60s Rock Legend Refuses To Pay $40,000 For Long Lost Guitar originally appeared on Parade.
Iconic rocker John Fogerty has been reunited with a guitar he gave away decades ago — but it was a long journey to get it back.
Back in the ’70s, the Creedence Clearwater Revival frontman owned a custom Rickenbacker guitar that was hand-painted with the word “Acme,” a nod to the Looney Tunes cartoons he loved as a kid, according to Rolling Stone. Fogerty played the guitar on every album from 1969’s Bayou Country to the group’s final LP in 1972.
In the years that followed, Fogerty gave the guitar away — which ended up becoming a major regret later in life. It wasn’t until the 1990s that he found it once again but at the time, the owner of the axe wanted $40,000 to return it to him.
Looking back, Fogerty admits it wasn’t financially possible for him and actually seeing the guitar unexpectedly brought back painful memories surrounding his legal battle with his former bandmates and record label.
“I was hurt. I was damaged,” Fogerty recalled to Rolling Stone. “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.”
While he refused to pay for the guitar back then, his wife Julie decided to track it down years later. This time, it had found its way to a different guitar shop and she decided to buy it anonymously. She presented it to her husband on Christmas morning, reuniting them after 44 years apart.
That guitar became the driving force behind Fogerty’s decision to return to music. It began the healing process — and he even played it on his upcoming album, Legacy – The Creedence Clearwater Revival Years.
“The idea [behind Legacy] was to reconnect and feel that way about everything again. The guy who couldn’t even stand to look at his own guitar in the Nineties or beyond would have never done that,” Fogerty shared.
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