great imponderable
whether have been happier
without his success
The great imponderable, given how much misery it caused him, is whether Fogerty might have been happier without his success. If he had written and recorded all those songs, but no one had ever bought them and there had been no money to fight over, would he have happily gone back to El Cerrito?
“I like to hope that being a history teacher – if I found my partner and had this wonderful life I have found – would have made me very happy. But my second answer … I don’t know if you can see the picture on the wall behind me.” He gestures to that print of him in full flight as a young man.
“Someone asked me about that, about a month ago: ‘Tell me about that guy up on the wall back there.’ Maybe a couple days before that particular question had been asked, I actually had this conversation in my mind: John, would you trade places and be that 24-year-old who was so confused and unhappy and scratching his head trying to figure out life? Would you trade places? Or would you be the person you are now at 80? And my answer was, and it’ll always be, I want to be the guy I am here now, even though I’m 80. That poor young man had youth, for sure, but he was so confused about what was going on with his gift. I wouldn’t want to live even one day like that. I prefer being really happy, very settled, completely in love with my wife, Julie, having raised great kids. It’s a sense of being that’s irreplaceable.”
From the article, ‘I tried to be nice. Sometimes I would explode’: John Fogerty on Creedence, contracts and control.
Mr. Fogerty says:
I want to be the guy I am here now, even though I’m 80.
That poor young man had youth, for sure, but he was so confused about what was going on with his gift.
I wouldn’t want to live even one day like that.
I prefer being really happy, very settled, completely in love with my wife, Julie, having raised great kids.
It’s a sense of being that’s irreplaceable.”
Having just turned 65 I know what he means.
I want to be the guy I am here now.
That poor young man had you for sure but so confused.
I wouldn’t want to live one day like that.
I prefer being happy.
It’s a sense of being that’s irreplaceable.
No Haiku For You 