Rocker John Fogerty knows all too well what Taylor Swift went through when it came to re-recording her hit songs.
The Creedence Clearwater Revival frontman is set to release a 20-song collection of newly recorded versions of his band’s beloved hits this August — and he wanted to put them out with a nod to Swift, who re-recorded her catalog after Scooter Braun bought the rights to her master recordings.
“I wanted to call it Taylor’s Version. I lobbied very much to the record company,” Fogerty told Rolling Stone. “I understood her plight. She’s had a wonderful career, and, of course, had saved a lot of money and was a major touring artist, so she was quite able to pay whatever amount the person that was going to sell it. I really felt for her at the time, because the guy was selling it to somebody else. That sort of thing has certainly happened to me. It’s very much like what Saul Zaentz might do.”
The label passed on the idea, and Fogerty, 80, instead settled on “John’s Version,” a parenthesis that appears on all of the new songs, including “Proud Mary,” “Bad Moon Rising” and “Have You Ever Seen the Rain?”
The chance to finally own his own masters on the new music is a big deal for Fogerty, who spent decades fighting over royalties with his management and record company.
His conflict with Fantasy Records exec Saul Zaentz, who died in 2014, contributed to the breakdown of Fogerty’s relationship with his late brother and bandmate Tom in the 1980s, and also kept the star from performing CCR’s hits for many years, as he didn’t want Zaentz to profit off any of his performances.
Fogerty eventually gained control of the publishing rights to the dozens of classics he recorded with CCR in 2023.
“There’s probably no chance in the world I will ever have any part of the ownership of the old masters. This is kind of the Taylor Swift part, Fogerty told Rolling Stone of his re-recorded music. “But another thing is, I think there’s a joy quite evident in the music that may not be there in the original versions.”
The “Fortunate Son” singer previously opened up to PEOPLE in 2022 about listening to Swift, 35, with his daughter Kelsy, 23, who he said helped introduce him to current artists.
“Through Kelsy…I started listening to Taylor Swift,” he said. “I think she’s incredibly talented and she paved the path that is a lot more common now, but it was quite unusual when she was doing that, especially still in her teens.”
The rocker said it was his wife Julie, whom he married in 1991, that first suggested he do a re-recorded album, and that he initially was hesitant.
“I didn’t want to have anything to do with that. But then as time went on, I thought, ‘Okay, I’ll stick my toe in the water and see how that is,’” he told RS. “Instead of going off on a tangent of, ‘Oh, let’s do a folk music version’ or something, the idea was to sound closely like the original.”
The new record — titled Legacy: The Creedence Clearwater Revival Years and out Aug. 22 — is produced by Fogerty and his son Shane, 33. Shane performs on the album, as does brother Tyler, 32 (The two tour with their dad and also play in a band of their own called Hearty Har).
“For most of my life I did not own the songs I had written,” Fogerty said in a statement announcing the new record on Thursday, May 29. “Getting them back changes everything. Legacy is my way of celebrating that — of playing these songs on my terms, with the people I love.”
Added Julie in a statement: “I knew first hand how much it meant for John to get his publishing back. It has been so joyful and beautiful since this happened for him. This is a celebration of his life’s work. It is the biggest party for the good guy/artist winning.”
Fogerty announced the album on stage while performing at his sold-out 80th birthday celebration at N.Y.C.’s Beacon Theatre.
Source: By Rachel DeSantis
