John Fogerty says being separated from his musical legacy for 50 years made performing even simple tasks beyond his abilities.
The 79-year-old was a founding member of Creedence Clearwater Revival, the swamp rock band with whom he produced nine top-10 singles and eight Gold records over an incredibly fertile four-year period. The band — which also featured Fogerty's older brother Tom on rhythm guitar, drummer Doug Clifford, and bass player Stu Cook — reportedly outsold the Beatles in 1969, a year in which they released three albums and performed at Woodstock.
But it all went sour when the group broke up in 1972. The late music mogul Saul Zaentz had signed the band to Fantasy Records in the mid '60s, when Fogerty was just a teenager and unaware of the implications of the group's contract. Fantasy claimed ownership of all the band's distribution and publishing rights when they put pen to paper.
In 2023, Fogerty purchased a majority stake in the CCR catalog from Concord Records, which had assumed ownership following the sale of Fantasy. His victory, coming after 50 years of turbulence, granted him copyright of a total of 65 CCR songs. During that period, the wilderness years, Fogerty tells the Guardian how difficult it was to exist.
“I never really thought I had a nervous breakdown, but I was not well. Not stable, or even-keeled, or normal,” the guitarist reflects.
“It would manifest itself in strange ways: I remember going into a department store to buy some socks, and I was unable to approach the salesperson because it was far too complicated for me. It sounds pathetic.
“I was in the middle of the stream, swimming and just trying to keep my head above water.”
Fogerty released 10 solo albums during that period, bookended by 1973's The Blue Ridge Rangers and 2020's Fogerty's Factory. Later this week he'll release Legacy: The Creedence Clearwater Revival Years, which features re-recordings of his newly reclaimed CCR material.
But he says the shadow of his battle against Fantasy has always loomed over him.
“I tried to be nice. I tried to be humble, but there were times when I would explode,” he admits. “That could come out if I were near people, or even if I was quite alone. It happened a few times when I was alone in the wilderness, fishing, and I'd just go off into a rage about my gear.”
Returning to the songs all those years later was like revisiting his younger self, he says, a version of the accomplished songwriter he feared he'd never get back.
“There was what they call an epiphany,” he says of working on the new version of his song "Proud Mary," a song that was a hit not only for CCR but also Ike & Tina Turner. “The track sounded really stunning, [but] the lead vocal paled by comparison. It finally dawned on me: ‘John, when you were doing this way back when, it was life or death for you.’ I came from a state of, if not poverty, then the lower economic rungs.
“It was very important and necessary to be great, as great as whatever was in me. And at that point, I felt as if I was going through a portal, and really trying to be that person again. I continued to work on 'Proud Mary' that way, and I ended up in a place I felt very good about.
"My wife told me she'd been watching me from the control room, and she said she could see it in my face that I actually was making myself go back, so I continued to work that way with the rest of the songs.
"I'm just an adventurer, you know, like an explorer coming back to the homeland.”
His wife has been a key player in his recovery, he reveals.
“After I met Julie, she insisted some therapy would help me,” he explains. “I was telling the doctor about my situation with the band, and he said, ‘You were betrayed.’ And that’s the first time I’d been given a word to describe the situation.”
When Concord took control of the band's music in 2004, the label wanted to sell Fogerty his songs, but the process took 19 years to realize.
“This is something I thought would never be a possibility,” Fogerty tweeted after his triumph in 2023. “After 50 years, I am finally reunited with my songs.”
But, as Fogerty hits the promo trail for his new album, he says he realizes this isn't just a nostalgic look back. After all, some of his songs resonate as much today as they did back then. And some more strongly than ever.
“It’s terrifying that a song such as ‘Fortunate Son’ — about how the sons of wealth avoid fighting the wars their fathers profit from — remains relevant, especially now the U.S. is governed by one of those fortunate sons,” The Guardian's Michael Hann says to Fogerty.
“I wrote that song during the administration of Richard Nixon,” he recalls. “Now, Donald Trump is almost a direct descendant. Mr Trump is doing everything on steroids compared to Nixon. I think Nixon did have some shame. I don’t get that sense these days.”
