The legendary Creedence Clearwater Revival founder, the recipient of the Songwriter Hall of Fame’s highest honor the Johnny Mercer Award, gave a speech for the ages that literally spanned his entire life and lasted more than 35 minutes. 

Fellow guitar great Steve Miller, who was inducted into the SHOF in 2022, called Fogerty “one of America’s most gifted and enduring songwriters [who has] forged something uniquely American.” Miller also praised Fogerty for his fight for artists’ rights, including his long battle to claim ownership of his own work. 

Fogerty then took the stage and ran through his musical life, starting with hearing Stephen Foster’s “Oh! Susanna” and “Camptown Races” when he was three, forging a lifelong love for music. That led to writing his first song, “Wash Day Blues,” on his way to school when he was eight, based on a laundry product advertisement.

“I love music! It’s supposed to be about joy; it’s supposed to be about having fun. The great ones seem to flow effortlessly,” he exclaimed, adding that the first song that ever flowed for him was “Proud Mary,” and then, remarkably, pulled out a brown book from 1967 that included the first phrases of his most beloved, well-known classic. He dissected writing the rock standard, saying he started to “actually shake and tremble,” as the words poured out of him. “It was like being struck by lightning.” 

Fogerty ran through his decades-long career— the good and bad—including releasing three hit-filled albums in one year and finding tremendous success, as well as CCR breaking up, and Fantasy Records’ Saul Zaentz then holding him to a contract that would have taken him more than 20 years to fulfill and the label suing him “for sounding like myself.” 

Finally, in 2023, Fogerty, with the help of his wife/manager Julie Fogerty and noted manager Irving Azoff, Fogerty gained worldwide control of his CCR publishing rights. As Fogerty wrapped up his speech, expressing delight in finally getting his songs, he gleefully said, “I had a plan and it was I outlived the sons of b-tches!”

Fogerty, 81, joined by his sons Shane and Tyler, then turned in an incredibly robust, full-throttle medley of “Oh! Susanna,” “Proud Mary,” “Have You Ever Seen the Rain” and “The Old Man Down the Road.” – M.N.