest for me to write. And, at the same time, was also the quickest song I ever wrote. It’s also, some say, a political song. Now, for that part, we gotta go way, way back to when I was in the second grade.”

From there, Fogerty went on to mention his initial “suspicion” of government individuals and politicians, especially those he spotted attending President Eisenhower’s inauguration in 1953 on television.

“Even at that young age, I was a little bit suspicious, let’s say, of people driving around in fancy big black cars,” Fogery said. “I guess it piqued my interest in politics because over the years, I would watch these conventions on television. They were pretty boring, but every now and then, somebody’d get up and say, ‘Well, the great state of Texas would like to nominate her favorite son, Billie Sol Estes,’ or something like that.”

Years later, Fogerty’s observations about wealth and power once again came to the forefront during the mid 1960s when the Vietnam War first started to gain traction.

“Like many, many young men my age, I was drafted in 1966,” Fogerty explained. “Eventually, I ended up in an Army Reserve unit, and that was great, but at the same time, you’re seeing these stories on television where some Senator managed to get his son out of the draft or some rich tycoon millionaire was able to have your son avoid military service, and that just didn’t seem fair.”

“And I’m thinking about all these things, these political things, these economic things, these unfair class things that are going on in our culture,” the Creedence frontman continued. “I started putting the music together and showing my band, of course. And as we rehearse for a few weeks, we start to get pretty tight, and I realize we’re going to record pretty soon, I better actually sit down and write the words of this song.”

Sitting alone in his bedroom with a legal pad in hand, Fogerty commenced to writing his hit single, changing the words from “favorite son” to the famous “fortunate son” we know and love today.

“Man, all those thoughts just came out in a raging torrent,” the singer continued. “Twenty minutes later, after walking into the room with nothing, I walked out of that room with a completed song called ‘Fortunate Son.’ That was by far the quickest I’ve ever written a song.”

This story was originally published by Parade on Jan 9, 2026, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.