John Fogerty has been making headlines lately, and for good reason. The rock legend behind Creedence Clearwater Revival recently took home the Johnny Mercer Award at the Songwriters Hall of Fame, one of the most prestigious honors the organization hands out. It goes only to writers already inducted into the Hall who the Nominating Committee has judged as having built a body of truly outstanding work. Fogerty, who is eighty-one years old, first earned his spot in the Hall back in 2005. As per a report shared by Celebrity Net Worth, the guitarist currently sits on a net worth of $110 million.
SHOF Chairman Nile Rodgers didn’t hold back in his praise. As per a report shared by Concord, Rodgers shared that
“The first time I heard Creedence Clearwater Revival, I was a mere high schooler. It was also the first time I heard John Fogerty’s voice, one of the most distinctive ever.”
Rodgers went on to add that
“To this day, I’ve never heard anyone else sound like him. He’s one of those rare talents who is unmistakably himself. His style of composition is rock and roll mastery.”
He concluded by saying
“He’s done what I believe all great songwriters do. He makes us feel. He deserves this award as much as anyone who’s ever received it, or will receive it, in the future.”
John Fogerty reflects on learning about the Johnny Mercer Award and his lifelong love for songwriting:
John Fogerty recently opened up to The Hollywood Reporter about what the Johnny Mercer Award means to him. The interview, published this month, gave the rock legend a chance to reflect on the honor in his own words.
He recalled the exact moment he found out, sharing that
“I didn’t know there were any more awards. When they called, I happened to be on the tour bus, I was sitting at a little table looking straight at my wife.”
Fogerty went on to describe just how much the news hit him, adding that
“The Songwriters Hall of Fame told me about this highest honor, the Johnny Mercer award. It’s everything, it’s my whole life, it’s all of it that I’ve ever dreamed about, and they’re giving me this award, basically saying ‘you did a good job.'”
He was candid about his reaction in that moment, noting that
“I admit that I looked at Julie, my wife, and my eyes started to tear up, I was really taken aback. It took my breath away.”
John Fogerty also touched on the songwriting tradition he grew up studying. He shared that his mother had pointed out songwriters to him from a very young age, and that this shaped how he thought about the craft entirely. He explained that
“I grew up learning about all the songwriters that have come before me. Some people call it standing on the shoulders of giants, my mother had pointed songwriters out to me as a very young kid. We’d talk about songwriters like Irving Berlin, Hoagy Carmichael.”
He added that his musical education continued well into his teen years, sharing that
“Then of course in my teen years I’d learn about Lennon and McCartney, Carole King.”
John Fogerty on his fortune and why he bought his catalog back instead of selling it:
In his interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Fogerty was also quizzed on the catalog question that has defined so much of his later career. His peers have been cashing out for years. He hasn’t.
When the topic of $200 million catalog sales came up, he was upfront about the pull of it, saying
“Gosh, $200 million buys a lot of rice and beans.”
But for John Fogerty, the money was never really the point. He spent years locked out of his own music, and that left a mark. He told the publication that
“I had to live so much of my life not owning my own songs. It was of course a tragedy but it was a part of me. It was like a plaid shirt I had to wear. It was horrible.”
John Fogerty was blunt about how that chapter made him feel, adding that
“I felt so bad about that for so long, that I was hoodwinked. I felt like a fool. There was a big dishonest cheater at the center of it.”
So when the catalog finally came back to him, selling it was never a real conversation. Buyers rang anyway. His answer was short, he told The Hollywood Reporter
“No! I’d tried so hard to own it all these years!”
He did acknowledge why others have gone the other way, pointing to Bob Dylan’s logic as something he understood. John Fogerty shared that
“He seemed to not want his kids fighting over a song. It’s too awful to have your kids struggling over. It’s a lot simpler to cash it out and put the money somewhere, hopefully some estate planning. It’s hard enough for the guy who wrote it himself.”
Edited by Ryan D’souza