John Fogerty

Early life Fogerty was born in Berkeley, California, and grew up in nearby El Cerrito, the third of five boys born to Galen Robert and Edith Lucile (Lytle) Fogerty. He is of Irish descent. His father was born in Iowa, and worked as a Linotype operator for the Berkeley Gazette in California. Lucile Fogerty taught second grade and was from Great Falls, Montana. John first attended a Catholic school, the School of the Madeleine, in Berkeley, California. In his memoir, Fortunate Son, Fogerty was critical of the school, saying when in class he was not permitted to go to the bathroom when he asked, and frequently wet himself and was forced to sit in his wet clothing.

After one year, Fogerty enrolled in the nearby Harding Grammar School. In his book, he stated that his parents were alcoholics and that they divorced when he was in the third or fourth grade. He later attended St. Mary's High School, then transferred to El Cerrito High School, where he met the other future members of CCR and took guitar lessons from the Berkeley Folk Festival creator/producer Barry Olivier. Fogerty's older brother Tom was a guitarist and bandmate in the group that eventually became CCR. Fogerty spent summer vacations at Putah Creek, near Winters, California, which became the subject of the CCR song "Green River".

While in junior high school in 1959, Fogerty formed a cover band with bassist Stu Cook and drummer Doug Clifford called the Blue Velvets. The band was inspired by rock and roll pioneers, especially Little Richard and Bo Diddley. Later, Fogerty's brother Tom joined the group. In 1964, the band signed with Fantasy Records, which, without the band's knowledge or approval, changed the band's name from the Blue Velvets to The Golliwogs. This group recorded seven singles that were not commercially successful.

Military service Fogerty received his draft notice for military service during the Vietnam War in 1966. The same day he received the notice, he went to a local United States Army Reserve recruiter, who signed him up immediately for training as a supply clerk. These internal rifts, and Tom's feeling that he was being taken for granted, caused Tom to leave the group in January 1971. The two other group members, bassist Cook and drummer Clifford, wanted a greater role in the band's future. Fogerty, in an attempt to keep things together, insisted Cook and Clifford share equal songwriting and vocal time on what became the band's final album, Mardi Gras, released in April 1972, which included the band's last two singles, the 1971 hit "Sweet Hitch-Hiker", and "Someday Never Comes," which made it into the Billboard Top 30. The album was a commercial success despite poor reviews, peaking at number 12 and achieving gold-record status. The group disbanded shortly after the album was released.

The only reunion of all four original members was at Tom Fogerty's wedding in 1980. Fogerty, Clifford, and Cook played a 45-minute set at their 20th El Cerrito high school class reunion in 1983, and Fogerty and Clifford were reunited again for a brief set at their 25th class reunion.

Even early in his career, “Fogerty's attitude toward music [was] serious, practiced, even perfectionistic. He drilled his bandmates in rehearsal after rehearsal, insisting that his songs be performed his way. ...[He] was known for not indulging in drugs, and although John struggled with alcohol later in life he had only contempt for musicians whose habits interfered with their performances.” “Not in my band,” he writes in his memoir, Fortunate Son. “You dare not be stoned playing music around me.... When you're working, you're supposed to be working.”

Solo career 1972–1985 As CCR was coming to an end, Fogerty began working on a solo album of country and western covers, on which he produced and arranged all the tracks and played all of the instruments. Fogerty elected to credit the album to The Blue Ridge Rangers—a band of which he was the only member.

The eponymous The Blue Ridge Rangers was released in 1973; it spun off the top-20 hit "Jambalaya," as well as a lesser hit in "Hearts of Stone".

1985–1997

After a hiatus of several years from the music industry, Fogerty's solo career re-emerged with 1985's Centerfield, his first album for Warner Bros. Records, which had taken co-ownership of Asylum's contract with Fogerty.

In 1990, Fogerty's brother and CCR bandmate Tom died of complications from AIDS at the age of 48, survived by his second wife and six children. Tom had contracted HIV from blood transfusions during surgery for a back ailment. Specifically, he died from a tuberculosis infection. John Fogerty has mentioned that the darkest moments in his life were when his brother took the record company's side in their royalties dispute, and that when his brother died, the two of them were barely speaking to each other. In fact, even in the brothers' very last conversation with each other, Tom at one point referred to Creedence Clearwater Revival's former manager Saul Zaentz as his "best friend." Given that Zaentz had swindled the band out of millions of dollars and had just recently attempted to sue John, this revelation made it painfully difficult for John to reconcile with Tom. In the eulogy he delivered at Tom's funeral, he said: "We wanted to grow up and be musicians. I guess we achieved half of that, becoming rock 'n roll stars. We didn't necessarily grow up."

