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Were there any lasting impressions from the military that you applied to your music career? It certainly sounds like you took some lessons away from your time in uniform. So, being a guy who kind of lived on both sides of that world, I always wanted to see where I could try and help out. With all the additional problems they face, how can we do any worse by these people? And they should be proud, but they came home to a country that wasn’t. They didn’t go to Vietnam because that’s what they wanted to do, but they did it. That just made me really sad, and eventually, angry. And after the war was over, I’d see soldiers come home just to have the public turn our backs on them. Lord knows I’d had a little bit of rehearsal time in talking to my peers about what kids in the military really feel. That basically was the genesis of my song, “Fortunate Son.” It was coming straight from my heart. And eventually, that sort of feeling continued to take shape when I’d notice sons of senators and other well-off people not having to do their military duty even though they were eligible. They’d say, “What made John so hot?” But that was just the God’s truth. He’s not some alien, he’s just a poor guy who got drafted and now he has to find it within himself to do his duty, which luckily you don’t have to worry about.Īnd they really didn’t understand. He likes the same songs on the radio, he likes the same rock stars, eats the same food, loves the same movies, and doesn’t like the war. Sometimes I’d be performing at a protest, and we’d get into a discussion and they would start hurling epithets if there was a guy in uniform, and I’d think, that guy over there is only 19 years old. Many of my friends were musicians, hippies, or just normal citizens who would all protest the war. That was just the turmoil of America in those days. The war in Vietnam was still going, of course, as were all the cultural things that we look back on from the time - hippies, protests, marches. How had your military experience changed you from your early days of being ‘just a normal kid?’ Nobody really wanted to go fight in a jungle. Even with us in the military - we weren’t in love with that war. I was just a normal kid and really didn’t see myself becoming any kind of a military hero. I never knew how close we all could have come to going overseas.
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After reading some books later on Vietnam, I’ve kind of learned that certain Army Reserve units were in discussion to get activated. I was a very fortunate young man at the time, because in those days at least, the Army Reserve wasn’t really going overseas. Eventually, I was assigned to an Army Reserve unit. It wasn’t something I envisioned or even wanted to do, but there I was, and you’ve got to do something with it. Then the Vietnam War really started to get going, and sooner or later, I was drafted, just like so many million other guys. If anything, I wanted to be a baseball player or certainly a musician. I think I had a normal sense of patriotism, but I never dreamed I would grow up and be in the military.
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I was really just a normal American kid who felt we have pretty great country.