John Fogerty, 80, is shedding new light on how Creedence Clearwater Revival’s biggest hit came to be. In an interview with Guitar Player magazine, Fogerty shares the real story behind “Have You Ever Seen the Rain?”, which he says is actually a breakup song.
At the height of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s popularity in 1969, Fogerty was faced with an ultimatum from bandmates: drummer Doug Clifford, bass guitarist Stu Cook, and his brother, guitarist Tom Fogerty. John Fogerty was the band’s lead guitarist and wrote most of their songs, including “Proud Mary,” “Born on the Bayou,” “Bad Moon Rising,” “Lodi,” “Green River,” “Commotion,” “Down on the Corner,” and “Fortunate Son.”
Fogerty’s bandmates felt they were being unfairly left out of the songwriting process and therefore couldn’t earn royalties on the songs’ publishing. As the band prepared to record their sixth studio album Pendulum, Fogerty’s bandmates called a meeting.
“I got sort of surprised — kind of shanghaied — into this,” Fogerty says. “And everybody was demanding, 'We want to all write songs, and we want to make up our own parts on the records' — that sort of thing. And it was basically an ultimatum.”
Related: '70s Rock Legend Announces 2026 Tour Dates: 'We Are Coming Back!'
Accolades For "Have You Ever Seen the Rain?"
Reluctantly, Fogerty gave in but found that his bandmates weren’t delivering new material when it came time to record the album.
“It was clear at this meeting that the band was going to be no more if I didn’t acquiesce,” he shares. “So, of course, I did. I mean, the band was a beloved thing to me, and I guess it probably comes off as sounding a little haughty, or maybe arrogant... I knew how to get there and make it.
“So November comes, we start showing up at the studio,” he says. But no one, aside from him, was bringing in songs. “So I start filling in the gap.” One of those gap fillers was “Have You Ever Seen the Rain?”, a song that he says “is literally about Creedence breaking up.”
“Have You Ever Seen the Rain?” might have been written about the demise of Creedence Clearwater Revival, but the song would go on to be the band’s biggest hit. Released in January 1971, the song peaked at No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart, a weak showing for a CCR song.
However, the streaming era has made the song more popular than ever. With more than two billion streams on Spotify alone, “Have You Ever Seen the Rain?” is the band’s biggest hit, followed by “Fortunate Son” with 1.7 billion streams.
John Fogerty just completed his Legacy Tour and will play select dates in 2026.
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