Creedence Clearwater Revival‘s main songwriter, guitarist and vocalist John Fogerty recently had the chance to finally buy back the rights to his songs, which were for decades were property of Fantasy Records, which was owned by Saul Zaentz. After realizing that the terms of the deal were unfair, he tried for years to get out of the contract but only had the chance to buy them back in 2023.
Now that he is at peace with that, Fogerty talked with CBS Sunday Morning about that era of the band and his current relationship with his former bandmates Stu Cook (Bass) and Doug “Cosmo” Clifford (Drums). From 1995 to 2020 they toured around the world as Creedence Clearwater Revisited, playing the songs of the band.
John Fogerty talks about his relationship with Creedence bandmates
“Yeah, I think so (that I’m at peace with Creedence). It depends on what you may mean by that. The way I accept it as inevitable…laughing at myself now, I have been sued innumerable times by my former bandmates, let me put it that way. Sometimes it was actually my brother Tom, but after he passed, even his widow joined with Doug (Clifford) and Stu (Cook) and sued me.”
“It’s ironic that 80-year-old people are still suing each other. So if you mean at peace that way, I just accept all those things as kind of inevitable. That’s all. It’s not surprising anymore,” John Fogerty said (Transcribed by Ultimate Guitar).
In 1985, Fogerty was even sued by Zaentz for “self-plagiarism,” because his solo song “The Old Man Down the Road” had similarities with CCR’s classic track “Run Through the Jungle.” Fogerty won the case in court.
In 2004, Zaentz sold his share to a company called Concord, which reinstated the royalties that Fantasy had withheld. In 2023, Fogerty finally bought back the rights to his tracks.