John J. Mellencamp (born October 7, 1951), previously known as Johnny Cougar, John Cougar, and John Cougar Mellencamp, is an American singer-songwriter. He is known for his catchy brand of
heartland rock
Heartland rock is a genre of rock music characterized by a straightforward, often roots musical style, often with a focus on blue-collar workers, and a conviction that rock music has a social or communal purpose beyond just entertainment.
The ge ...
, which emphasizes traditional instrumentation.
Mellencamp rose to fame in the 1980s while "honing an almost startlingly plainspoken writing style" that, starting in 1982, yielded a string of Top 10 singles, including "
Hurts So Good
"Hurts So Good" is a song by American singer-songwriter John Mellencamp, then performing under the stage name "John Cougar". The song was a number two hit on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 for the singer/songwriter. It was the first of three major hi ...
", "
Jack & Diane
"Jack & Diane" is a song written and performed by American singer-songwriter John Mellencamp, then performing as "John Cougar." Described by critics as a "love ballad," this song was released as the second single from Mellencamp's 1982 album '' ...
", "
Crumblin' Down
"Crumblin' Down" is a rock song co-written and performed by John Mellencamp, released as the lead single from his 1983 album '' Uh-Huh''. It was a top-ten hit on both the US '' Billboard'' Hot 100 and Canadian pop charts, and it reached #2 on th ...
", "
Pink Houses
"Pink Houses" is a song written and performed by John Cougar Mellencamp. It was released on 23 October 1983 album '' Uh-Huh'' on Riva Records. It reached No. 8 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in early 1984 and No. 15 in Canada. "Pink Houses" wa ...
", "
Lonely Ol' Night", "
Small Town
"Small Town" is a 1985 song written by John Mellencamp and released on his 1985 album ''Scarecrow''. The song reached #6 on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart and #13 Adult Contemporary.
Content
Mellencamp wrote the song about his experiences ...
", "
R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.
"R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.", subtitled "A Salute to 60's Rock", is a rock song written and performed by John Mellencamp. It was the third single from his 1985 album ''Scarecrow'' and a top-ten hit on both the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and Top Rock Trac ...
", "
Paper in Fire", and "
Cherry Bomb
A cherry bomb (also known as a globe salute or kraft salute) is an approximately spherical exploding firework, roughly resembling a cherry in size and shape (with the fuse resembling the cherry's stem). Cherry bombs range in size from in diamet ...
". He has amassed 22
Top 40
In the music industry, the Top 40 is the current, 40 most-popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "Top 40" or "cont ...
hits in the United States. In addition, he holds the record for the most tracks by a solo artist to hit number one on the
Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, with seven. Mellencamp has been nominated for 13
Grammy Awards, winning one. His latest album of original songs, ''
Strictly a One-Eyed Jack
''Strictly a One-Eyed Jack'' is the 24th studio album by American singer-songwriter John Mellencamp. The album was released on January 21, 2022, by Republic Records. The album's cover, a portrait of Mellencamp, was painted by Mellencamp's son ...
'', was released on January 21, 2022. Mellencamp has sold over 30 million albums in the US and over 60 million worldwide.
Mellencamp is also one of the founding members of
Farm Aid
Farm Aid is an annual benefit concert held for American farmers.
History
On July 13, 1985, while performing at the Live Aid benefit concert for the 1983–1985 Ethiopian famine, Bob Dylan made comments about family farmers within the United St ...
, an organization that began in 1985 with a concert in
Champaign, Illinois
Champaign ( ) is a city in Champaign County, Illinois, United States. The population was 88,302 at the 2020 census. It is the tenth-most populous municipality in Illinois and the fourth most populous city in Illinois outside the Chicago metro ...
, to raise awareness about the loss of family farms and to raise funds to keep farm families on their land. Farm Aid concerts have remained an annual event over the past 37 years, and the organization has raised over $60 million.
Mellencamp was inducted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008, followed by an induction into the
Songwriters Hall of Fame
The Songwriters Hall of Fame (SHOF) is an American institution founded in 1969 by songwriter Johnny Mercer, music publisher/songwriter Abe Olman, and publisher/executive Howie Richmond to honor those whose work, represent, and maintain, the her ...
in 2018.
Early life
Mellencamp was born in
Seymour, Indiana
Seymour is a city in Jackson County, Indiana, United States. Its population was 21,569 at the 2020 census.
The city is noted for its location at the intersection of two major north–south and east–west railroads, which cross each other in th ...
, on October 7, 1951. He is of German ancestry. He was born with
spina bifida
Spina bifida (Latin for 'split spine'; SB) is a birth defect in which there is incomplete closing of the spine and the membranes around the spinal cord during early development in pregnancy. There are three main types: spina bifida occulta, men ...
, for which he had corrective surgery as an infant. Mellencamp formed his first band, Crepe Soul, at the age of 14.
Mellencamp attended
Vincennes University
Vincennes University (VU) is a public college with its main campus in Vincennes, Indiana. Founded in 1801 as Jefferson Academy, VU is the oldest public institution of higher learning in Indiana. VU was chartered in 1806 as the Indiana Terri ...
, a two-year college in
Vincennes, Indiana
Vincennes is a city in and the county seat of Knox County, Indiana, United States. It is located on the lower Wabash River in the southwestern part of the state, nearly halfway between Evansville and Terre Haute. Founded in 1732 by French fur ...
, starting in 1972. During this time he abused drugs and alcohol, stating in a 1986 ''Rolling Stone'' interview, "When I was high on pot, it affected me so drastically that when I was in college there were times when I wouldn't get off the couch. I would lie there, listening to
Roxy Music
Roxy Music are an English rock band formed in 1970 by Bryan Ferry—who became the band's lead vocalist and principal songwriter—and bassist Graham Simpson. The other longtime members are Phil Manzanera (guitar), Andy Mackay (saxophone ...
, right next to the record player so I wouldn't have to get up to flip the record over. I'd listen to this record, that record. There would be four or five days like that when I would be completely gone."
During his college years, Mellencamp played in several local bands, including the
glitter-band Trash, which was named for a
New York Dolls song, and he later got a job in Seymour installing telephones.
During this period, Mellencamp, who had given up drugs and alcohol before graduating from college, decided to pursue a career in music and traveled to New York City in an attempt to land a record contract.
Music career
1976–1982: Performing as Johnny Cougar and John Cougar
After 18 months of traveling between Indiana and New York City in 1974 and 1975, Mellencamp found someone receptive to his music and image in
Tony DeFries of MainMan Management.
DeFries insisted that Mellencamp's first album, ''
Chestnut Street Incident'', a collection of
covers and a handful of original songs, be released under the stage name Johnny Cougar, insisting that the bumpy German name "Mellencamp" was too hard to market.
Mellencamp reluctantly agreed, but the album was a commercial failure, selling only 12,000 copies. Mellencamp confessed in a 2005 interview: "That
ame #REDIRECT AME
{{redirect category shell, {{R from other capitalisation{{R from ambiguous page ...
was put on me by some manager. I went to New York and everybody said, 'You sound like a hillbilly.' And I said, 'Well, I am.' So that's where he came up with that name. I was totally unaware of it until it showed up on the album jacket. When I objected to it, he said, 'Well, either you're going to go for it, or we're not going to put the record out.' So that was what I had to do... but I thought the name was pretty silly."
Mellencamp recorded ''
The Kid Inside'', the follow-up to ''Chestnut Street Incident'', in 1977, but DeFries eventually decided against releasing the album, and Mellencamp was dropped from MCA records (DeFries finally released ''
The Kid Inside'' in early 1983, after Mellencamp achieved stardom). Mellencamp drew interest from
Rod Stewart's manager, Billy Gaff, after parting ways with DeFries and was signed onto the small
Riva Records
Riva Records was a British record label founded the UK in 1975 by Billy Gaff, manager of Rod Stewart.
Rod Stewart signed to the label in the UK, but stayed with Warner Bros. Records in the US and the rest of the world. Another well-known art ...
label. At Gaff's request, Mellencamp moved to London, England, for nearly a year to record, promote, and tour behind 1978's ''
A Biography''. The record wasn't released in the United States, but it yielded a top-five hit in Australia with "
I Need a Lover
"I Need a Lover" is the debut single by John Mellencamp, first released in 1978 under the stage name "Johnny Cougar".
Background
The song appeared on his 1978 album '' A Biography'', which was not released in the United States. After becoming a ...
".
Riva Records added "I Need a Lover" to Mellencamp's next album released in the United States, 1979's ''
John Cougar'', where the song became a No. 28 single in late 1979.
Pat Benatar
Patricia Mae Giraldo ('' née'' Andrzejewski, formerly Benatar; born January 10, 1953), known professionally as Pat Benatar, is an American rock singer and songwriter. In the United States, she has had two multi-platinum albums, five platinum al ...
recorded "I Need a Lover" on her debut album ''
In the Heat of the Night''.
In 1980, Mellencamp returned with the
Steve Cropper-produced ''
Nothin' Matters and What If It Did'', which yielded two Top 40 singles – "This Time" (No. 27) and "Ain't Even Done With the Night" (No. 17). "The singles were stupid little pop songs," he told ''Record Magazine'' in 1983. "I take no credit for that record. It wasn't like the title was made up – it wasn't supposed to be punky or cocky like some people thought. Toward the end, I didn't even go to the studio. Me and the guys in the band thought we were finished, anyway. It was the most expensive record I ever made. It cost $280,000, do you believe that? The worst thing was that I could have gone on making records like that for hundreds of years. Hell, as long as you sell a few records and the record company isn't putting a lot of money into promotion, you're making money for 'em and that's all they care about. PolyGram loved ''Nothin' Matters''. They thought I was going to turn into the next
Neil Diamond."
