Pete Seeger
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Pete Seeger was an American folk singer and, per John Kiriakou, "besides my dad and my grandfather, Pete was the most important man in my life." Of all the famous people Kiriakou has met or worked with, he says only one or two ever reduced him to "pure fanboy," and Seeger was always the most special, a fascination dating to age six or seven, when Kiriakou first saw him on Sesame Street.

Becoming friends with Seeger

As a teenager, Kiriakou deeply admired Seeger for refusing to plead the Fifth Amendment before the House Un-American Activities Committee, invoking the First Amendment instead. At 18 he resolved he would become friends with Pete Seeger, and it took years, but he did. In the fall of 1982 he attended a Seeger concert with Arlo Guthrie at George Washington University, and afterward had drinks with Guthrie on a street corner. He followed Seeger to concerts in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, and Pittsburgh until Seeger began recognizing him, "you're that kid that comes to all my concerts", and in 1986, on the first Martin Luther King holiday, attended a Seeger concert of civil rights songs at the 15th Street AME Church.

After publishing his first book in 2009, Kiriakou sent a signed copy to Seeger, who by then lived in a house he had built himself in Beacon, New York, inscribed "next to my father, the most influential man in my life." Seeger wrote back, drawing a banjo and signing "Love Pete," a letter Kiriakou still has. The two exchanged Christmas cards for years afterward; when Kiriakou was arrested in 2012, Seeger reached out to ask how he could help. At his going-away party before entering prison, hosted by Code Pink, a Grammy-winning folk group performed an adapted version of Seeger's "Have You Been to Jail for Justice," with new lyrics about Kiriakou, a gesture Kiriakou cites as evidence that he and Seeger had become genuinely friendly, not merely fan and idol.

Seeger once asked Kiriakou why he was drawn to him, given how different their backgrounds were. Kiriakou's answer:

> Pete, you stood up to them. In 1958, you stood up to them. All you had to say is, "On the advice of counsel, I decline to answer your question, Senator." And you didn't. You said, "Based on the First Amendment, I don't have to tell you with whom I associate." Everybody's pleading the Fifth, he pleaded the First, and they sent him to prison for it. It was overturned on appeal, but he wasn't afraid of them. And so I wanted to be like Pete.

The biography of Seeger, How Can I Keep From Singing?, is Kiriakou's favorite book.

1958 HUAC appearance

In 1958, Seeger appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Where other witnesses invoked the Fifth Amendment's protection against self-incrimination, Seeger took a different path, stating that the Constitution did not require him to tell the government with whom he associated. He was convicted of contempt of Congress and sent to prison; the conviction, upheld at the Circuit Court of Appeals, was later overturned by the Supreme Court. Kiriakou described this as the act that made Seeger his model: "He wasn't afraid of them. And so I wanted to be like Pete."

Kiriakou has invoked the same 1958 stand as a point of comparison in discussing other cases of principled defiance before Congress, citing Seeger's refusal to answer the committee, instead asserting a First Amendment right of association, as the model he had in mind when discussing Chelsea Manning's own stance before a grand jury.

The Phil Ochs story

Pete Seeger personally told Kiriakou a story about the folk singer Phil Ochs, a major figure in 1960s and 1970s folk music. On a concert tour of Africa, Ochs was mugged and his throat cut; he survived but was left unable to sing high notes, and fell into a deep depression.

One night, Seeger was performing at the Café Wha in Greenwich Village and had to run immediately after the show to catch the last train from Grand Central Station to Beacon, where he lived. As he was packing up his banjo, a waitress called out that Phil Ochs was on the phone. Seeger grabbed the receiver, said "Phil, I can't talk, I've got to run and catch the last train to Beacon, call me tomorrow," and hung up. Ochs killed himself that night.

Seeger's reaction, as Kiriakou recounted it: "That selfish prick. I'll never forgive him. He had no idea how much he was hurting the people who meant the most to him." In a separate retelling, Kiriakou renders the same line as "that selfish bastard ... he had no idea how many people he's hurt."

Kiriakou has used the story in the context of discussing suicide and resilience, as a direct address to people at their lowest point: "You have no idea how loved you are and how much you would hurt the people that you care about the most."

The uncalled Phil Ochs phone call

John Kiriakou, for whom Pete Seeger was, along with his father and grandfather, one of the three formative figures of his early life, recounted on Covert Strategies Revealed in July 2026 a story Seeger told him personally. Seeger had been performing at a folk club in Greenwich Village. The set ran late, and he was packing up as quickly as he could to make the last train to Beacon, where he lived. A waitress told him "Phil Ochs is on the phone for you." Seeger asked her to tell Phil he would call him back the next day, and left for the train. Ochs, whose voice had been damaged by an African mugging that left him unable to reach high notes, and who had descended into deep depression as a result, committed suicide that same night. Kiriakou records what Seeger said to him: "That selfish bastard. I'll never forgive him for what he did. He had no idea how many people he's hurt." Kiriakou says he thought of it every time in his own dark years the temptation returned.

See also

- How Can I Keep from Singing
- John Kiriakou
