John Fogerty talks forgiving his late brother and bandmate, Tom Fogerty

John Fogerty and his bandmates in Creedence Clearwater Revival did not break up on the best of terms in the ’70s. The acrimonious split resulted in a rift between John and his brother and bandmate, Tom Fogerty, which lasted until Tom’s death in 1990.

“We certainly were estranged,” John tells People, noting that things were so bad between them that at one point Tom sided with Fantasy Records exec Saul Zaentz, the owner of John’s old label, who also owned the royalties to the CCR catalog.

Tom actually called Zaentz his “best friend” once, which John says was “like a dagger in my heart at the time.”

“But many, many years after that, long after Tom had passed away, I actually made it a point in my own consciousness to forgive Tom for all of that,” John tells the mag. “If he’d gotten a chance to survive, I think he would’ve come to the place where we’d say, ‘All that stuff’s crap,’ and let it go.”

He also thinks they may have suggested making music together again, which would have helped them heal and “realize our much stronger bond as brothers.”

“We didn’t get that chance, but I feel that, at least on my side of it, I’ve felt happy and positive toward Tom,” John adds. “The idea of meeting him in the afterlife would be a very joyful thing.”

John, who regained the rights to his music in 2023, is set to release the new album Legacy: the Creedence Clearwater Revival years, on Friday. The album was recorded with his sons Shane Fogerty and Tyler Fogerty and features rerecorded takes on CCR classics.

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