In 1982, Mellencamp released his breakthrough album, ''
American Fool
''American Fool'' is the fifth studio album by John Mellencamp, released under the stage name John Cougar in 1982. The album was his commercial breakthrough, holding the No. 1 position on the '' Billboard'' album chart for nine weeks.
A remaste ...
'', which contained the singles "
Hurts So Good
"Hurts So Good" is a song by American singer-songwriter John Mellencamp, then performing under the stage name "John Cougar". The song was a number two hit on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 for the singer/songwriter. It was the first of three major hi ...
", an uptempo rock tune that spent four weeks at No. 2 and 16 weeks in the top 10, and "
Jack & Diane
"Jack & Diane" is a song written and performed by American singer-songwriter John Mellencamp, then performing as "John Cougar." Described by critics as a "love ballad," this song was released as the second single from Mellencamp's 1982 album '' ...
", which was a No. 1 hit for four weeks. A third single, "Hand to Hold on To", made it to No. 19. "Hurts So Good" went on to win the
Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance
The Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance was an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to male recording artists for works (songs or albums) containin ...
at the 25th
Grammys
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...
. "To be real honest, there's three good songs on that record, and the rest is just sort of filler," Mellencamp told ''
Creem Magazine'' of ''American Fool'' in 1984. "It was too labored over, too thought about, and it wasn't organic enough. The record company thought it would bomb, but I think the reason it took off was – not that the songs were better than my others – but people liked the sound of it, the 'bam-bam-bam' drums. It was a different sound."
1983–1990: Performing as John Cougar Mellencamp
With some commercial success under his belt, Mellencamp had enough clout to force the record company to add his real surname, Mellencamp, to his stage moniker. The first album recorded under his new name John Cougar Mellencamp was 1983's ''
Uh-Huh'', a Top-10 album that spawned the Top 10 singles "
Pink Houses
"Pink Houses" is a song written and performed by John Cougar Mellencamp. It was released on 23 October 1983 album '' Uh-Huh'' on Riva Records. It reached No. 8 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in early 1984 and No. 15 in Canada. "Pink Houses" wa ...
" and "
Crumblin' Down
"Crumblin' Down" is a rock song co-written and performed by John Mellencamp, released as the lead single from his 1983 album '' Uh-Huh''. It was a top-ten hit on both the US '' Billboard'' Hot 100 and Canadian pop charts, and it reached #2 on th ...
" as well as the No. 15 hit "Authority Song", which he said is "our version of "
I Fought the Law
"I Fought the Law" is a song written by Sonny Curtis of the Crickets and popularized by a cover by the Bobby Fuller Four, becoming a top-ten hit for the band in 1966. Their version of the song was ranked No. 175 on the ''Rolling Stone'' lis ...
'." During the recording of ''Uh-Huh'', Mellencamp's backing band settled on the lineup it retained for the next several albums:
Kenny Aronoff
Kenny Aronoff (born March 7, 1953) is an American session drummer.
Early life
Aronoff grew up in Stockbridge, Massachusetts He developed an interest in music at an early age and gravitated to the drums as "drumming was one hundred percent ener ...
on drums and percussion,
Larry Crane and Mike Wanchic on guitars,
Toby Myers on bass and John Cascella on keyboards. In 1988, ''Rolling Stone'' magazine called this version of Mellencamp's band "one of the most powerful and versatile live bands ever assembled." On the 1984 Uh-Huh Tour, Mellencamp opened his shows with cover versions of songs he admired growing up, including
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...
's "
Heartbreak Hotel
"Heartbreak Hotel" is a song recorded by American singer Elvis Presley. It was released as a single on January 27, 1956, Presley's first on his new record label RCA Victor. It was written by Mae Boren Axton and Tommy Durden, with credit being ...
",
the Animals
The Animals (also billed as Eric Burdon and the Animals) are an English rock band, formed in Newcastle upon Tyne in the early 1960s. The band moved to London upon finding fame in 1964. The Animals were known for their gritty, bluesy sound and ...
' "
Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood
"Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" is a song written by Bennie Benjamin, Horace Ott and Sol Marcus for the American singer-songwriter and pianist Nina Simone, who recorded the first version in 1964. "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" has been co ...
",
Lee Dorsey
Irving Lee Dorsey (December 24, 1924 – December 1, 1986) was an American pop and R&B singer during the 1960s. His biggest hits were "Ya Ya" (1961) and "Working in the Coal Mine" (1966). Much of his work was produced by Allen Toussaint, with in ...
's "
Ya Ya
"Ya Ya" is a song by Lee Dorsey. The song was written by Dorsey, C. L. Blast, Bobby Robinson, and Morris Levy. Levy's participation in the writing has been called into question; the Flashback release of the single lists only Dorsey and Blast a ...
", and the
Left Banke
The Left Banke was an American baroque pop band, formed in New York City in 1965. They are best remembered for their two U.S. hit singles, "Walk Away Renée" and "Pretty Ballerina". The band often used what the Music journalism, music press refer ...
's "
Pretty Ballerina
"Pretty Ballerina" is a song written by pianist Michael Brown that was released as a single by his band the Left Banke in December 1966. It peaked at number 15 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart and number 4 on the Canadian '' RPM'' chart. The ...
".
In 1985, Mellencamp released ''
Scarecrow
A scarecrow is a decoy or mannequin, often in the shape of a human. Humanoid scarecrows are usually dressed in old clothes and placed in open fields to discourage birds from disturbing and feeding on recently cast seed and growing crops.Lesley ...
'', which peaked at No. 2 in the fall of 1985 and spawned five Top 40 singles: "
Lonely Ol' Night" and "
Small Town
"Small Town" is a 1985 song written by John Mellencamp and released on his 1985 album ''Scarecrow''. The song reached #6 on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart and #13 Adult Contemporary.
Content
Mellencamp wrote the song about his experiences ...
" (both No. 6), "
R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A. (A Salute to '60s Rock)" (No. 2), "Rain on the Scarecrow" (No. 21) and "Rumble Seat" (No. 28). According to the February 1986 edition of ''Creem Magazine'', Mellencamp wanted to incorporate the sound of classic '60s rock into ''Scarecrow'', and he gave his band close to a hundred old singles to learn "almost mathematically verbatim" prior to recording the album.
"Learning those songs did a lot of positive things," Mellencamp explained to ''Creem'' writer Bill Holdship. "We realized more than ever what a big melting pot of all different types of music the '60s were. Take an old
Rascals song for example – there's everything from marching band beats to soul music to country sounds in one song. Learning those opened the band's vision to try new things on my songs. It wasn't let's go back and try to make this part fit into my song, but I wanted to capture the same feeling – the way those songs used to make you feel. After a while, we didn't even have to talk about it anymore. If you listen to the lead Larry
raneplays on 'Face of the Nation,' he never would have played that 'cause he didn't really know who the
Animals
Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the biological kingdom Animalia. With few exceptions, animals consume organic material, breathe oxygen, are able to move, can reproduce sexually, and go through an ontogenetic stage in ...
were. He's young, and he grew up listening to
Grand Funk Railroad
Grand Funk Railroad (often shortened to Grand Funk) is an American rock band formed in 1968 in Flint, Michigan, by Mark Farner (vocals, guitar), Don Brewer (drums, vocals), and Mel Schacher (bass). The band achieved peak popularity and succ ...
. You hear it, and it's like 'where did that come from?' It had to be from hearing those old records."
''Scarecrow'' was the first album Mellencamp recorded at his own recording studio, jokingly dubbed "Belmont Mall", located in
Belmont, Indiana
Belmont is an unincorporated community in Washington Township, Brown County, in the U.S. state of Indiana.
History
A post office was established at Belmont in 1884, and remained in operation until it was discontinued in 1916.
In 1907 Hoosier G ...
and built in 1984. Mellencamp sees ''Scarecrow'' as the start of the
alternative country genre: "I think I invented that whole 'No Depression' thing with the ''Scarecrow'' album, though I don't get the credit," he told ''Classic Rock'' magazine in October 2008.
In the liner notes to Mellencamp’s 2010 box set ''
On the Rural Route 7609
''On the Rural Route 7609'' is a box set by rock singer/songwriter John Mellencamp that was released on June 15, 2010. The first part of the title refers to the song "Rural Route" (which is included in two versions) from his 2007 album '' Freed ...
'', Anthony DeCurtis wrote of Mellencamp’s influence on the No Depression movement:
Shortly after finishing ''Scarecrow'', Mellencamp helped organize the first
Farm Aid
Farm Aid is an annual benefit concert held for American farmers.
History
On July 13, 1985, while performing at the Live Aid benefit concert for the 1983–1985 Ethiopian famine, Bob Dylan made comments about family farmers within the United St ...
benefit concert with
Willie Nelson
Willie Hugh Nelson (born April 29, 1933) is an American country musician. The critical success of the album '' Shotgun Willie'' (1973), combined with the critical and commercial success of '' Red Headed Stranger'' (1975) and '' Stardust'' (1 ...
and
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian-American singer and songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, joining Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Fur ...
in
Champaign, Illinois
Champaign ( ) is a city in Champaign County, Illinois, United States. The population was 88,302 at the 2020 census. It is the tenth-most populous municipality in Illinois and the fourth most populous city in Illinois outside the Chicago metro ...
on September 22, 1985. The Farm Aid concerts remain an annual event and have raised over $60 million for struggling family farmers .
