John Fogerty files suit against former Creedence bandmates

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member John Fogerty filed a countersuit alleging that his former bandmates in Creedence Clearwater Revival have breached their contract in which he allowed them to use the name Creedence Clearwater Revisited while touring and playing the music they recorded together four decades ago.

Fogerty’s action, filed in Los Angeles on Friday, claims that Creedence bassist Stu Cook and drummer Doug Clifford have not paid him in more than three years under terms of the agreement they set up more than a decade ago. It does not state how much money he is seeking.

It also says a provision of the agreement requiring that the Creedence Clearwater Revisited name be used only with performances at which both Cook and Clifford take part has been breached, alleging that Clifford has been touring without Cook while continuing to use the Revisited name, the court document claims.

Cook and Clifford filed a suit of their own in 2014 charging that Fogerty had breached their 2001 agreement over use of the name Creedence Clearwater Revival with his current “Hit Songs from 1969 and More” tour, in which Fogerty is performing songs from a year the band released three hit albums: “Bayou Country,” “Green River” and “Willie and the Poorboys.”

“This action is about the need to defend ourselves and rights,” Cook and Clifford said at that time. “Mr. Fogerty’s failure to perform contractual promises and unlicensed uses of the trademark ‘Creedence Clearwater Revival.”

In conjunction with the new lawsuit, Fogerty said in a statement: “No lawyers, lawsuits, or angry ex-band members will stop me ever again from singing my songs. These frivolous lawsuits in the past took me away from the music I loved. I am going to continue to tour and play all my songs every single night I am out on the road. No matter how anyone else sees it, they are my songs.”

Following the acrimonious disbanding of the group in 1972, Fogerty famously refused to perform alongside Cook and Clifford when Creedence was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993. The fourth original member of the band, Fogerty’s brother Tom Fogerty, died in 1990. His widow joined Cook and Clifford in the 2014 suit against John Fogerty.

Representatives for Cook and Clifford could not immediately be reached for comment.

Fogerty’s 1969 tour reaches the Hollywood Bowl on Wednesday.

Follow me @RandyLewis2.