John Fogerty Says He’s Finally Found Peace After CCR Bandmate Betrayals

In a recent interview with CBS Sunday Morning, John Fogerty offered a rare glimpse into his long and turbulent history with his former Creedence Clearwater Revival bandmates. While the band remains one of America’s most iconic rock acts, Fogerty’s relationship with its members has been anything but harmonious.

Asked whether he had made peace with the group’s troubled past, Fogerty responded candidly.

“Yeah, I think so. It depends on what you may mean by that,” he said. “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.”

He explained that legal conflicts extended beyond the band’s original breakup. “Sometimes it was actually my brother Tom, but after he passed, even his widow joined with Doug [Clifford] and Stu [Cook] and sued me,” he added.

At 80 years old, Fogerty seemed both bemused and resigned to the decades-long animosity. “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.”

From Hit Records to Bitter Breakup

Creedence Clearwater Revival formed in El Cerrito, California, in 1959 and evolved into a chart-topping powerhouse by the late 1960s. With John Fogerty as the primary songwriter and frontman, the band produced a string of hits including “Bad Moon Rising,” “Green River,” and “Fortunate Son.”

Their brief but explosive run between 1969 and 1971 earned them 14 consecutive Top 10 singles and multiple platinum albums. However, internal tensions over artistic control and business decisions led to a highly publicized breakup in 1972.

Resignation and Reflection

Fogerty’s refusal to reunite with Cook and Clifford at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in 1993 further solidified the rift. From 1995 to 2020, the remaining members toured as Creedence Clearwater Revisited without him.

Separate legal clashes with record label executive Saul Zaentz only deepened the divide. Now, after decades of conflict, Fogerty seems to have reached a place of quiet acceptance—even if peace, in the traditional sense, remains elusive.