Prior to the 1985–86 Scarecrow Tour, during which he covered some of the same 1960s rock and soul songs he and his band rehearsed prior to the recording of ''Scarecrow'', Mellencamp added fiddle player
Lisa Germano
Lisa Ruth Germano (born June 27, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Indiana. Her album '' Geek the Girl'' (1994) was chosen as a top album of the 1990s by ''Spin'' magazine. She began her career as a violinist ...
to his band. Germano would remain in Mellencamp's band until 1994, when she left to pursue a solo career.
Mellencamp's next studio album, 1987's ''
The Lonesome Jubilee'', included the singles "
Paper in Fire" (No. 9), "Cherry Bomb" (No. 8), "Check It Out" (No. 14), and "Rooty Toot Toot" (No. 61) along with the popular album tracks "Hard Times for an Honest Man" and "The Real Life", both of which cracked the top 10 on the ''Billboard''
Album Rock Tracks chart. "We were on the road for a long time after ''Scarecrow'', so we were together a lot as a band," Mellencamp said in a 1987 ''Creem Magazine'' feature. "For the first time ever, we talked about the record before we started. We had a very distinct vision of what should be happening here. At one point, ''
The Lonesome Jubilee'' was supposed to be a double album, but at least 10 of the songs I'd written just didn't stick together with the idea and the sound we had in mind. So I just put those songs on a shelf, and cut it back down to a single record. Now, in the past, it was always 'Let's make it up as we go along' – and we did make some of ''The Lonesome Jubilee'' up as we went along. But we had a very clear idea of what we wanted it to sound like, even before it was written, right through to the day it was mastered."
As Frank DiGiacomo of ''
Vanity Fair'' wrote in 2007, "''The Lonesome Jubilee'' was the album in which Mellencamp defined his now signature sound: a rousing, crystalline mix of acoustic and electric guitars, Appalachian fiddle, and gospel-style backing vocals, anchored by a crisp, bare-knuckle drumbeat and completed by his own velveteen rasp."
During the 1987–88 Lonesome Jubilee Tour, Mellencamp was joined onstage by surprise guest
Bruce Springsteen at the end of his May 26, 1988, gig in Irvine, California, for a duet of
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
's "
Like a Rolling Stone
"Like a Rolling Stone" is a song by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on July 20, 1965, by Columbia Records. Its confrontational lyrics originated in an extended piece of verse Dylan wrote in June 1965, when he returned exhausted fro ...
", which Mellencamp performed as the penultimate song during each show on that tour. Said Mellencamp of his band during the 1987-88 Lonesome Jubilee Tour:
In 1989, Mellencamp released the personal album ''
Big Daddy'', with the key tracks "Jackie Brown", "Big Daddy of Them All", and "Void in My Heart" accompanying the Top 15 single "Pop Singer". The album, which Mellencamp called at the time the most "earthy" record he'd ever made, is also the last to feature the "Cougar" moniker. In 1991, Mellencamp said: "'Big Daddy' was the best record I ever made. Out of my agony came a couple of really beautiful songs. You can't be 22 years old and had two dates and understand that album."
Mellencamp was heavily involved in painting at this time in his life and decided not to tour behind ''Big Daddy'', stating: "What's the point?... This other step that people keep wanting me to take to become another level of recording artist – to be Madonna? To sell out? To bend over? To kiss somebody's ass? I ain't gonna do it." In his second painting exhibition, at the Churchman-Fehsenfeld Gallery in Indianapolis in 1990, Mellencamp's portraits were described as always having sad facial expressions and conveying "the same disillusionment found in his musical anthems about the nation's heartland and farm crisis."
1991–1997: Performing as John Mellencamp
Mellencamp's 1991 album, ''
Whenever We Wanted'', was the first with a cover billed to John Mellencamp; the "Cougar" was finally dropped for good. ''Whenever We Wanted'' yielded the Top 40 hits "Get a Leg Up" and "Again Tonight", but "Last Chance", "Love and Happiness" and "Now More Than Ever" all garnered significant airplay on rock radio. "It's very rock 'n' roll", Mellencamp said of ''
Whenever We Wanted'': "I just wanted to get back to the basics."
In 1993, he released ''
Human Wheels
''Human Wheels'' is the twelfth studio album by American singer-songwriter John Mellencamp. Released on Mercury Records on September 7, 1993, it peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard 200, ''Billboard'' 200. The single "What If I Came Knocking" was Mel ...
'', and the title track peaked at No. 48 on the ''Billboard'' singles chart. "To me, this record is very urban," Mellencamp told Billboard magazine of ''Human Wheels'' in the summer of 1993. "We had a lot of discussions about the rhythm and blues music of the day. We explored what a lot of these (current) bands are doing – these young black bands that are doing more than just sampling."
Mellencamp's 1994 ''
Dance Naked
''Dance Naked'' is the thirteenth studio album by American singer-songwriter John Mellencamp released on June 21, 1994. The album was released in response to the record company's accusations that Mellencamp's previous album, ''Human Wheels'', di ...
'' album included a cover of
Van Morrison
Sir George Ivan Morrison (born 31 August 1945), known professionally as Van Morrison, is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose recording career spans seven decades. He has won two Grammy Awards.
As a teenager in t ...
's "
Wild Night
"Wild Night" is a song written by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison and is the opening track on his fifth studio album ''Tupelo Honey''. It was released as a single in 1971 and reached number 28 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart. ...
" as a duet with
Meshell Ndegeocello
Michelle Lynn Johnson, better known as Meshell Ndegeocello (; born August 29, 1968), is a German-born American singer-songwriter, rapper, and bassist. She has gone by the name Meshell Suhaila Bashir-Shakur which is used as a writing credit on so ...
. "Wild Night" became Mellencamp's biggest hit in years, peaking at No. 3 on the
''Billboard'' Hot 100. The album also contained two protest songs in "L.U.V." and "Another Sunny Day 12/25", in addition to the title track, which hit No. 41 on the Hot 100 in the summer of 1994. "This is as naked a rock record as you're going to hear," Mellencamp said of ''
Dance Naked
''Dance Naked'' is the thirteenth studio album by American singer-songwriter John Mellencamp released on June 21, 1994. The album was released in response to the record company's accusations that Mellencamp's previous album, ''Human Wheels'', di ...
'' in a 1994 ''Billboard'' magazine interview. "All the vocals are first or second takes, and half the songs don't even have bass parts. Others have just one guitar, bass, and drums, which I haven't done since ''American Fool''."
With guitarist Andy York now on board as Larry Crane's full-time replacement, Mellencamp launched his Dance Naked Tour in the summer of 1994, but had a minor heart attack after a show at Jones Beach in New York on August 8 of that year. That heart attack eventually forced him to cancel the last few weeks of the tour. He returned to the concert stage in early 1995 by playing a series of dates in small Midwestern clubs under the pseudonym Pearl Doggy.
On November 19, 1994 at the
Kennedy Center
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (formally known as the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, and commonly referred to as the Kennedy Center) is the United States National Cultural Center, located on the Potom ...
in
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
, Mellencamp performed an acoustic cover of
Billy Joel's "
Allentown Allentown may refer to several places in the United States and topics related to them:
*Allentown, California, now called Toadtown, California
*Allentown, Georgia, a town in Wilkinson County
*Allentown, Illinois, an unincorporated community in Taze ...
" at a tribute event to
Billy Joel.
In September 1996, the experimental album ''
Mr. Happy Go Lucky
''Mr. Happy Go Lucky'' is the 14th album by American singer-songwriter and musician John Mellencamp. It was released on September 10, 1996. It was his first album released after his heart attack in 1994. Mellencamp's music on the album is said ...
'', which was produced by
Junior Vasquez
Junior Vasquez (born Donald Gregory Mattern, August 24, 1949) is an American DJ, record producer and remixer. He has been referred to as one of the only DJs of his time to gain international attention.
Career
Mattern moved to New York City a ...
, was released to critical acclaim. "It's been fascinating to me how urban records use rhythm and electronics, and it's terribly challenging to make that work in the context of a rock band", Mellencamp told ''Billboard'' magazine in 1996. "But we took it further than an urban record. The arrangements are more ambitious, with programs and loops going right along with real drums and guitars."
''Mr. Happy Go Lucky'' spawned the No. 14 single "
Key West Intermezzo (I Saw You First)" (Mellencamp's last Top 40 hit) and "Just Another Day", which peaked at No. 46.
1998–2003: Recording for Columbia
![Mellencamp sept2000](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/Mellencamp_sept2000.JPG)
After the release of ''Mr. Happy Go Lucky'' and a subsequent four-month tour from March to July 1997 to promote it, Mellencamp signed a four-album deal with
Columbia Records, although he wound up making only three albums for the label.
Issued a day before his 47th birthday in 1998, his
self-titled debut for Columbia Records included the singles "Your Life Is Now" and "I'm Not Running Anymore", along with standout album tracks such as "Eden Is Burning", "Miss Missy", "It All Comes True" and "Chance Meeting at the Tarantula". The switch in labels coincided with Dane Clark replacing Aronoff on drums. "On this record, we ended up quite a bit away from where we started", Mellencamp told Guitar World Acoustic in 1998. "Initially, I wanted to make a record that barely had drums on it. Donovan made a record (in 1966), ''
Sunshine Superman'', and I wanted to start with that same kind of vibe—Eastern, very grand stories, fairy tales."
