On This Day in 2003, John Fogerty Was Dealing With Yet Another Strange Lawsuit To Add to His Collection

Creedence Clearwater Revival founder John Fogerty is no stranger to the courtroom, and in late April 2003, he found himself in the middle of yet another odd lawsuit to add to his growing collection. Prior to this particular case, Fogerty had already gone to court for plagiarizing himself (yes, himself) and for musical defamation.

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Luckily for Fogerty, the suit dismissed in the early 2000s was less of a headache for him than it was an earache for the plaintiff.

A Judge Dismissed John Fogerty Lawsuit In 2003

Jeffrey Powell, a personal injury lawyer from Long Island, New York, sued CCR founder John Fogerty for $5 million in 1998 due to “profound loss of hearing in his left ear” that Powell claimed to have sustained from “unsafe levels of noise” at Fogerty’s 1997 Manhattan Center concert. The plaintiff alleged that he, along with the people he attended the show with, found the noise levels to be intolerable. He claimed to have walked out of the main venue into a nearby room to avoid the noise, while some of his friends used tissues to stuff their ears with makeshift hearing protection.

Five years after Powell filed his lawsuit, State Supreme Court Justice Martin Schoenfeld dismissed the case. “An objective, reasonable 51-year-old lawyer, particularly one who has experienced ringing in his ears after prior concerts, would know that loud music can cause hearing impairment,” per the Midland Reporter-Telegram. The judge added that because Powell had used hearing protection at other concerts, this was further evidence that the lawsuit was flimsy.

Because Justice Schoenfeld dismissed the case before it ever made its way to court, Fogerty’s management team told the MRT they weren’t even aware of the potential lawsuit. However, the “Proud Mary” songwriter wasn’t always so blissfully unaware of his legal troubles. Other times, he found himself on a witness stand in a courtroom, defending his case with a guitar in hand.

Other Times, The CCR Founder Wasn’t So Lucky

Even if John Fogerty had been aware of Jeffrey Powell’s impending lawsuit over his acute hearing loss, it wouldn’t have been the CCR founder’s first time in the courtroom. He found himself in the middle of a lengthy legal battle in the late 1980s with his former record label, Fantasy. Fogerty’s transition from CCR to a solo career created a rift between the musician and Fantasy as he moved to Asylum Records. In 1988, Fantasy claimed Fogerty’s “The Old Man Down the Road” from his 1985 album, Centerfield, sounded similar to “Run Through the Jungle,” from CCR’s 1970 Cosmos’ Factory.

Fogerty wrote both. But because his dissolution with Fantasy included signing over the rights to his CCR songs to his old label, the intellectual property was technically no longer his, so Fantasy sued Fogerty for plagiarizing himself. The trial lasted years and included Fogerty playing his guitar on the witness stand to prove that while the two songs were understandably stylistically similar coming from the same songwriter, they were different enough to not be liable for plagiarism. Ultimately, the jury ruled in Fogerty’s favor.

The “Born on the Bayou” singer fought hard not only to win the lawsuit but also to have Fantasy repay his legal fees, which cost around $400,000 more than he earned from the songs themselves. “What’s at stake is whether a person can continue to use his own style as he grows and goes on through life,” Fogerty said in an interview with Rolling Stone. He said he could feel the spirit of John Lennon, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and songwriting duo Leiber and Stoller supporting him, saying, “Johnny, don’t blow this.”

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