Sometimes you just need a guitar to get you motivated.
John Fogerty knows something about that.
For years, he had no interest in making a new album, and certainly wanted nothing in his life to remind him of his time in Creedence Clearwater Revival. When he had a chance to buy the Fireglo Rickenbacker 325 semi-hollow that had been among his key electric guitars during those years, he passed it up.
But when his wife bought it for him anyway, the effect it had on him was transformative.
And it’s the reason why he’s now ready to release his first album in years: Legacy — The Creedence Clearwater Revival Yearsa 20-track effort that features re-creations of his classic tracks, many recorded with that very Rickenbacker 325.
Like other significant electric and acoustic guitars from rock’s classic era, Fogerty’s 325 is an icon, an instrument as revered as the songs it helped him write and record. It’s the guitar he played on The Ed Sullivan Show and during the group’s performance at Woodstock. The Rickenbacker also maintained a steady presence throughout the CCR catalog, appearing on classic tracks like “Fortunate Son,” “Proud Mary,” “Green River,” “Born on the Bayou” and “Up Around The Bend.”
Adding to the guitar’s unique history are a few modifications Fogerty made: He installed a humbucking pickup in the bridge position, added a Bigsby vibrato and removed the Rickenbacker nameplate from the headstock. In place of the latter Fogerty wrote the word “ACME” in yellow paint, a comical nod to the fictional company that supplied tools of destruction to the Coyote in Warner Bros.’ Roadrunner cartoons.
But the guitar would disappear from sight after CCR broke up in 1972. The following year, Fogerty gave it away to a friend.
“I was just detached and numb at that point,” he told Rolling Stone in February 2017. “I think I gave it away to sort of end that chapter of my life.”
It was a time of deep disappointment for Fogerty. After years of hard-earned success, he had little to show for it. Saul Zaentz, the owner of the group’s label, Factory Records, owned his songwriting copyrights as well as his recordings.
Fogerty’s relations with his bandmates — which included his brother Tom, bassist Stu Cook and drummer Doug Clifford — had soured. They were particularly unhappy over his role as the group’s chief songwriter and its indisputable leader. Tom left in 1971 and died in 1990 without reconciling with his brother. Fogerty, Cook and Clifford continued on as a trio for 1972’s Tuesday fatty before breaking up, after which the bassist and drummer cut their own deals with Zaentz.
Fogerty emerged victorious in 1985 with his solo album Centerfieldwhich yielded top 10 hits with the title track and “The Old Man Down the Road.” But Fantasy sued him over the latter song’s similarities to the CCR tune “Run Through the Jungle,” to which Zaentz still owned the copyright. Fogerty won, but the experience only soured him further on anything to do with CCR.
As for the Rickenbacker, it had changed owners. Norm Harris, of Norman’s Rare Guitars in Tarzana, California, bought it from Fogerty’s friend. As he told Guitar Worldthe instrument was easy to identify due to Fogerty’s modifications.
Sometime in the 1990s, Harris decided to sell the guitar for, as he recalls, $90,000. Soon after, Fogerty and Julie, his wife and manager, paid him a visit.
“He was interested in doing something but said, ‘You know what? I gave the guitar away. I feel stupid buying it,’” Harris told Guitar World. “I said, ‘Well, you can have it for 40,’ and he just said, ‘I don’t feel good about buying it and spending all this money.’”
But as Fogerty told Rolling Stone in May 2025, it was about more than money.
“I was hurt. I was damaged,” he said. “I started as a kid full of joy doing music, but during the time of Creedence, and shortly after that, it became certainly not joyful.”
Harris eventually sold it to Gary’s Classic Guitars for $90,000. It was from there that Fogerty’s wife purchased the guitar in 2016 as a Christmas gift for him.
Fogerty recalled sobbing uncontrollably when he saw the guitar.
It was time for him to heal, and the Rickenbacker had a lot to do with that. Playing the guitar helped him rekindle the joy he’d lost over the years. Soon after, he returned to the stage.
In 2021, he took a tentative step with the new song “Weeping in the Promised Land.” He dropped hints about an album of new music he was preparing, but nothing more was heard.
Now, at long last, he’s taking the next step with Legacy — The Creedence Clearwater Revival Years.
“The idea was to reconnect and feel that way about everything again,” he said. “The guy who couldn’t even stand to look at his own guitar in the ’90s or beyond would have never done that.”
As for why he decided to remake his old songs? Fogerty said he doesn’t own the masters to the originals and likely never will.
“But another thing is, I think there’s a joy quite evident in the music that may not be there in the original versions,” he tells Rolling Stone.
Besides, he says, “When you’re 80 years old, you finally are given the special key to the kingdom. I guess you can do whatever you want. I decided this is what I wanted to do — to give myself a present.”
And that album of new tracks? He admits it doesn’t exist.
“Do I have a bunch of songs written and recorded? No, I don’t,” he said.
But that may change. After Bruce Springsteen inducted him into the American Music Honors in April, Fogerty felt a renewed sense of interest in writing.
“On our drive back to the hotel with my wife,” he recalls, “I said, ‘I’m like 10 feet off the ground. I want to go write songs and record them!’”
We may hear something new from him yet. In the meantime, we have the old hits. Now John Fogerty does too, along with the guitar he used to write and record them.