In 1999, Mellencamp covered his own songs as well as those by Bob Dylan and
the Drifters
The Drifters are several American doo-wop and R&B/soul vocal groups. They were originally formed as a backing group for Clyde McPhatter, formerly the lead tenor of Billy Ward and his Dominoes in 1953. The second group of Drifters, formed in ...
for his album ''
Rough Harvest'' (recorded in 1997), one of two albums he owed Mercury Records to fulfill his contract (the other was ''
The Best That I Could Do
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...
'', a best-of collection). In May 2000, he gave the Indiana University commencement address, in which he advised graduates to "play it like you feel it!" and that "you'll be all right". Following the delivery of his address, Indiana University bestowed upon him an honorary Doctorate of Musical Arts.
In August 2000, Mellencamp played a series of unannounced free concerts in major cities on the East Coast and in the Midwest as a way of giving back to fans who had supported him the previous 24 years. With a lo-fi setup that included portable amps and a battery-powered P.A. system, Mellencamp, armed with an acoustic guitar and accompanied only by an accordionist and a violist, dubbed the jaunt "Live in the Streets: The Good Samaritan Tour". At these dozen shows, which ranged in length from 45 to 60 minutes, Mellencamp covered a number of rock and folk classics and sprinkled in a few of his own songs. "Nobody's selling anything, there's no souvenirs—except what's in everybody's heart", Mellencamp told ''Billboard'' magazine. "Think about it: Isn't that where music started? To anybody who's said thank you to me, I say, 'You're very nice, but, really, thank you.'" (In 2021, Mellencamp would partner with
Turner Classic Movies
Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie-oriented pay-TV network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasting campus in the Midtown business district of At ...
to release a documentary of the tour on
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
.)
The early 21st century also found Mellencamp teaming up with artists such as
Chuck D and
India.Arie
India Arie Simpson (born October 3, 1975), also known as India Arie (sometimes styled as india.arie), is an American singer and songwriter. She has sold over five million records in the US and ten million worldwide. She has won four Grammy Awards ...
to deliver his second Columbia album, ''
Cuttin' Heads'' and the single "
Peaceful World". ''Cuttin' Heads'' also included a duet with
Trisha Yearwood
Patricia Lynn Yearwood (born September 19, 1964) is an American singer, actress, author and television personality. She rose to fame with her 1991 debut single " She's in Love with the Boy," which became a number one hit on the ''Billboard'' c ...
on a love song called "Deep Blue Heart". "He played me this song", Yearwood told Country.com, "and he said, 'I kind of have an idea of like when
Emmylou Harris sang on Bob Dylan's record, just kind of harmony all the way through.'"
Mellencamp embarked on the Cuttin' Heads Tour in the summer of 2001, before the album was even released. He opened each show on this tour with a cover of the
Rolling Stones' "
Gimme Shelter
"Gimme Shelter" is a song by English rock band the Rolling Stones. Released as the opening track from band's 1969 album ''Let It Bleed''. The song covers topics of war, murder, rape and fear. It features prominent guest vocals by American singe ...
" and also played a solo acoustic version of the ''Cuttin' Heads'' track "Women Seem" at each show.
In October 2002, Mellencamp performed the
Robert Johnson
Robert Leroy Johnson (May 8, 1911August 16, 1938) was an American blues musician and songwriter. His landmark recordings in 1936 and 1937 display a combination of singing, guitar skills, and songwriting talent that has influenced later generati ...
song "Stones in My Passway" at two benefit concerts for his friend, ''Billboard'' magazine editor-in-chief
Timothy White, who died from a heart attack in 2002.
Columbia Records executives, who were in attendance at the benefit shows, were so impressed with Mellencamp's live renditions of "Stones in My Passway" that they convinced him to record an album of vintage American songs, which ultimately became ''
Trouble No More''. The album was a quickly recorded collection of
folk
Folk or Folks may refer to:
Sociology
*Nation
*People
* Folklore
** Folk art
** Folk dance
** Folk hero
** Folk music
*** Folk metal
*** Folk punk
*** Folk rock
** Folk religion
* Folk taxonomy
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Folk Plus or Fo ...
and
blues covers originally done by artists such as
Robert Johnson
Robert Leroy Johnson (May 8, 1911August 16, 1938) was an American blues musician and songwriter. His landmark recordings in 1936 and 1937 display a combination of singing, guitar skills, and songwriting talent that has influenced later generati ...
,
Son House
Edward James "Son" House Jr. (March 21, 1902His date of birth is a matter of some debate. House alleged that he was middle-aged during World War I and that he was 79 in 1965, which would make his date of birth around 1886. However, all legal re ...
,
Lucinda Williams
Lucinda Gayle Williams (born January 26, 1953) is an American singer-songwriter and a solo guitarist. She recorded her first two albums: '' Ramblin' on My Mind'' (1979) and '' Happy Woman Blues'' (1980), in a traditional country and blues style ...
and
Hoagy Carmichael
Hoagland Howard Carmichael (November 22, 1899 – December 27, 1981) was an American musician, composer, songwriter, actor and lawyer. Carmichael was one of the most successful Tin Pan Alley songwriters of the 1930s, and was among the first ...
. ''
Trouble No More'' was released in 2003, dedicated to Mellencamp's friend Timothy White, and spent several weeks at No. 1 on ''Billboard''s Blues Album charts. Mellencamp sang the
gospel
Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words a ...
song "Will The Circle Be Unbroken" at White's funeral on July 2, 2002.
2004–2007: ''Words and Music'' and ''Freedom's Road''
Mellencamp participated in the
Vote for Change tour in October 2004 leading up to the
2004 U.S. Presidential election. That same month he released the two-disc career hits retrospective ''
Words & Music: John Mellencamp's Greatest Hits'', which contained 35 of his radio singles (including all 22 of his Top 40 hits) along with two new tunes, "
Walk Tall" and "Thank You" – both produced by
Babyface Babyface or Baby Face can refer to:
Nicknames
* Lester Joseph Gillis a.k.a. Baby Face Nelson, an infamous 1930s bank robber
* Roosevelt "Baby Face" Willette (1933–1971), an American hard bop and soul-jazz musician
* "Baby Face", Jimmy McLarnin ...
but written by Mellencamp.
In 2005, Mellencamp toured with
Donovan and
John Fogerty. The first leg of what was called the Words and Music Tour in the spring of 2005 featured Donovan playing in the middle of Mellencamp's set. Mellencamp would play a handful of songs before introducing Donovan and then duetting with him on the 1966 hit "Sunshine Superman". Mellencamp would leave the stage as Donovan played seven or eight of his songs (backed by Mellencamp's band) and then return to finish off his own set after Donovan departed. On the second leg of the tour in the summer of 2005, Fogerty co-headlined with Mellencamp at outdoor amphitheaters across the United States. Fogerty would join Mellencamp for duets on Fogerty's
Creedence Clearwater Revival hit "Green River" and Mellencamp's "Rain on the Scarecrow".
![JohnMellencampWalterReedCenter](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6f/JohnMellencampWalterReedCenter.jpg)
Mellencamp released ''
Freedom's Road'', his first album of original material in over five years, on January 23, 2007. He intended for ''
Freedom's Road'' to have a 1960s rock sound while still remaining contemporary, and he feels that goal was achieved. "We wanted to make sure that it had the same feeling of some of the great songs from the '60s but also had the message of today and had the backbeat of today. I think we came up with a pretty timeless sounding album", Mellencamp told his online radio station in late 2006. "Our Country", the first single from ''
Freedom's Road'', was played as the opening song on Mellencamp's 2006 spring tour, and the band that opened for him on that tour,
Little Big Town
Little Big Town is an American country music vocal group from Homewood, Alabama. Founded in 1998, the group has comprised the same four members since its founding: Karen Fairchild, Kimberly Schlapman (née Roads), Phillip Sweet, and Jimi Westbr ...
, was called on to record harmonies on the studio version of "Our Country", as well as seven other songs on ''Freedom's Road''.
Although Mellencamp had always been outspoken and adamant about not selling any of his songs to corporations to use in commercials, he changed his stance and let Chevrolet use "Our Country" in Chevy Silverado TV commercials that began airing in late September 2006. "I agonized", Mellencamp told ''
USA Today
''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgi ...
''s
Edna Gundersen
Edna Gundersen is an American journalist who was a longtime music writer and critic for ''USA Today''.
Gundersen grew up in El Paso, Texas. She attained a degree in journalism from the University of Texas at El Paso and then wrote features and en ...
in 2007 over his decision to license "Our Country" to Chevrolet. "I still don't think we should have to do it, but record companies can't spend money to promote records anymore, unless you're
U2 or
Madonna. I'm taking heat because no one's ever done this before. People have licensed songs that have already been hits, but nobody's licensed a brand-new song to a major company, and people don't know how to react."
Mellencamp sang "Our Country" to open Game 2 of the
2006 World Series
The 2006 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 2006 season. The 102nd edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff between the American League (AL) champion Detroit Tigers and the National Lea ...
, and the song was nominated for a 2008 Grammy Award in the Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance category, but lost to
Bruce Springsteen's "Radio Nowhere". ''Freedom's Road'' peaked at No. 5 on the ''Billboard'' 200 album chart by selling 56,000 copies in its first week on the market.
2008–2013: The T Bone Burnett Era
On August 13, 2007, Mellencamp began recording his 18th album of original material, titled ''
Life, Death, Love and Freedom
''Life, Death, Love and Freedom'' is the 20th folk rock album by singer-songwriter John Mellencamp and produced by T-Bone Burnett. It was released on July 15, 2008. At the end of 2008, Rolling Stone magazine named ''Life, Death, Love and Freedo ...
