J ohn Fogerty could not escape his past. Whenever he’d grab a guitar to write a song with a Creedence Clearwater Revival-like vibe, he’d imagine a gremlin from some Southern swamp jumping on his shoulder, shaking a lawyerly finger and threatening: “You can’t do that. I’m going to sue you.” After four decades of feuds and litigation with the label that he says robbed him of his Creedence royalties, CCR’s lead singer/chief songwriter is finally at peace.

He has rejoined Fantasy Records to release what Fogerty and critics agree is his best solo album, and he has learned how to deal with that pesky gremlin. “This time around, that little guy popped up on my shoulder and I said, ‘Go away from me. Get out of my life. I don’t want you here. You don’t belong here,’” said Fogerty, who will play a sold-out concert Tuesday at the State Theatre in Minneapolis. “I sort of willed it to be gone and went ahead and finished my song.

That is a real pivotal moment in my life. I think it used to get me. And it doesn’t get me anymore. I dare say I doubt that gremlin’s going to be back at all.” The song is called “Creedence Song,” a swamp-rock reminder of those late 1960s/early ’70s hits that landed CCR on the radio and in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The tune’s key line is: “You can’t go wrong if you play a little bit of that Creedence song.” It is a pivotal piece on the aptly titled “Revival,” released to rave reviews last month. “By far, I think it is my best solo album,” Fogerty said recently while riding on his tour bus from Uncasville, Conn., to Atlantic City, N.J., and admiring the fall colors. “I’d place it among any of the Creedence records.