Fogerty traveled to Mississippi in 1990 for inspiration, and visited the gravesite of blues legend Robert Johnson. While there, he realized that he believed Johnson was the true spiritual owner of his own songs, no matter what businessman owned the rights to them, and decided to start making a new album and to perform his old CCR material regularly in concert. At this time, visiting the Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church cemetery, Fogerty met Skip Henderson, a New Jersey vintage guitar dealer who had formed a nonprofit corporation, the Mount Zion Memorial Fund, to honor Johnson with a memorial marker. Fogerty subsequently funded headstones for Charlie Patton, James “Son” Thomas, Mississippi Joe Callicott, Eugene Powell, and Lonnie Pitchford, and helped with financial arrangements for numerous others.

Creedence Clearwater Revival was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993. Fogerty refused to perform with his former bandmates and fellow inductees Stu Cook and Doug Clifford during the musical portion of the induction ceremony, citing the Zaentz lawsuit as a reason. In place of the surviving members of CCR, Fogerty recruited session musicians on drums and bass and was also joined by Bruce Springsteen and Robbie Robertson in performing three songs: "Who'll Stop the Rain," "Born on the Bayou," and "Green River." Tom's widow, Tricia, had expected a CCR reunion and even brought the urn containing her husband's ashes to the ceremony. Furious, Cook and Clifford, who were seated with their families at a table across the room from Fogerty's, walked out of the ballroom just as the performance began, and would later write separate letters to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's board of directors, saying it was "hurtful" and "insulting" to allow the performance to continue without them. During the induction speech, Springsteen said, "As a songwriter, only a few did as much in three minutes [as John Fogerty]. He was an Old Testament, shaggy-haired prophet, a fatalist. Funny, too. He was severe, he was precise, he said what he had to say and he got out of there."

1997–present

Fogerty returned to the commercial music industry in 1997 with Blue Moon Swamp. The layoff between Zombie and Swamp had been longer than his mid-1970s to mid-1980s break. The album was much more successful than Zombie and won the Grammy for best rock album in 1997. A live album, named Premonition, of the equally successful Blue Moon Swamp tour, was released to similar acclaim and good sales in 1998. A track from Blue Moon Swamp titled "Blue Moon Nights", was used in the 2002 film The Rookie.

On October 1, 1998, Fogerty was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 7000 Hollywood Blvd.

In 2004, Fogerty released Deja Vu All Over Again through DreamWorks Records, which had taken over distribution of Fogerty's Warner catalog. Rolling Stone wrote: "The title track is Fogerty's indictment of the Iraq War as another Vietnam, a senseless squandering of American lives and power." On the album, Fogerty squeezed ten songs into only 34 minutes.

The sale of Fantasy Records to Concord Records in 2004 ended the 30-year estrangement between Fogerty and his former label, as the new owners took steps to restore royalty rights Fogerty had given up to be released from his contract with Fantasy in the mid-1970s. In September 2005, Fogerty returned to Fantasy Records, made possible when DreamWorks Records' noncountry-music unit was absorbed by Geffen Records, which dropped Fogerty, but continued to distribute his earlier solo albums. The first album released under the new Fantasy contract was The Long Road Home (November 2005), a compilation CD combining his CCR hits with solo material. A live CD and concert DVD were released the following year.

Fogerty's touring schedule increased in the period after Deja Vu All Over Again. In October 2004, Fogerty appeared on the Vote for Change tour, playing seven of the concerts in U.S. swing states. He also appeared in a Christmas special video produced by the Australian children's group The Wiggles. Fogerty toured with John Mellencamp in the summer of 2005 and with Willie Nelson in the summer of 2006. On June 29, 2006, he played his first headlining British concert since 1972, at the Hammersmith Apollo theater in London, as part of the European leg of the tour. During that leg, he also performed in Sundsvall, Sweden, where 25,000 people came to see him perform at the town square. On Thanksgiving Day of 2006, Fogerty performed at halftime at the Miami Dolphins/Detroit Lions game and at the Denver Broncos/Kansas City Chiefs halftime later that evening.

