John Fogerty is telling his side of the story.
A member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame thanks to his iconic work with '60s hitmakers Creedence Clearwater Revival— 20 hit singles, starting with "Suzie Q." in September 1968 and seven in 1969 alone— Forgerty has led a life and career filled with dizzying highs and crushing lows. Now, he's chronicled the whole affair on his own terms in his new autobiography, "Fortunate Son: My Life, My Music," set for release on Oct. 6 throughLittle, Brown and Company.
Fogerty, 70, recently announced "Peace, Love and Creedence," an eight-show residency set to run Jan. 8 to 23, 2016, at the Venetian Las Vegas. He discussed his book, the decision to embrace his past and his collaborative history with Jersey rocker Bruce Springsteen in a telephone interview.
Q:What made now the right time to finally tell your story in your own words?
A: Probably because I’m very much at peace with the world.I’ve healed. I’m not telling stories from the point of view of anger or bitterness, which certainly would have been the case 15 years or 20 years ago when I was still festering over a lot of things that are in the book. I’ve healed, blessedly, through the efforts of my dear wife, Julie, and it’s a better time for me, certainly, to be writing the book.
The actual inspiration or nudge to do it came from Julie. I don’t know if I’d ever have gotten around to it (otherwise). You say, “Oh, someday, I’ll write a book,” but there are a lot of other things you could do instead, you know?
Q:In reading it, it feels like there is areal sense of closure and catharsis in getting your side of these stories out there and on the record. Would you say that’s the case?
A:I think that’s a fair assessment of things. Because some of the contractual things and even human behavior over time, over years, is very complicated to try and tell over a little newspaper article that’s got 140 words. Things were never really talked about in-depth or with any sense of why a thing might be wrong or might even be taken as a hurtful thing or as a devious thing.
So yeah, getting the opportunity to actually just say it and lay it out as it unfolds over the pages of a book, kind of the same way that it happened when it happened, I do have a sense of, "OK, all I have to do is if somebody asks about it now I’ll just point at the book and say, ‘Read the book.I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”
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Q:And about how long did it take you to write the book?
A:I think it was about a three-year period there. Years ago, maybe six to eight years ago, Julie was kind of talking about the idea of me writing a book, and we hired a guy to interview me and videotape-interview me. The point was telling my life story —and the result she was hoping for was to write a book. It didn’t get done then, but all of that stuff was used now on this book, with Julie having more of a focused effort to get this done.
Q:At the same time you were working on the book, there were things like the tours playing Creedence albums in their entirety and the “Wrote a Song for Everyone” album where you revisited songs from your back catalog. It seems like there’s been, in general, an embracing of your own legacy and an effort to bring it into the present.
A:Well, I think that’s true. The reverse of that had sort of gone on for a long time. During the, I guess I’ll call it the dark time, when “Proud Mary” or something would come on the radio I would change the channel. I would just get angry about it or hurt or confused. I could see Saul Zaentz just standing there with sacks full of gold, laughing at me. I would get very upset.
And so, with the healing that certainly has taken place because of Julie, it happened over time time but at some point I was just not angry anymore, or hurt, or confused. I was happy. And, when all of that occurred, I have so much love in my heart that it pushed all of the negative stuff out of me. Therefore, approaching my own past was not difficult. Itseems natural to me now.
Q:When Creedence first broke through after “Suzy Q,” the band rose very rapidly to that great year of 1969 when you had three albums full of hits. What do you think it was about the band and its sound that connected with the American public is such a strong way so quickly?
A:I think the first thing is the songs. In other words, I had noticed just watching rock ’n’ roll and music over the years that different bands will have different sounds of course, but the core to that is the songs. Meaning when something comes along and has a certain song, it’s a definitive thing, but not as definitive as the song itself. Something can sound a little quirky, be a little off-center or off the mainstream, but if that same group or artist starts having a bunch of songs, they will actually sway public opinion to not only enjoy that quirky sound but start to think that’s the best thing. It kind of comes along with the records.
