Mike & the CCR Tour

Recently when Mike was online surfing to clear his head from too many taxes, he ran into the following reminiscence he had written several years ago for a John Fogerty website titled Electric Bayou. The second photo with this post is of Mike and John in the late '80s.

I'm a Memphis musician who toured with CCR on their last tour in 1972. I played bass with Tony Joe White; we were the middle act from the Cincinnatti concert to the final Denver concert. Freddie King opened the show, then us, then CCR.

I have lots of memories of those days. I played saxophone as well as bass, and would take my tenor on tour to play at the parties after the concerts. After each concert, at a party room in the hotel, the crew would set up a practice pad set of drums, small amps and John's (Fogerty) steel guitar as well as my sax. We played Merle Haggard songs ‘til daylight. Sometimes I played bass lines on guitar; sometimes I played sax.

One night Doug (Clifford, the drummer) asked if I would like to sell my horn because he was thinking of taking up the saxophone. I told him this particular horn was hard to play and not a good one to learn on, but he insisted, and so I told him I would sell it for what I had paid for it -- $200. He took the horn and went to his room.

Next morning at breakfast I saw Doug, and he was shaking his head. "That horn is just not making it," he said after having tried to play it all night. I told him that I knew it wasn't any good, and I would be glad to take it back, but he said no, a deal is a deal, and gave me the $200.

As soon as I got back to Memphis, I bought a better sax which I still play today.