Country Joe McDonald, the counterculture legend whose expletive-filled anti‑war anthem galvanized a generation and energized the massive Woodstock crowd, passed away Saturday, March 7, in Berkeley, California. He was 84.

McDonald, the frontman of the psychedelic rock group Country Joe and the Fish, died due to complications from Parkinson’s disease, according to a statement from his wife of 43 years, Kathy McDonald.

Born Joseph Allen McDonald on Jan. 1, 1942, in Washington, D.C., he rose to become one of the most prominent voices of the 1960s protest era. His best-known song, “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-To-Die Rag,” created in under an hour in 1965, evolved from a home recording in Berkeley into an anthem that embodied the frustration and absurdity surrounding the Vietnam War.

McDonald composed the tune in less than an hour in 1965, the same year President Lyndon Johnson began deploying ground troops to Vietnam. Channeling the dry humor of his idol, folk icon Woody Guthrie, McDonald shaped a satirical celebration of war and pointless death that fans would soon memorize.

The song’s most notorious moment came during the 1969 Woodstock music festival. By that time, Country Joe and the Fish were splitting apart, and McDonald had swapped the original “F-I-S-H” chant for a four-letter F word. Hundreds of thousands joined in the chant, a scene later immortalized in the Woodstock documentary that symbolized the era.

“Some people alluded to peace and stuff (at Woodstock), but I was talking about Vietnam,” McDonald told The Associated Press in 2019.

That fame brought backlash. Ed Sullivan canceled a scheduled appearance by Country Joe and the Fish on his variety show in 1968 after discovering the explicit chant. McDonald was also arrested and fined for using it during a performance in Worcester, Massachusetts.

McDonald’s activism reached far beyond his performances. His connections to political activists and Chicago Seven members Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin led him to testify in the Chicago Eight trial, which targeted organizers of the 1968 Democratic National Convention anti‑war demonstrations. When McDonald began performing “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-To-Die Rag” in the courtroom, the judge halted him, saying singing was prohibited. He then recited the lyrics instead.

The musician founded Country Joe and the Fish in 1965 with guitarist Barry “The Fish” Melton. The group became a staple of the Bay Area music scene, sharing stages with the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane and fellow rock star Janis Joplin, who was once McDonald’s girlfriend. Over his career, he wrote or co-wrote hundreds of songs and released dozens of albums.

Success brought legal challenges. In 2001, the daughter of late jazz musician Edward “Kid” Ory sued him, alleging the melody of “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-To-Die Rag” resembled Ory’s 1920s jazz piece “Muskrat Blues.” A U.S. district judge in California ruled in McDonald’s favor, citing the unreasonable delay between the song’s 1965 release and the lawsuit.

Although he was known primarily for his anti-war stance, McDonald admitted to having mixed feelings about Vietnam. He had served in the Navy in Japan in the late 1950s and felt a connection to both activists and military personnel. In the 1990s, he helped spearhead the creation of a Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Berkeley, which was officially dedicated in 1995.

“Yet the atmosphere proved to be one of reconciliation, not confrontation,” McDonald later wrote of the event.

McDonald continued performing and recording for decades after Woodstock, though his legacy remained tied to the late 1960s, a time he nostalgically referenced in his late 1970s track “Bring Back the Sixties, Man.” His activism persisted with songs such as “Save the Whales” and “Janis,” the latter honoring Joplin.

McDonald married four times. He is survived by his wife, Kathy McDonald; his children Seven McDonald, Devin McDonald, Tara Taylor McDonald, Emily McDonald Primus and Ryan McDonald; and his grandchildren Celia, Reuben, Kepler and Marcus.

The family requested that donations in his memory be made to Swords to Plowshares or the Michael J. Fox Foundation.