# More legal trouble for John Fogerty
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-legal-trouble-for-john-fogerty/706898
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [December 10, 2014, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-legal-trouble-for-john-fogerty/706898 "2014-12-10T23:59:53Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2014, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-legal-trouble-for-john-fogerty/706898/1 "2014-12-10T23:59:53Z")
Stu Cook and Doug Clifford, Creedence Clearwater Revival’s bassist and drummer, are [suing John Fogerty](http://www.nola.com/music/index.ssf/2014/12/john_fogerty_sued_by_former_cr.html) for violating the terms of a previous lawsuit settlement that had allowed them to play as “Creedence Clearwater Revisited,” apparently because Fogerty said some pissy things about them.
This after a decades-long battle between Fogerty and CCR’s old producer Saul Zaentz over rights to CCR songs, which kept him from playing his own music for years, and which, bizarrely, included Zaentz suing Fogerty for plagiarizing _himself_, and Fogerty writing a song about a pig named “Zanz,” which he was later forced to change to “Vanz.”
I’ve always loved CCR, and have liked Fogerty’s subsequent solo work to varying degrees. For what it’s worth, I think he’s been on the right side of most of these fights. He basically _was_ Creedence; the rest of the guys - including his own brother - were essentially a backup band. If anybody should own the band name and the songs, it’s John Fogerty.
But the man has been carrying around so much bitterness and animosity around with him for so long, it’s just become sad.
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### Author:  [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2014, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-legal-trouble-for-john-fogerty/706898/2 "2014-12-11T01:14:34Z")
It’s always a shame when a hero becomes old and bitter instead of older and wiser.
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### Author:  [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2014, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-legal-trouble-for-john-fogerty/706898/3 "2014-12-11T01:19:57Z")
Yeah, it really… stings.
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### Author:  [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2014, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-legal-trouble-for-john-fogerty/706898/4 "2014-12-11T01:48:43Z")
> [@Wheelz](#):
>
> But the man has been carrying around so much bitterness and animosity around with him for so long, it’s just become sad.
Are you sure you read the article you linked to?
> [@John Fogerty](#):
>
> "I was driving my daughter to school yesterday and I was surprised to learn I was being sued by my former band mates who call themselves Creedence Clearwater Revisited.
>
> "The people who come to my shows know they will hear me sing and play the songs I wrote and recorded over the past four decades of my career. Every night we play live, I’m thrilled to see all of those fans singing along to the songs that have touched them. I am at a wonderful place in my life. I am playing the music that I love and wrote, with full joy and having my son Shane joining along side of me – it doesn’t get much better than that.
>
> “No lawyers, lawsuits, or angry ex-band members will stop me ever again from singing my songs. I am going to continue to tour and play all my songs every single night I am out on the road.”
That doesn’t sound angry and bitter to me at all. In fact, the whole story makes me think that it’s his former bandmates (and his sister-in-law) who are angry and bitter, not Mr. Fogerty.
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### Author:  [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2014, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-legal-trouble-for-john-fogerty/706898/5 "2014-12-11T09:45:17Z")
I’m reminded that David Crosby, Chris Hillman, and Roger McGuinn eventually came to an agreement that the name “The Byrds” may only be used if the project involves all three of them. And that after Carl Wilson passed, the Beach Boys splintered into two groups, one led by Mike Love and the other led by Al Jardine and they had to work some stuff out in court.
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### Author:  [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2014, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-legal-trouble-for-john-fogerty/706898/6 "2014-12-11T09:57:19Z")
Fogerty owns the rights to his old Creedence songs now anyway, so there’s nothing to prevent him from performing them.