''. The album, which was released on July 15, 2008, was produced by
T Bone Burnett
Joseph Henry "T Bone" Burnett III (born January 14, 1948) is an American record producer, guitarist and songwriter. He rose to fame as a guitarist in Bob Dylan's band during the 1970s. He has received multiple Grammy awards for his work in fil ...
. The first song with video, "Jena", was introduced on Mellencamp's website in October 2007. In an interview with the ''Bloomington Herald-Times'' in March 2008, Mellencamp dubbed ''
Life, Death, Love and Freedom
''Life, Death, Love and Freedom'' is the 20th folk rock album by singer-songwriter John Mellencamp and produced by T-Bone Burnett. It was released on July 15, 2008. At the end of 2008, Rolling Stone magazine named ''Life, Death, Love and Freedo ...
'' "The best record I've ever made." He signed with
Starbucks'
Hear Music
Hear Music was a record label that was founded in 2007 in a partnership between Concord Music Group and Starbucks. Hear Music began as a catalog company in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1990 before being purchased by Starbucks in 1999.
Concep ...
label to distribute the album and said, "they think it's a fucking masterpiece". The album's first single was "My Sweet Love". A video for the song was filmed in Savannah, Georgia on June 9, 2008. Karen Fairchild of
Little Big Town
Little Big Town is an American country music vocal group from Homewood, Alabama. Founded in 1998, the group has comprised the same four members since its founding: Karen Fairchild, Kimberly Schlapman (née Roads), Phillip Sweet, and Jimi Westbr ...
is featured in the video. She harmonizes with Mellencamp on "My Sweet Love" and provides background vocals to three other songs on ''Life, Death, Love and Freedom'', which became the ninth Top 10 album of Mellencamp's career when it debuted at No. 7 on the
''Billboard'' 200 the week of August 2, 2008. Like ''Freedom's Road'', ''Life, Death, Love and Freedom'' also sold 56,000 copies in its first week. In its list of the 50 best albums of 2008, ''Rolling Stone'' magazine named ''Life, Death, Love and Freedom'' No. 5 overall and also dubbed "Troubled Land" No. 48 among the 100 best singles of the year.
![Mellencamp-Crow](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/Mellencamp-Crow.jpg)
On September 23, 2008, Mellencamp filmed a concert at the Crump Theatre in Columbus, Indiana for a new A&E Biography series called ''Homeward Bound''. The show featured performers returning to small venues where they performed during the early stages of their careers. The program aired on December 11, 2008, and also featured an in-depth documentary tracing Mellencamp's roots.
Mellencamp participated in a tribute concert for
Pete Seeger
Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American folk singer and social activist. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, Seeger also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of the Weavers, notably ...
's 90th birthday on May 3, 2009, at
Madison Square Garden in New York City which raised funds for an environmental organization founded by Seeger to preserve and protect the
Hudson River
The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...
. Mellencamp performed solo acoustic renditions of Seeger and Lee Hays' "
If I Had a Hammer
"If I Had a Hammer (The Hammer Song)" is a protest song written by Pete Seeger and Lee Hays. It was written in 1949 in support of the Progressive movement, and was first recorded by the Weavers, a folk music quartet composed of Seeger, Hays, ...
" and his own "A Ride Back Home."
While he was on tour, Mellencamp recorded a new album titled ''
No Better Than This'' that was again produced by
T Bone Burnett
Joseph Henry "T Bone" Burnett III (born January 14, 1948) is an American record producer, guitarist and songwriter. He rose to fame as a guitarist in Bob Dylan's band during the 1970s. He has received multiple Grammy awards for his work in fil ...
. The tracks for the album were recorded at historic locations, such as the
First African Baptist Church in
Savannah, Georgia
Savannah ( ) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia and is the county seat of Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the British colonial capital of the Province of Georgia and later t ...
as well as at the
Sun Studio
Sun Studio is a recording studio opened by rock-and-roll pioneer Sam Phillips at 706 Union Avenue in Memphis, Tennessee, on January 3, 1950. It was originally called Memphis Recording Service, sharing the same building with the Sun Records label ...
in
Memphis
Memphis most commonly refers to:
* Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt
* Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city
Memphis may also refer to:
Places United States
* Memphis, Alabama
* Memphis, Florida
* Memphis, Indiana
* Memp ...
and the Sheraton
Gunter Hotel in
San Antonio
("Cradle of Freedom")
, image_map =
, mapsize = 220px
, map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = United States
, subdivision_type1= State
, subdivision_name1 = Texas
, subdivision_t ...
where blues pioneer
Robert Johnson
Robert Leroy Johnson (May 8, 1911August 16, 1938) was an American blues musician and songwriter. His landmark recordings in 1936 and 1937 display a combination of singing, guitar skills, and songwriting talent that has influenced later generati ...
recorded "Sweet Home Chicago" and "Crossroad Blues". Mellencamp recorded the album using a 1955
Ampex
Ampex is an American electronics company founded in 1944 by Alexander M. Poniatoff as a spin-off of Dalmo-Victor. The name AMPEX is a portmanteau, created by its founder, which stands for Alexander M. Poniatoff Excellence.AbramsoThe History ...
portable recording machine and only one microphone, requiring all the musicians to gather together around the mic. The album was recorded in mono. Mellencamp wrote over 30 songs for the record (only 13 made the final cut), and he wrote one song specifically for Room 414 at the Gunter Hotel Mellencamp told the ''San Antonio Express-News'': ''
No Better Than This'' was released on August 17, 2010, and peaked at No. 10 on the
''Billboard'' 200, becoming the 10th Top 10 album of his career. ''No Better Than This'' is the first mono-only release to make the top 10 since
James Brown's ''Pure Dynamite! Live at the Royal'', which peaked at No. 10 in April 1964.
On December 6, 2009, Mellencamp performed "
Born in the U.S.A.
''Born in the U.S.A.'' is the seventh studio album by American recording artist Bruce Springsteen, released by Columbia Records on June 4, 1984. It topped the charts in nine countries, including the US and UK, becoming his most commercially su ...
" as a tribute to Bruce Springsteen, who was one of the honorees at the 2009
Kennedy Center Honors. "I was very proud and humbled to have been able to play 'Born in the U.S.A.' in a different fashion that I think was true to the feelings that Bruce had when he wrote it", Mellencamp said. He performed "Down by the River" on January 29, 2010, in Los Angeles in tribute to
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian-American singer and songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, joining Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Fur ...
, who was honored at the 20th annual MusiCares Person of the Year gala. Mellencamp sang the hymn "
Keep Your Eyes on the Prize
"Keep Your Eyes on the Prize" is a folk song that became influential during the American Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. It is based on the traditional song, " Gospel Plow," also known as "Hold On," "Keep Your Hand on the Plow," and ...
" at "In Performance at the White House: A Celebration of Music from the Civil Rights Movement" on February 9, 2010.
Mellencamp, who co-headlined 11 shows in the summer of 2010 with
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
, launched the ''No Better Than This'' theater tour on October 29, 2010, in
Bloomington, Indiana
Bloomington is a city in and the county seat of Monroe County in the central region of the U.S. state of Indiana. It is the seventh-largest city in Indiana and the fourth-largest outside the Indianapolis metropolitan area. According to the Mo ...
. On this tour, which ran through the summer of 2012 and covered the entire United States and Canada and much of Europe, Mellencamp opened each concert with a showing of a Kurt Markus documentary about the making of ''No Better Than This'' called "It's About You" before hitting the stage to play three different sets: a stripped-down acoustic set with his band, a solo acoustic set, and a fully electrified rock set. "It'll be like
Alan Freed
Albert James "Alan" Freed (December 15, 1921 – January 20, 1965) was an American disc jockey. He also produced and promoted large traveling concerts with various acts, helping to spread the importance of rock and roll music throughout Nor ...
, like the old Moondog shows", Mellencamp told Billboard magazine prior to the tour: Mellencamp played for over two hours and included 24 songs in his setlist on the tour. He brought the ''
No Better Than This'' tour to Europe in the summer of 2011, opening in
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
on June 24. One reviewer called the opening gig of the European leg of the tour "maybe the best rock-performance ever in Denmark." The ''
No Better Than This'' Tour returned to the U.S. for one final round of shows from October 25 to November 19, 2011. The tour finally concluded with a tour of Canada in the summer of 2012.
Mellencamp took part in two
Woody Guthrie
Woodrow Wilson Guthrie (; July 14, 1912 – October 3, 1967) was an American singer-songwriter, one of the most significant figures in American folk music. His work focused on themes of American socialism and anti-fascism. He has inspired ...
tribute concerts in 2012 as part of a year-long celebration surrounding the 100-year anniversary of the folk icon's birth.
On July 8, 2014, Mellencamp released a new live album called ''
Performs Trouble No More Live at Town Hall'' without any advance notice. The album captures his live performance at Town Hall in New York City on July 31, 2003, in which he performed every track from his 2003 ''
Trouble No More'' covers album in addition to a rendition of "Highway 61 Revisited" by
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
and reworked versions of three of his own songs. Two songs performed at the 2003 Town Hall concert, the 1962
Skeeter Davis
Skeeter Davis (born Mary Frances Penick; December 30, 1931September 19, 2004) was an American country music singer and songwriter who sang crossover pop music songs including 1962's " The End of the World". She started out as part of the Davis S ...
hit "The End of the World" and the traditional folk song "House of the Rising Sun", did not make the final track list despite the album's official press release stating that the CD and digital versions "feature the complete 15-song concert."