Fogerty was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2005.

In 2005, Fogerty received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement presented by Awards Council member B.B. King.

On June 23, 2007, Fogerty appeared at Glastonbury Festival, playing an hour-long set of 17 songs, mainly CCR classics. Introducing "Who'll Stop the Rain," Fogerty said he did not perform it at Woodstock as rumored, but wrote the song inspired by the event.

Revival was released October 2, 2007. Heavily promoted by the label, Revival debuted at No. 14 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart with sales about 65,000 copies in its first week. Revival was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rock Album of 2008, but lost to the Foo Fighters.

On February 10, 2008, Fogerty appeared with Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard on the Grammy Awards show. Along with these rock icons and his regular touring band, he played his 1973 single "Comin' Down The Road," leading into Lewis and Richard's performances of "Great Balls of Fire" and "Good Golly Miss Molly," respectively.

On March 16, 2008, Fogerty kicked off an Australian tour. On March 22 in Point Nepean, Australia, surprise guest Keith Urban joined Fogerty on stage, performing two songs: "Broken Down Cowboy," off Fogerty's newest album Revival, and "Cotton Fields," from CCR's album Willy & the Poor Boys.

On June 24, 2008, Fogerty made a return to the Royal Albert Hall, a venue he last played with CCR in 1971. It was the last concert on his 2008 European tour. This concert was filmed and was released in 2009.

On April 16, 2009, Fogerty performed his hit "Centerfield" from center field of the new Yankee Stadium at its opening-day festivities.

On July 2, 3, and 4, 2009, Fogerty performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, which was sold out for these shows. Though billed as Fogerty with the L.A. Philharmonic, the orchestra began the night with music by other U.S. composers, and Fogerty and his band came on after intermission, playing only three songs with the orchestra.

On August 31, 2009, Fogerty released The Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again, a sequel to his 1973 solo debut The Blue Ridge Rangers. The album includes a duet with Bruce Springsteen on the 1960 Everly Brothers classic "When Will I Be Loved." In addition, Don Henley and Timothy B. Schmit of Eagles sang with Fogerty on a cover of Rick Nelson's 1972 classic "Garden Party." The album was the first issued on Fogerty's own label Fortunate Son Records, which is distributed by the Verve Forecast Records unit of Universal Music Group and also handles the Fogerty/CCR Fantasy catalogue.

On October 29, 2009, Fogerty appeared at Madison Square Garden for the first night of the celebratory 25th Anniversary Rock and Roll Hall of Fame concerts. Bruce Springsteen, with the E Street Band, called Fogerty out to play three songs with them. "Fortunate Son" was their first song, followed by "Proud Mary," and finally the duo tried their take on Roy Orbison's "Oh, Pretty Woman." The show aired as a four-hour special on HBO on November 29, 2009.

On November 3, 2009, Fogerty released the Royal Albert Hall DVD titled Comin' Down The Road, named after his 1973 single, which he performed at this concert. Fogerty was also nominated for a Grammy Award at the 2010 Grammys. He was nominated for the Best Rock Solo Vocal Performance Grammy for the song "Change in the Weather," which he recorded for The Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again.

For his songwriting achievements, Fogerty was honored as a Broadcast Music Incorporated Icon at the 58th annual BMI Pop Awards on May 18, 2010. BMI Icons are selected because of their "unique and indelible influence on generations of music makers."

Fogerty began recording Wrote a Song for Everyone in 2011, which was released on Vanguard Records on May 28, 2013, his 68th birthday. The album is a collection of classics and tracks from his canon of hits performed with other artists. One of them, the country star Brad Paisley, called Fogerty “such a student of guitar playing that I end up not being able to get a word in edgewise, because he just asks all these questions about guitar amps…. He is more interested in learning than anyone I know that's my age or younger." On November 17 and 18 of that year, Fogerty performed two CCR albums, Cosmo's Factory and Green River, respectively, in their entirety at the Beacon Theatre in New York City (he also played Cosmo's Factory in Atlantic City on November 20). He was also featured on the CBS coverage of the 2011 Thanksgiving Day Parade, performing several prerecorded songs.