I know it’s really hard for people to separate those two things, but in some ways I think the Beatles showed that. When they first came along, their sound was a little different than what Americans were used to, but it eventually became the hippest thing.
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Q:There’s one passage in the book where you discuss how it took you a long time to connect with one of your own songs, and it happens to be one of my favorite Creedence songs, “Long as I Can See the Light.” What was it about that song that took you a while to come around to it, and what was it that made the song reveal itself to you?
A:That’s a pretty interesting question. Well, I think the original inspiration way back when, I was writing a song and talking about being lonely, being forlorn, perhaps missing home, that sort of thing, and using the candle as a metaphor, a beacon, for a way of finding your way back home.
I think I was certainly aware that the song was a nice song, but it was kind of at Julie’s insistence that I start doing that song again here in the new millennium. And the way I present it now in the show we’re doing, I actually play the piano, which is how I wrote the song in the first place all those years ago. Andbecause of my relationship with Julie, I’m so deeply and strongly in love with her and feel such a connection, the words of the song, the intent of that song, really hits home to me now.
Q:There’s a very powerful section in the book dealing with your thoughts and feelings on the Vietnam War and its resonance today in the military conflicts we’ve found ourselves in over recent years. It has to be interesting for you as a songwriter to have written a song like “Fortunate Son” that was so of its moment and reflective of the Vietnam era but is so applicable to other situations in the generations since it was released.
A:Well you know, of course as a very young man I dare say I was certainly less experienced than I am now, but I certainly had strong feelings then. And, it was always, I thought, when I would write a song to try and distill it or make it as simple as possible so that you could clearly see the intent of the song. That’s what I did most of the time, sometimes I left them rather veiled; I think “Who’ll Stop the Rain,” it’s not quite clear what that’s about.
But “Fortunate Son” is such a clear issue of privilege and wealth and the powerful getting away with what they do. As a wise man said many years ago, “rich men declare the wars and poor men have to fight them.” It’s sort of that idea, and I’m raging against that as a person who’s actually lived that, and that was my point of view. I was very angry about that situation.
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Q:In 2004, I saw you here in New Jersey at a Vote for Change concert with Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Browne and Eddie Vedder. You and Bruce go back a long way; how has it been, collaborating with and getting to know Bruce over the years?
A:Bruce is a dear friend but he’s also, of course, a wonderful artist, one of the greatest ever in music. I got to introduce him in Hyde Park a couple of summers ago and I introduced him as the greatest American rocker of all time, and I’ll stand by that. It’s been very enjoyable.I love his songs and his records. And watching him perform live, I’m one of those people, all those hundreds of thousands that are out there, that just are in love with the performer. You just have a magical feeling while he’s performing. It’s all mixed up in that, I guess.
Q:How is it when you get the chance to play with him and the E street Band on some of your classic songs?
A:Well, the band is an unstoppable force of nature, that’s the way I put it. We always just really have a great time. It’s hard to explain what’s up with that other than I sure always enjoy it.I always look forward to when it happens againbecause it always seems like it’s really good and a lot of fun.
Q:You have a run of shows coming up in Las Vegas. How is that, getting to settle into a venue for this residency?
A:Well, I’m really looking forward to it. There’s some irony to the whole thing. I know as a young man I always turned kind of a jaded eye towards Las Vegas, probably the single picture I could paint for you is you remember fat Elvis from Vegas. I remember actually about 1970 or 1971 thinking to myself, “You know, most of the world knows that Elvis, the guy in the white suit who’s overweight. Most of the world knows him that way, they don’t know the Sun Records guy that was killer, that was life and death.”
So, I found some kind of irony in that thought but now, here I am going to that same place. It seemed like it was not a high mark for me in Elvis’ career, but I’m going out there to kill it. Really, I think you should be bringing your A-game and knocking it out of the park.
FORTUNATE SON: MY LIFE, MY MUSIC
BY: John Fogerty
INFO: Available Tuesday, Oct. 6, throughLittle, Brown and Company
ONLINE:www.johnfogerty.com
