Staying power
Creedence Clearwater Revisited plays ’60s, ’70s hits of forerunner band
Doug Clifford spent years without a routine other than being on the road.
Now that he’s slowed down a bit, he finds time for himself every day.
“I always go for a nice walk in the forest,” he says. “There’s a lot of bears out now. I saw a garbage can tipped over. The neighbors must have left it out last night.”
For Clifford, the daily walks to come to an end when he hits the road with Creedence Clearwater Revisited.
Clifford’s musical roots go back to the days of co-founding Creedence Clearwater Revival with Stu Cook.
After decades of touring, Cook and Clifford began Creedence Clearwater Revisited in 1995, after the original band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
The 73-year-old drummer enjoys life on the road even more these days.
“I really don’t like traveling too much,” he says. “I play for free, and I get paid for the travel. On tour, you have about 22½ hours of crap going on. The you hit the stage and perform for 90 minutes. That is truly what makes everything worth it.”
Clifford is also humbled that he has been part of rock ’n’ roll history with the band.
In the late ’60s and early ’70s, Creedence Clearwater Revival recorded hits such as “Have You Ever Seen the Rain,” “Fortunate Son,” “Suzie Q,” “Born on the Bayou” and “Bad Moon Rising.”
After decades of touring, Clifford says, the new band has finally got the set list down.
“It’s only taken us 21 years to get it right,” he says with a laugh. “For the most part, at this point, we’ve tried every configuration of the set list. We needed to make sure that the audience reacted to it. We also wanted it to work great for us to perform as well. Obviously, we’re doing something right, as we’ve been touring for 23 years now.”
Clifford also doesn’t take the evergrowing audience for granted.
He looks out into the crowds to a sea of generations.
“I think we’re at three right now,” he says. “The test of a pop medium is the test of time. My parents were in the big-band era, and I didn’t want to play big band. I chose to do rock ’n’ roll, and we’ve been lucky that it’s lasted. Today, I see a fourth generation emerging at our concerts. It’s really cool to witness, because our music runs the whole gamut of memories. It’s pretty neat to share this with millions of people.”