[2] McDonald was born in Washington, D.C., and grew up in El Monte, California, in the Los Angeles area.

His mother, Florence Plotnick, was the daughter of Russian Jewish immigrants and served for many years as the City Auditor of Berkeley, California.

In 1965, he and Barry Melton co-founded Country Joe & the Fish which became a pioneer psychedelic rock band with their eclectic performances at the Avalon Ballroom, the Fillmore Auditorium, the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, and both the 1969 original and 1979 reunion Woodstock Festivals.

[12] Gary "Chicken" Hirsh suggested before one of the shows to spell the word "fuck" instead of "fish".

Although the crowd loved it, the management of the Schaefer Beer Festival did not and kicked the band off the tour for life.

[12] The modified cheer continued at most of the band's live shows throughout the years, including Woodstock and elsewhere.

chorus part, as derived from the 1926 early jazz classic "Muskrat Ramble", co-written by Kid Ory.

The court, however, upheld McDonald's laches defense, noting that Ory and her father were aware of the original version of the song, with the same questionable section, for some three decades without bringing a suit.

In 2004, McDonald regrouped with three of the original members of Country Joe and the Fish (Bruce Barthol, David Bennett Cohen, and Gary "Chicken" Hirsh) and they toured the United States and the United Kingdom as the "Country Joe Band".

In 2019, McDonald was scheduled to play on Woodstock's 50th Anniversary festival, which was cancelled after negotiations between partners failed.

Seven had a career as a TV child actor in the late 1970s and early 1980s,[citation needed] managed Johnny Depp's Viper Room nightclub and the alternative rock band Smashing Pumpkins in the 1990s,[18][19] and wrote for Details, Elle, LA Weekly and Harper's Bazaar magazines in the 1990s and 2000s.

[21] McDonald is featured in the 2024 documentary Cover Your Ears produced by Prairie Coast Films and directed by Sean Patrick Shaul, discussing music censorship.