2014–2018: ''Plain Spoken'', ''Sad Clowns & Hillbillies'' and ''Other People's Stuff''
In October 2013, Mellencamp revealed that he was working on a new album, and he offered this update on the project to the ''Minneapolis Star-Tribune'': "I've had a couple rehearsals with the band, and T Bone
urnettand I go in the studio in January. I'm not part of the music business. I want to write my songs, do some little shows." A short time later, Mellencamp told ''Rolling Stone'': "I've got a notebook with 85 new songs that I've written for my next record. T Bone Burnett is going to come out to Indiana sometime in early January and we're gonna go into the studio for however long it takes to make a new album. I haven't done one in five years."
In January 2014, Mellencamp began recording the project, which would ultimately be titled ''
Plain Spoken
''Plain Spoken'' is the 22nd studio album by American singer-songwriter and musician John Mellencamp. It was released on September 23, 2014 by Republic Records. ''Plain Spoken'' marks the first project of Mellencamp's new lifetime recording con ...
'' and would become his 20th album of original material and 22nd studio album overall. The album was released on September 23, 2014.
Although Mellencamp said that Burnett would serve as the producer of ''Plain Spoken'', Burnett was only credited as the "executive producer" of the album.
Outside of the Plain Spoken Tour, Mellencamp's most noteworthy live performance in 2015 came on February 6, when he paid tribute to Bob Dylan at the annual
MusiCares
MusiCares Foundation is a non-profit organization established in 1989 and incorporated in 1993 by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Meant for musicians to have a place to turn in times of financial, personal, or medical crisis, ...
Person of the Year event by performing a piano-and-vocal rendition of "Highway 61 Revisited" (the piano was played by Troye Kinnett from Mellencamp's band). ''
USA Today
''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgi ...
'' wrote: "The musical high point in a night of many highlights was probably John Mellencamp's interpretation of 'Highway 61 Revisited;' with a vocal tone and timbre that channeled Tom Waits', he made this usually scorching rocker into a blues dirge. Never has Mellencamp sounded so artful."
After a star-studded lineup paid tribute to Dylan with cover versions of some of his greatest songs, Dylan closed the evening with a 30-minute speech that included a reference to Mellencamp's 2008 song "Longest Days". Dylan said: "And like my friend John Mellencamp would singbecause John sang some truth today'one day you get sick and you don't get better.' That's from a song of his called 'Life is Short Even on Its Longest Days.' It's one of the better songs of the last few years, actually. I ain't lying."
Mellencamp said Dylan's endorsement was worth more than 10 Grammys.
In December 2015, Mellencamp began recording a duets album with
Carlene Carter
Carlene Carter (born Rebecca Carlene Smith; September 26, 1955) is an American country music singer and songwriter. She is the daughter of June Carter Cash and her first husband, Carl Smith.
As of 2020, since 1978, Carter has recorded 12 alb ...
, who was his opening act for all shows on the Plain Spoken Tour and would join Mellencamp for two songs during his set.
Mellencamp and Carter's duets album, titled ''
Sad Clowns & Hillbillies'', was released on April 28, 2017.
"We wrote a couple of songs together, and she wrote some and I wrote some," Mellencamp told ''
USA Today
''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgi ...
'' of the material on ''Sad Clowns & Hillbillies''.
Mellencamp and Carter debuted two songs from the album, "Indigo Sunset" and "My Soul's Got Wings", during Mellencamp's concert in
Tulsa
Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with ...
on April 1, 2016 (Carter served as the opening act for the show). "Indigo Sunset" was written by both Mellencamp and Carter, while Mellencamp wrote the music to "My Soul's Got Wings", giving life to a previously unheard lyric written by American
folk
Folk or Folks may refer to:
Sociology
*Nation
*People
* Folklore
** Folk art
** Folk dance
** Folk hero
** Folk music
*** Folk metal
*** Folk punk
*** Folk rock
** Folk religion
* Folk taxonomy
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Folk Plus or Fo ...
singer
Woody Guthrie
Woodrow Wilson Guthrie (; July 14, 1912 – October 3, 1967) was an American singer-songwriter, one of the most significant figures in American folk music. His work focused on themes of American socialism and anti-fascism. He has inspired ...
.
Carter was featured on only five of ''
Sad Clowns & Hillbillies'' 13 tracks and contributed to the writing of just two songs.
Mellencamp released “Easy Target”the first single from ''Sad Clowns & Hillbillies'' and a "reflection on the state of our country" on January 19, 2017, which was the eve of the 2017 Presidential Inauguration.
When debuting "Easy Target" on January 19, Mellencamp delivered insights into ''Sad Clowns & Hillbillies'': "It's crazy the way it startedit was going to be a religious record. It started out like 'Look, lets go back and do an old country religious record. We'll try to write songs that sound like those songs, but they'll be new.' And then it just kept evolving and evolving and evolving, and the songs that she was bringing and the songs that I was bringingthey weren't so religious. I write a lot of sad songs, so it's like ''Sad Clowns & Hillbillies''that's where it came from."
In addition to his work on ''Sad Clowns & Hillbillies'', Mellencamp wrote the title song to the 2017 American war movie ''
The Yellow Birds
''The Yellow Birds'' is the debut novel from American writer, poet, and Iraq War veteran Kevin Powers. It was one of ''The New York Timess 100 Most Notable Books of 2012 and a finalist for the 2012 National Book Award. It was awarded the 2012 The ...
'', which was released on June 15, 2018, by Saban Films.
On February 1, 2018,
Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...
began streaming a concert that took place on October 25, 2016, at the
Chicago Theatre
The Chicago Theatre, originally known as the Balaban and Katz Chicago Theatre, is a landmark theater located on North State Street in the Loop area of Chicago, Illinois. Built in 1921, the Chicago Theatre was the flagship for the Balaban a ...
as part of Mellencamp's Plain Spoken Tour.
The 80-minute film is more of a documentary than a true concert film, as Mellencamp narrates the entire presentation with stories about his childhood, his early days in music, his relationship with his family, the music business and many more topics.
Mellencamp released a compilation album of cover songs titled ''
Other People's Stuff'' on December 7, 2018. He began a 39-date theater tour in February 2019, dubbed "The John Mellencamp Show", that concluded April 30, 2019, in
Albuquerque
Albuquerque ( ; ), ; kee, Arawageeki; tow, Vakêêke; zun, Alo:ke:k'ya; apj, Gołgéeki'yé. abbreviated ABQ, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Its nicknames, The Duke City and Burque, both reference its founding in ...
,
New Mexico
)
, population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano)
, seat = Santa Fe
, LargestCity = Albuquerque
, LargestMetro = Tiguex
, OfficialLang = None
, Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ke ...
.
2019–present: ''Small Town'' musical, ''Strictly a One-Eyed Jack'' and ''Orpheus Descending''
In two separate 2018 television interviews, Mellencamp teased a musical he is working on based on his 1982 No. 1 hit "Jack & Diane". On June 12, 2019, Republic Records, Federal Films and Universal Music Theatricals announced that the musical is officially in development. Mellencamp (music/lyrics) will team with
Naomi Wallace
Naomi Wallace (born 1960) is an American playwright, screenwriter and poet from Kentucky. She is widely known for her plays, and has received several distinguished awards for her work.
Biography
Naomi Wallace was born in Prospect, Kentucky, to ...
(book) to form the creative team behind the still-untitled musical, with
Kathleen Marshall
Kathleen Marshall (born September 28, 1962) is an American director, choreographer, and creative consultant.
Life and career
Born in Madison, Wisconsin, she graduated from Taylor Allderdice High School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1980 and ...
, winner of three Tonys out of nine nominations, signed on to direct and choreograph.
Mellencamp confirmed in 2021 that it will be a jukebox musical titled ''Small Town'' and the story will involve two kids named Jack and Diane. Mellencamp said that he wrote no new material for the project. "I told them, I have 600 songs published. Surely you can find 12-to-15 songs that will work."
Mellencamp told iHeart Radio in January 2022 that ''Small Town'' was scheduled debut in
Louisville
Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border.
...
in September 2022, but that didn't happen. The future of the musical is unknown at this time.
On February 27, 2020, Mellencamp's official social media accounts confirmed that he was currently recording an album at his Belmont Mall recording studio. In a September 2020 interview, Mellencamp guitarist Andy York said that 10 songs have already been recorded and mixed for the album, but a planned final session in April 2020 to complete the project was scuttled because of the
COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...
pandemic. During the pandemic, Mellencamp wrote at least 15 songs. The album was scheduled for release in 2020, but the pandemic pushed its release time frame back indefinitely.
[Archived a]
Ghostarchive
and th
Wayback Machine
"I'm halfway done with the
ewrecord then the virus hit and I haven't been in the studio since the virus started," Mellencamp told
Spin magazine
''Spin'' (stylized in all caps) is an American music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione, Jr. Now owned by Next Management Partners, the magazine is an online publication since it stopped issuing a print edition in 2012.
Histor ...
in a feature that was published on Thanksgiving Day 2020. "I had planned to have the record out now but I haven't finished. I have 17 more songs to record. I've recorded 10 and I have 17 more to do and I'll pick 10 of the 27 songs".
In an extensive update on his website, Mellencamp said one of the songs he wrote record is called "I Always Lie to Strangers", and he shared a one-minute snippet of it on February 3, 2021. He also revealed that the album had the working title of ''
Strictly a One-Eyed Jack
''Strictly a One-Eyed Jack'' is the 24th studio album by American singer-songwriter John Mellencamp. The album was released on January 21, 2022, by Republic Records. The album's cover, a portrait of Mellencamp, was painted by Mellencamp's son ...
