EX-CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL BANDMATES SUE JOHN FOGERTY

There’s yet another bad moon on the rise for Creedence Clearwater Revival, as John Fogerty and his former bandmates head back to court.

Doug Clifford, Stu Cook and the late Tom Fogerty’s widow have filed suit in a Nevada court alleging that John Fogerty is in breach of a 2001 agreement concerning usage of the band’s name. They’re also charging him with trademark violations, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

This latest disagreement appears to have sprung from negative comments John Fogerty made in the press about Creedence Clearwater Revisited, the off-shoot band that Clifford and Cook have maintained in John Fogerty’s absence. Their original settlement expressly allowed Fogerty’s ex-bandmates to appear under the updated name.

More recently, however, Fogerty said “using the name is sort of a sacrilege,” in one interview. Later, he expanded on those thoughts: “When the band broke up, I never had any problem not trying to abscond with the name Creedence as a solo artist. I just think that thing is from a certain time and it is untouchable, unless everybody is there.”

Meanwhile, Fogerty has also been promoting an extensive tour focusing on CCR’s 1969-era albums. Clifford and Cook — who have said they won’t consider talk of a reunion — called that usage unauthorized, and said it created confusion as to whether they were involved.

Fogerty, of course, earlier sued to stop Creedence Clearwater Revisited from touring in 1996, leading to the 2001 out-of-court agreement. Three years before that, Fogerty refused to perform with Cook and Clifford as Creedence were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Now, they say Fogerty is threatening yet another legal action over unpaid royalties from concerts dating back to 2011.

That will have to wait until after this latest proceeding. Cook, Clifford and Tom Fogerty’s widow are seeking unspecified damages, and have requested a jury trial. “It’s the saddest story in rock,” Cook admitted back in 2000, “and one of the longest ongoing stupid feuds.”