In January 2012, Fogerty's new song "Swamp Water" debuted over the opening credits of the new Fox TV series The Finder. Fogerty wrote the song for the show and guest-starred in its debut episode. On November 12, 2012, Fogerty announced that he was writing his memoirs, and that the book was expected to be released in 2015.

During the 2014 Veterans Days celebration, "Salute to the Troops" at the White House, Fogerty performed for many veterans.

On February 21, 2015, he was a featured artist for the National Hockey League stadium series game between the Los Angeles Kings and the San Jose Sharks at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California.

In October 2015, Fogerty published his autobiography, Fortunate Son (Little, Brown & Co.).

In September 2017, Fogerty signed a new recording contract with BMG Rights Management, which will cover an upcoming album and his solo catalogue.

In November 2019, Fogerty appeared on Public Broadcasting Station pledge week with "John Fogerty: My 50 Year Trip," a taped performance from Red Rocks Amphitheater, Colorado. He also performed at Winstar in Thackerville, Oklahoma, on December 31, 2019, but the remaining performances of that tour, "My 50 Year Trip", were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

While on lockdown during the pandemic in early 2020, Fogerty, accompanied by sons Shane and Tyler and daughter Kelsey, began releasing performance videos of previously released originals and covers. Under the brand "Fogerty's Factory," the group performed remotely on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, NPR's Tiny Desk Concerts, and SiriusXM's Classic Vinyl station. Collecting seven songs from the remote performances, the Fogerty's Factory EP was released on May 28, 2020, coinciding with Fogerty's 75th birthday. A 12-track album edition featuring additional lockdown performances followed on November 20.

Fogerty performed backing vocals on "Scream and Shout," a single by his sons' band Hearty Har, released October 19, 2020.

On January 6, 2021, Fogerty released "Weeping in the Promised Land," a gospel-styled single, featuring sociopolitical commentary on Black Lives Matter, the COVID-19 pandemic, and Donald Trump.

On January 13, 2023, Fogerty announced on Twitter that he owns the rights to the CCR global catalog after a 50-year legal battle. He followed the announcement on August 22, 2025 with an album of re-recorded Creedence Clearwater Revival songs, titled Legacy: The Creedence Clearwater Revival Years. He performed a concert with his band on NPR's Tiny Desk on January 16, 2026.

Personal life Fogerty married Martha Paiz in 1965 and had three children (Josh, Sean, and Laurie). They divorced in the late 1980s.

Fogerty met Julie Lebiedzinski (born Julie Lynne Kramer in Elkhart, Indiana, on February 7, 1960) in 1986 while on tour in Indianapolis, Indiana. They married in Elkhart, Indiana, on April 20, 1991, and have two sons (Shane and Tyler) and a daughter (Kelsy). Kramer has a daughter, Lyndsay, from a previous marriage. , they live in Thousand Oaks, California.

Sons Shane (guitar, vocals) and Tyler (vocals, guitar, percussion) perform with their father in concert . All three of his youngest children appear in his YouTube channel videos.

Fogerty has a granddaughter who has also appeared in online videos with him.

In 2023, he bought a Hidden Hills estate from Sylvester Stallone for $17million.

Political views Fogerty is a lifelong liberal Democrat. In his lyrics, Fogerty has lampooned many Republicans, including Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. Fogerty participated in the Vote for Change tour in support of John Kerry's 2004 presidential bid against George W. Bush. In 2015, Fogerty threw his support behind Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, saying, "iberals tend to have the little guy in mind." However, he also expressed a liking for Donald Trump's "rebelliousness" and the appearance that Trump "can't be bought" because of his vast wealth. Trump frequently used "Fortunate Son" during his 2020 reelection campaign, prompting Fogerty to issue a cease-and-desist letter. and Fogerty's Facebook page, the current lineup of his band is known as the "Travelin' Band,"

John Fogerty - vocals, guitars, keyboards Shane Fogerty - backing vocals, rhythm guitar, percussion (2007–present)

Discography

The Blue Ridge Rangers (1973) John Fogerty (1975) Centerfield (1985) Eye of the Zombie (1986) Blue Moon Swamp (1997) Deja Vu All Over Again (2004) Revival (2007) The Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again (2009) Wrote a Song for Everyone (2013) Fogerty's Factory (2020) Legacy: The Creedence Clearwater Revival Years (2025)