John Fogerty Explains His Refusal to Perform With Creedence Clearwater Revival at the Band’s Rock Hall Induction
Creedence Clearwater Revival's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was easily one of the more awkward moments in the Hall's history. In his new memoir, Fortunate Son: My Life, My Music, ex-CCR frontman John Fogerty looks back on the personal and business conflicts that kept him from reuniting with his former bandmates to perform at the ceremony.
Fogerty looks back on the evening and the arguments leading up to it in an excerpt posted at Rolling Stone, explaining — as previously reported — that he refused to perform with surviving ex-Creedence members Doug Clifford and Stu Cook because he felt they'd betrayed him in a contentious dispute with the head of their label. As Fogerty tells it, he told the Hall from the beginning that he had no interest in a reunion.
"At the end, when everybody's onstage, jamming, if we all happen to be onstage, that's fine," he recalls telling Rock Hall reps. "I'm just not going to stand on a stage with those people, three in a row, play our songs and be presented as a band — particularly because these guys just sold their rights in that band to my worst enemy. I also made it very clear that if I didn't play at all, that was fine too."
During the days leading up to the ceremony, Fogerty recalls telling Clifford and Cook, "Considering what you have done, I will not play with you. You guys went and joined with my worst enemy" — and according to him, Cook admitted wrongdoing, saying they left Fogerty "twisting in the wind." With those cards on the table, Fogerty claims he tried to take the high road when he made his remarks during the group's induction, only to see Cook and Clifford feign shock and disgust when Fogerty played without them later in the evening.
"I expected to have fun that night. But Stu and Doug were playing a role that they had concocted. Had I known they were going to pull that, I would have made a different speech," he writes. "They acted to the public like they were victims, playing for sympathy! It was phony."
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