''. He resumed recording on the project in March 2021, with plans to cut at least some of the 17 songs he wrote while in quarantine in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In May 2021, Mellencamp revealed that he recently finished the album and that Bruce Springsteen would make a guest appearance on the project. "Bruce is singing on the new record and is playing guitar," Mellencamp said.
Springsteen himself provided additional details on his collaboration with Mellencamp on his
Sirius XM radio station on June 10, 2021, saying: "I worked on three songs on John’s album and I spent some time in Indiana with him. I love John a lot. He's a great songwriter and I have become very close
ith him
The Ith () is a ridge in Germany's Central Uplands which is up to 439 m high. It lies about 40 km southwest of Hanover and, at 22 kilometres, is the longest line of crags in North Germany.
Geography
Location
The Ith is immediatel ...
and had a lot of fun with him. I sang a little bit on his record."
Mellencamp released a CD and documentary of his 2000 Good Samaritan Tour, which consisted of free lunchtime concerts in city parks, on August 27, 2021. The documentary is narrated by
Academy Award
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
winning actor
Matthew McConaughey
Matthew David McConaughey ( ; born November 4, 1969) is an American actor. He had his breakout role with a supporting performance in the coming-of-age comedy '' Dazed and Confused'' (1993). After a number of supporting roles, his first succes ...
, who is an avowed Mellencamp fan.
On September 29, 2021, Mellencamp released the audio and music video for "Wasted Days", a duet with Springsteen, as the lead single from ''
Strictly a One-Eyed Jack
''Strictly a One-Eyed Jack'' is the 24th studio album by American singer-songwriter John Mellencamp. The album was released on January 21, 2022, by Republic Records. The album's cover, a portrait of Mellencamp, was painted by Mellencamp's son ...
''.
Written and produced solely by Mellencamp, "Wasted Days" is a song about aging and making the most of the time one has left. The album’s second single, "Chasing Rainbows", was released on December 10, 2021. ''
Strictly a One-Eyed Jack
''Strictly a One-Eyed Jack'' is the 24th studio album by American singer-songwriter John Mellencamp. The album was released on January 21, 2022, by Republic Records. The album's cover, a portrait of Mellencamp, was painted by Mellencamp's son ...
'' was released on January 21, 2022.
Mellencamp stated in 2021 that he had booked 80 shows for 2022, but the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic ultimately caused him to cancel his 2022 Strictly a One-Eyed Jack tour and push it until 2023. “I’m gonna err on the side of caution,” Mellencamp told
Billboard Magazine
''Billboard'' (stylized as ''billboard'') is an American music and entertainment magazine published weekly by Penske Media Corporation. The magazine provides music charts, news, video, opinion, reviews, events, and style related to the musi ...
. “I do not want some guy walking up to me going, ‘Hey John, I saw you in Detroit’ or something, ‘it was a great show except my wife got COVID and died.’ Just the thought of hearing that…The business side of my career is like, ‘This many people will see it! You can make this much money!’ Blah, blah, blah. But once this latest round of COVID hit I said, ‘Guys, what’s the difference — this year, next year? There’s no difference.’ So next year, hopefully, we’ll be on top of (the pandemic) and it’ll feel alright to go out.”
Mellencamp has also stated that he's already working on the follow-up to ''Strictly a One-Eyed Jack''.
“I’m already writing songs for another record, so that’s how far ahead I am,” Mellencamp said. “I’m talking to you about a record (''Strictly a One-Eyed Jack'') that’s been done for about a year and a half, so I’m already on to my new songs — not as a job, just as they come. I can tell you there’s a couple good songs already that I thought, ‘Wow, did I write that fuckin’ song?!’ So that’s encouraging.”
Some of the songs that may be on Mellencamp's next album are leftovers from ''Strictly a One-Eyed Jack''. “The album is really about one guy, just one guy’s voice speaking about his life,” Mellencamp explains, speaking of ''Strictly a One-Eyed Jack''. “When I put it together it felt like
John Huston sent me all these songs. And I wrote quite a few songs for this record, and some of the songs didn’t have his voice, didn’t have the feeling that this record has. So they were eliminated, and it didn’t take me long to make that decision. I’d walk in and the guys in the band would look at me and go, ‘Not the same guy talking,’ so we’d just move on to another song. But some of those songs we didn’t record were pretty good, too.”
In the summer of 2022, Mellencamp confirmed through his social media channels that he is, indeed, working on the follow-up to ''Strictly a One-Eyed Jack''. On August 24, 2022, he shared the lyrics to a brand new song called “The Eyes of Portland” – a diatribe against homelessness that will be on the new record.
During a performance in his hometown of Seymour, Indiana on September 17, 2022 to benefit the Southern Indiana Center for the Arts, Mellencamp revealed the title of the new record to be ''Orpheus Descending''. "The name of the new record is ''Orpheus Descending,''" Mellencamp said to the audience. "Do you guys know who
Orpheus
Orpheus (; Ancient Greek: Ὀρφεύς, classical pronunciation: ; french: Orphée) is a Thracian bard, legendary musician and prophet in ancient Greek religion. He was also a renowned poet and, according to the legend, travelled with J ...
was? He was a Greek god that came down, and he was the best singer, the best songwriter, and men wanted to be like him and girls wanted to be with him. What happened was the girl he fell in love with got sent to Haiti, he went down and met with the devil and bad things happened......You can read about Orpheus in Greek mythology."
''Orpheus Descending'' will be released in February 2023.
Mellencamp will launch a 76-date tour in 2023 called "Live and in Person" that will begin February 5 in
Bloomington, Indiana
Bloomington is a city in and the county seat of Monroe County in the central region of the U.S. state of Indiana. It is the seventh-largest city in Indiana and the fourth-largest outside the Indianapolis metropolitan area. According to the Mo ...
and end on June 24 in
South Bend, Indiana
South Bend is a city in and the county seat of St. Joseph County, Indiana, on the St. Joseph River near its southernmost bend, from which it derives its name. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total of 103,453 residents and is the fourt ...
. The tour will mark the return of violinist
Lisa Germano
Lisa Ruth Germano (born June 27, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Indiana. Her album '' Geek the Girl'' (1994) was chosen as a top album of the 1990s by ''Spin'' magazine. She began her career as a violinist ...
to Mellencamp's band. Germano played with Mellencamp from 1985-1993 before leaving in 1994 to pursue a solo career.
Collaboration with George Green
Mellencamp co-wrote several of his best-known songs with his childhood friend
George Green who, like Mellencamp, was born and raised in Seymour, Indiana. Green contributed lyrics to numerous Mellencamp radio hits and classic album tracks, including "Human Wheels", "Minutes to Memories", "Hurts So Good", "Crumblin' Down", "Rain on the Scarecrow", "Your Life is Now", and "Key West Intermezzo", in addition to songs recorded by Barbra Streisand, Hall & Oates, Jude Cole, Ricky Skaggs, Sue Medley, The Oak Ridge Boys, Percy Sledge, and Carla Olson.
Mellencamp and Green's final collaboration was "Yours Forever", a song that was included on the soundtrack to the 2000 movie, ''
The Perfect Storm''. Mellencamp and Green had a falling out in the early 2000s, and Green ultimately moved from
Bloomington, Indiana
Bloomington is a city in and the county seat of Monroe County in the central region of the U.S. state of Indiana. It is the seventh-largest city in Indiana and the fourth-largest outside the Indianapolis metropolitan area. According to the Mo ...
to
Taos, New Mexico
Taos is a town in Taos County in the north-central region of New Mexico in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Initially founded in 1615, it was intermittently occupied until its formal establishment in 1795 by Nuevo México Governor Fernando Ch ...
in 2001. "Like when you're married, when you're friends with somebody for a long time, the more things build up the more things can go wrong," Mellencamp said in the liner notes to his 2010 box set, ''
On the Rural Route 7609
''On the Rural Route 7609'' is a box set by rock singer/songwriter John Mellencamp that was released on June 15, 2010. The first part of the title refers to the song "Rural Route" (which is included in two versions) from his 2007 album '' Freed ...
''. "There were personal problems, cross-pollinated with professional issues. George has written some great lyrics and we've written some great songs together, but I just couldn't do it any more."
On August 28, 2011, Green died in
Albuquerque, New Mexico at the age of 59 after losing a battle with a rapid-forming small cell lung cancer. "I've known George since we were in the same Sunday school class. We had a lot of fun together when we were kids. Later on, we wrote some really good songs together," Mellencamp told the ''Bloomington Herald Times'' shortly after Green's death. "George was a dreamer, and I was sorry to hear of his passing."
[Songwriter, Mellencamp collaborator George Green dies at 59](_blank)
Bloomington Herald Times
''The Herald-Times'' is a daily newspaper serving Bloomington, Indiana and surrounding areas. The newspaper won the Blue Ribbon Daily award in 1975, 1984 2007, and 2014, naming it the best daily newspaper in the state of Indiana in those years. ...
.
Reception
''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...
'' contributor
Anthony DeCurtis
Anthony DeCurtis (born June 25, 1951) is an American author and music critic, who has written for ''Rolling Stone,'' the ''New York Times'', '' Relix'' and many other publications.
Career
DeCurtis is a contributing editor at ''Rolling Stone'', ...
said:
In 2001, ''
Billboard'' magazine editor-in-chief
Timothy White said:
Former
Creedence Clearwater Revival frontman
John Fogerty said of Mellencamp:
Johnny Cash called Mellencamp "one of the 10 best songwriters" in music.
