‘Country’ Joe McDonald, an iconic 1960s rock star who made waves with a four-letter rebuke of the Vietnam War, passed away on Sunday, March 7, 2026.
Joe McDonald, who performed with his band Country Joe and the Fish, died from health complications resulting from Parkinson’s disease in Berkeley, California.
He was known for being against the Vietnam War and singing a world famous song, I-feel-like-I’m-preparing-to-diewhich literally became an anthem for protesters in the United States.
At the time he wrote the hitmaker’s lyrics, McDonald was co-leader of his newly founded band. Joe County and the fishand before performing the song, he delivered a unique chant of “FISH.”
That famous song says: “Give me an F, give me an I, give me an S, give me an H.”
McDonald once told Associated Press in 2019 the reason behind this chant, saying: “Some people alluded to peace and stuff [at Woodstock]“But I was talking about Vietnam.”
The opening chant was an expression of our anger and frustration over the Vietnam War, which was killing us, literally killing us.”
To the surprise of many, McDonald wrote the lyrics on paper in less than an hour in 1965, the same year then-president Lyndon Johnson began sending troops to Vietnam.
Joe McDonald was born in Washington, DC, in 1942 and raised in El Monte, California.
He began writing songs as a teenager, mastering three classic American music genres: folk, blues, and guitar-driven country.
McDonald was married four times, most recently to Kathy McDonald with whom he had five children and four grandchildren.
