Executive Sues Rock Star Fogerty for $142 Million

A San Francisco recording executive filed a $142-million lawsuit Friday against John Fogerty, claiming that the former lead singer of the rock group Creedence Clearwater Revival slandered and libeled him.

Saul Zaentz said the lyrics in two songs on Fogerty’s current hit album, “Centerfield,” refer to him and imply that he is a murderer, a thief and an adulterer. Those songs are “Zanz Kant Danz” and “Mr. Greed.”

Zaentz also charged in the Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit that Fogerty made defamatory statements about him repeatedly in interviews published in nine publications, including the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and the San Francisco Chronicle.

Zaentz, whose Fantasy Records label used to record Creedence’s immensely popular songs in the late 1960s and early 1970s, said Fogerty has been hostile to him because he was dissatisfied with their business relationship.

Fogerty’s Berkeley-based Wenaha Music Co. and Warner Bros. Records, his current recording label, also were named in the lawsuit, but spokesmen for the firms could not be reached for comment.