In 1993, two decades after imploding, Creedence Clearwater Revival was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with luminaries such as Cream and The Doors. It was supposed to be a stellar moment for surviving members John Fogerty (leader), Stu Cook (bass) and Doug Clifford (drums) – guitarist Tom Fogerty, John’s brother, passed away in 1990.

But the evening quickly turned bittersweet for the rhythm section. After being strung along for weeks, Cook and Clifford were informed hours before the ceremony by the production crew that they would not be playing Creedence songs live that night – Fogerty would have that honor, with a celebrity house band backing him.

“I told him, ‘This is Creedence’s moment,’” Cook recalls of his confrontation with Fogerty. “‘You’re an important guy, but this is the band’s induction.’ He couldn’t look me in the eye. He gave some nonsense about how we left him twisting in the wind in his fight with the record company [Fantasy Records and] that we’re not his friends. So we said, ‘OK, whatever pal.’”

Cook stayed for the first part of the induction, but when Fogerty began playing “Who’ll Stop the Rain,” he and Clifford stood up and walked out. Says Cook: “That night, in effect, we were told we’re really not part of anything – that we didn’t deserve the same, or any, acknowledgement for the work we did in CCR.”

The seeds were sown for his project with Clifford called Creedence Clearwater Revisited that night, too, says Cook. Since 1995, the group has performed all-Creedence, all night to audiences around the world.

Despite mixed feelings about the past, Cook, 66, is pretty much at peace with life now – he’s even able to poke fun at some less-than-stellar memories. What follows are excerpts from a longer conversation with the bassist.

One milestone of a band’s career in the ‘60s was performing on The Ed Sullivan Show. What do you remember about your first appearance in March 1969?

The Ed Sullivan Show was our first real proof we were becoming successful. When we went to do the taping, an afternoon rehearsal came first. Ed came over after, greeted us, asked each band member a question and then cut to commercial. After Ed left, the stage manager told us, “By the way, when we’re actually doing the show live, Sullivan probably won’t follow the script.” Apparently, Ed would go out to dinner and have a couple of cocktails after dress rehearsal, then come back and do the live show. Sure enough, we did our performance live – “Proud Mary,” I think – then Ed came over. He was going to introduce us in the order his cue cards were written, but somehow we ended up in the wrong order. It was total ad lib from there. My best memory was when he introduced Tom as John and Doug as me. It was one of those “oh, well” moments.

Woodstock presented a different set of challenging conditions. What do you remember about that experience?

It turned into chaos after the gates came down. And, then, the rain came. It started to get dangerous onstage because of electrical issues. By the time we got on, we were functioning almost in the dark. The spotlights had been turned off and people had been taken down off the towers because of the wind, and for possible danger of electrocution and falling. There were technical issues, too, with the wiring of the stage. We followed the Grateful Dead and they had changed a bunch of stuff to suit them. So we actually started playing when [the equipment] wasn’t all 100 percent functioning. But we took a journeyman’s attitude and plowed through. At one point, quite late – after 1 a.m. when there was dead silence between songs – someone in the audience maybe a half a mile away yelled, “We’re with ya, man!” So we’re like, “OK, we’ll play the whole concert for that guy.”

When the original Woodstock movie came out, CCR wasn’t in it. What happened?

I thought the show ultimately came together and we played as well as anybody – better than most – but, for some reason which has never been clear even to us in the band, John and the people doing the film got into a disagreement. John told us we didn’t play well enough and he told them we weren’t going to be in the movie. And so it went for 25 years. Then, the director’s cut came out 17 years ago. We had a chance to be in that and, again, John pulled the same crap – threatened to sue. Director Michael Wadleigh said, “You know, I don’t need you guys. I don’t need that lawsuit.” So we missed the director’s cut, too. Finally, because of some tough and diligent negotiations with our side and John’s side, Creedence has three clips in Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music Director’s Cut: 40th Anniversary Ultimate Collector’s Edition. So we’re really happy about that. We finally made it!

The first two CCR LPs – Creedence Clearwater Revival and Bayou Country – still sound the best to me.

We went from being a live band to a studio band. All that material for the first album had been played live for a year, in bars and pubs in places like Lodi and Davis, near some Air Force base north of Sacramento [Calif.]. For the second album, we did the material live for four or five months. Later, as the hits had to keep rolling, John felt that if we weren’t on the charts we would disappear. We were constantly recording singles. We did three albums in one year – truly insane. We had no chance to play the new songs live to develop that comfortableness where they were well-rehearsed under fire so you can get funky with them; where they have a rawness but are still played well. So we became a studio band that went out and played the new album live, instead of the other way around. With the schedule we were on, there was no other way. It’s difficult to introduce new material to an audience. When they buy their ticket, they want to hear the songs they came to hear.

How did Creedence Clearwater Revisited come about?

After the Hall of Fame thing, I moved from Los Angeles to Lake Tahoe, Calif. where Doug was living. We started hanging out and playing a couple of hours every day in his studio. We just started thinking, “Wow, this is great. Why don’t we get a band and go play somewhere?” Really, we just wanted to play – not go back through the music industry machine. Plus, people wanted to hear those songs we helped make famous. And nobody had been playing them [in 1994] – Fogerty was refusing because of the little fight he was in with the label. We found Elliot Easton from The Cars, Steve Gunner, a great LA session guy, and, after some auditions, our lead singer John Tristao. We did seven shows in 1995. In 1996, we played 106. Then, [John] Fogerty sued us in 1997. Ultimately we prevailed, overturning the injunction in federal court and got our name back. Now, we play about 75 shows a year, all over the world.

Who does the CCR stuff better, you guys or Fogerty?

John’s one of those American heroes. No one can take that away from him. He wrote incredible music for our band. My personal relationship with him hasn’t been one of the better ones. He’s got a good band playing with him now. But I think when it comes to playing Creedence stuff, our band is better. Doug and I were the original rhythm section, so we can make it feel like the original stuff.