John Fogerty reflected on the years he felt humiliated and ashamed after selling his legendary music catalog in 1980.
As a member of Creedence Clearwater Revival, he had written some of rock music’s biggest hits between 1969 and 1970, such as Corn the Bayou, Green River, Bad Moon Rising, and much more.
However, he lost ownership of his songs to Fantasy Records. Fogerty did this because it was the only way to escape a bad contract he was stuck in.
In a performance op The Late Show with Stephen Colbertthe Lucky son crooner said: “I worked really hard during that time.”
“I mean, I was up most of the night, you know, writing and stuff,” he said. “I was driven. I was manic, you know? I wanted to reach really high. I refused to be mediocre.”
Despite his dedication, he admitted he had been “snookered out of the property”.
For the next fifty years, Fogerty lived with the painful feeling that he had thrown away not only control of his life’s work but also a fortune.
“I just felt like a sap, a loser,” he said. “Someone came up to me and told me they liked a song, that ‘Proud Mary’ is a thing, and I felt like a bit of a fool.”
50 years later, in 2023, the Grammy Award winner purchased a majority stake in the CCR catalog from Concord Records, which had assumed ownership following the sale of Fantasy.
Fogerty went on to say, “Getting them back was like a boost to your appreciation.”
After regaining the rights, Fogerty recoded the classics for a new album, LegacyThe Creedence Clearwater Revival Years, as he still doesn’t own the original masters and probably never will.
