‘Country’ Joe McDonald Opened Up About His Iconic Woodstock Performance Before His Death
What To Know
- “Country” Joe McDonald died at age 84 in Berkeley, California, from complications related to Parkinson’s disease.
- McDonald was best known for leading the famous crowd chant and performing “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-To-Die Rag” at Woodstock.
- Throughout his life, McDonald remained active in music and activism.
“Country” Joe McDonald, the counterculture singer best known for his Vietnam War protest anthem “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-To-Die Rag,” has died at the age of 84. McDonald passed away on March 7, 2026, in Berkeley, California, from complications related to Parkinson’s disease.
For many fans, McDonald’s defining moment came during the 1969 Woodstock Music & Art Fair, and he led hundreds of thousands of people through the infamous crowd chant that introduced “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-To-Die Rag.” The performance, preserved in the 1970 documentary Woodstock, became one of the festival’s most unforgettable scenes.
Looking back on that moment years later, McDonald told Rolling Stone that the experience was larger than he could grasp at the time. “I never thought about the historic significance of it,” he said in a 2019 interview that was found and published in 2026. “But I do believe that the Woodstock Festival, film and album changed everything in America.”
Everett Collection
Born Joseph Allen McDonald on January 1, 1942, in Washington, D.C., he grew up in El Monte, California. His parents were politically active and encouraged both music and social awareness, influences that would shape much of his later work. As a teenager, he played trombone and led his high school marching band, while also teaching himself folk, blues, and country songs on guitar.
After serving in the U.S. Navy in the late 1950s, McDonald moved to Berkeley in the early 1960s and quickly became part of the city’s emerging folk and political scene. He founded an underground magazine called Rag Baby and began writing songs that mixed humor and protest.
In 1965, he formed Country Joe and the Fish with guitarist Barry “The Fish” Melton. The group soon became a fixture of the psychedelic San Francisco music movement alongside bands like the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane. Their 1967 debut album, Electric Music for the Mind and Body, captured the era’s experimental spirit and included the song “Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine.” But it was “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-To-Die Rag,” written quickly in 1965, that made McDonald a symbol of anti-war protest and gained him popularity.
However, it wasn’t without controversy. Country Joe and the Fish were reportedly dropped from a planned appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, and McDonald was even arrested and fined after performing the chant that introduced the song at a concert in Massachusetts.
Don Paulsen/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Although his name remained closely tied to the 1960s protest movement, McDonald continued recording and touring long after the decade ended. Over the years, he released dozens of albums and wrote hundreds of songs, including later works like “Save the Whales.” In the 1970s, he recorded the song “Bring Back the Sixties, Man.” McDonald stepped back from touring in recent years.
Reflecting on his career during his final Rolling Stone interview, he said he was content to slow down and spend time with family. He said, “I’m retired now. I did a series of performances [recently], and now I’m done. I’m finished. I’m completely retired. I’ve been dabbling with being retired for a couple [of] years, and now I’m just watching the grandkids, staying home, and getting to know my neighbors.”
McDonald was married four times, most recently to Kathy McDonald. He is survived by his wife, five children, and four grandchildren. He also notably dated Janis Joplin.
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July/August 2025
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