Jesse Welles Says Working with John Fogerty Is ‘Unbelievable’ (Exclusive)

Jesse Welles is still processing the profound nature of his relationship with the legendary John Fogerty.

The “War Isn’t Murder” singer, 32, tells PEOPLE at the 2025 Americana Honors & Awards that teaming up with Fogerty, the lead singer of Creedence Clearwater Revival, is an “unbelievable” feat that he will need to take some time to process.

“It was … I know he didn’t intend for it to be this way, but it was essentially like, here’s a lesson on how to play my song from the guy who wrote it,” Welles shares of performing “Have You Ever Seen the Rain?” with Fogerty during a surprise duet at Nashville’s Exit/In on Sept. 9.

The former recorded and released an acclaimed cover of the song with Mt. Joy in 2024, and first joined Fogerty in a live cut of the track a day earlier during the BMI Troubadour Awards on Sept. 8.

“So it’s super duper good. Also, I don’t think it is really set in yet, because it is just kinda unbelievable to have John right there,” Welles adds of their live performances. “It may take a couple years for me to really understand the full weight of it, but to have his blessing, I don’t know how to put it into words.”

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During the 2025 Americana Honors & Awards, Fogerty presented Welles with the free speech award, honoring his commitment to relevant, resonant storytelling through his music, which often focuses on Welles’ interpretation of hot-button current events and societal criticisms. At the end of the event, Welles, along with the rest of the evening’s nominees, came together with Fogerty for a medley of Creedence Clearwater Revival classics, “Up Around the Bend,” “Lookin’ Out My Back Door” and “Proud Mary.”

Welles, a student of both rock legends such as Fogerty and folk heroes such as Woody Guthrie, John Prine and Bob Dylan, recognizes a lineage between his work and those who came before him, but is steadfast in reminding all that his perspective is uniquely his own.

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“My formative years were spent listening to these folks like Woody Guthrie. I feel like those are the ones I always get compared to, a lot of John Prine too,” he shares, but quickly adds, “Those shoes are too big to fill.”

The singer continues to note, “People compare you to what they’ve seen before, what’s familiar. But it doesn’t make you the same. [While I was making] rock and roll, everybody always called me … Kurt Cobain, you know, and it’s just people grasping at straws. Even Bob — Bob Dylan isn’t Woody Guthrie any more than I’m Bob Dylan. These are all one-of-a-kind individuals.”

Of the inspiration behind his thought-provoking lyricism as a whole, Welles shares, “The ingredients you got bake the cake you get, and right now in the oven is a very strange group of ingredients and a lot of situations happening simultaneously where the outcomes are unpredictable.”