Musical style and influence
![Mellencamp (cropped)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/69/Mellencamp_%28cropped%29.jpg)
Mellencamp's musical style has been described as
rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
,
heartland rock
Heartland rock is a genre of rock music characterized by a straightforward, often roots musical style, often with a focus on blue-collar workers, and a conviction that rock music has a social or communal purpose beyond just entertainment.
The ge ...
,
roots rock
Roots rock is a genre of rock music that looks back to rock's origins in folk, blues and country music. It is particularly associated with the creation of hybrid subgenres from the later 1960s, including blues rock, country rock, Southern rock, ...
,
and
folk rock
Folk rock is a hybrid music genre that combines the elements of folk and rock music, which arose in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom in the mid-1960s. In the U.S., folk rock emerged from the folk music revival. Performers s ...
.
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...
describes Mellencamp's sound as a "heartland blend of Stonesy
hard rock and
folk
Folk or Folks may refer to:
Sociology
*Nation
*People
* Folklore
** Folk art
** Folk dance
** Folk hero
** Folk music
*** Folk metal
*** Folk punk
*** Folk rock
** Folk religion
* Folk taxonomy
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Folk Plus or Fo ...
."
Country music star
Keith Urban
Keith Lionel Urban (born 26 October 1967) is an Australian-American musician, singer, guitarist and songwriter known for his work in country music. Recognized with four Grammy Awards, Urban also received fifteen Academy of Country Music Award ...
has consistently cited Mellencamp's influence on his music. It originated when Mellencamp's Lonesome Jubilee tour went to Australia in 1988 - Urban was in attendance at one of the concerts and described the experience as an "epiphany."
Urban told the ''
Vancouver Sun
The ''Vancouver Sun'', also known as the ''Sun'', is a daily broadsheet newspaper based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The newspaper is currently published by the Pacific Newspaper Group, a division of Postmedia Network. Published s ...
'' in 2016: "For me, ''
The Lonesome Jubilee'' was the defining record and tour. I've since gotten to know John a little bit and it was one of the greatest opportunities I've ever had to meet a hero and tell him about a concert you went to when you were a nobody and how much of an effect that concert had on me... I was hit by lightning by that concert. I said to John, 'I didn't walk away thinking: I want to do that. I walked away feeling: I get it — just put all the things you love into what you do.' It was singularly the most important concert I've ever been to in my life because it showed me the way.”
Urban has covered numerous Mellencamp songs in his concerts over the years, including "Hurts So Good", "Jack and Diane", "Authority Song", and "Rumble Seat". In 2015, Urban and Mellencamp performed "Pink Houses" together twice during nationally televised events. Urban's 2015 hit single "
John Cougar, John Deere, John 3:16" further illustrated Mellencamp's influence on his music.
Honors and awards
Mellencamp has won one
Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pr ...
(Best Male Rock Performer for "Hurts So Good" in 1983) and been nominated for 12 others. He has also been bestowed with the Nordoff-Robbins Silver Clef Special Music Industry Humanitarian Award (1991), the Billboard Century Award (2001), the Woody Guthrie Award (2003), and the ASCAP Foundation Champion Award (2007). On October 6, 2008, Mellencamp won the prestigious Classic Songwriter Award at the 2008
Q Awards
The Q Awards were the UK's annual music awards run by the music magazine '' Q''. Since they began in 1990, the Q Awards became one of Britain's biggest and best publicised music awards. Locations for the awards ceremony included Abbey Road Studios ...
in London, England. Mellencamp was inducted into the
Songwriters Hall of Fame
The Songwriters Hall of Fame (SHOF) is an American institution founded in 1969 by songwriter Johnny Mercer, music publisher/songwriter Abe Olman, and publisher/executive Howie Richmond to honor those whose work, represent, and maintain, the her ...
on June 14, 2018.
On August 30, 2018, Mellencamp was bestowed with the Woody Guthrie Prize in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
On September 9, 2010, Mellencamp received the
Americana
Americana may refer to:
*Americana (music), a genre or style of American music
*Americana (culture), artifacts of the culture of the United States
Film, radio and television
* ''Americana'' (1992 TV series), a documentary series presented by J ...
Lifetime Achievement Award in
Nashville. On July 30, 2012, in San Jose, CA, Mellencamp was honored with the John Steinbeck Award, given to those individuals who exemplify the spirit of "Steinbeck's empathy, commitment to democratic values, and belief in the dignity of the common man."
On April 27, 2016, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (
ASCAP) presented Mellencamp with its prestigious Founders Award at the 33rd annual ASCAP Pop Music Awards in Los Angeles. The ASCAP Founders Award goes to pioneering ASCAP songwriters who have made exceptional contributions to music by inspiring and influencing their fellow music creators. "For the last four decades, John Mellencamp has captured the American experience in his songs", said ASCAP President Paul Williams. "His infectious melodies and compassionate lyrics, wrapped in workingman's rock, crystallize life's joys and struggles and illuminate the human condition. A national treasure, he's also one of the truly great music creators that can make us care, move, clap and sing along."
In June 2019,
WhyHunger bestowed Mellencamp with the ASCAP Harry Chapin Humanitarian Award, which shines a spotlight on artists who have proven their commitment to striving for social justice and creating real change in combating hunger worldwide.
Mellencamp was inducted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's Class of 2008. The induction ceremony took place in New York City on March 10, 2008, and he was inducted by his good friend
Billy Joel, who asked Mellencamp to induct him into the Rock Hall back in 1999 (he had to opt out because of another commitment, so
Ray Charles
Ray Charles Robinson Sr. (September 23, 1930 – June 10, 2004) was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. He is regarded as one of the most iconic and influential singers in history, and was often referred to by contemporaries as "The Ge ...
inducted Joel). During his induction speech for Mellencamp, Joel said:
Visual art
Noted art writer Hilarie M. Sheets, a contributing editor to ''ARTnews'' who writes regularly for ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'', called Mellencamp "a natural storyteller" in a 2012 essay she wrote about his artwork. Known over the course of his successful four-decade music career for his acutely observed songs about the American landscape and its cast of characters, Mellencamp has been equally productive as a painter mining similar terrain. Mellencamp's interest in painting began in early life but was superseded in the 1980s by his skyrocketing musical career. Throughout his life, however, Mellencamp has continued to seriously explore painting.
Mellencamp's late mother, Marilyn, loved to paint landscapes and flowers, and her son fell in love with both art and music at an early age. "I started messing around with oil paints when I was about ten but, you know, without instruction," he remembers.
Mellencamp came to New York in the mid-1970s with the intention of studying painting if his music career aspirations didn't pan out. In 1988, he joined the Art Students League and had his first formal training with portrait painter David Leffel, who taught him the technique of painting dark to light in the manner of Rembrandt and other old masters. His discovery of early 20th-century modernists including Chaim Soutine, Walt Kuhn, and particularly the German Expressionists Otto Dix and Max Beckmann pointed the way toward a visceral, pared-down approach to portraiture. He later studied with Jan Royce from the ''Herron School of Art and Design'' in Indianapolis.
His portraiture evolved to a personal style that some critics describe as similar to the dark and shadowy paintings of the German Expressionists. They involve expressiveness by means of exaggeration and distortion of line and color, in favor of a simplified style intended to carry an emotional impact. According to Mellencamp, "German painting remains the basic foundation for what I do same as folk music is the foundation of my songs. Discovering Beckmann to me was like discovering Woody Guthrie or Bob Dylan."
Mellencamp's paintings from the 1990s—of family and friends and many of himself—show lone figures isolated frontally against simple, shadowy backgrounds. They stare at the viewer or off into space with eyes both tough and vulnerable, projecting intensity akin to Beckmann's self-portraits with his sad, glowering eyes.
Art writer Doug McClemont, in a review for ''Art Space'', stated: "Mellencamp paints handsomely grotesque portraits in oil that are as solemn and stirring as his hit songs are catchy and inspirational. They depict existential scenes and human beings ridden with the angst of the everyday. There are no smiles on the faces of Mellencamp's painted figures. His sad clowns, ex-girlfriends, creative heroes, imagined outliers, and hillbilly singers are often endowed with oversize hands and facial features and always with deadpan, proud stares."
"I see sadness in the world," Mellencamp says.
Mellencamp's artwork has been the focus of a number of exhibitions. He had his first major museum exhibition, ''Nothing Like I Planned'', at Tennessee State Museum in Nashville, Tennessee, from April 12 through June 10, 2012. "He is a great American musician from an agricultural heartland, which is close to our own agrarian roots," said Lois Riggins-Ezzell, the Tennessee State Museum's executive director. "In his painting, he speaks to the voice of the heartland which is about doing the right thing and about equality and humanity and about the dignity of the farmer and the laborer."
An exhibition called ''The Paintings of John Mellencamp'' came to the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio from November 3, 2013, to January 12, 2014, and was Mellencamp's first major exhibition in an art museum. According to Dr. Louis A. Zona, director and curator of the Butler Institute: "I was interested in the dialogue between Mellencamp's work and the Butler's more traditional collection of 19th- and 20th- century American art by masters including John Singer Sargent, Winslow Homer, and Raphael Soyer. John's work is beautifully executed with incredibly fascinating studies."
A full-color 48-page catalogue with the aforementioned essay by Sheets accompanied the exhibition. Writes Sheets, "While Mellencamp has never been interested in whether he captures a faithful likeness of his subjects; he is after a kind of emotional realism and does follow certain "rules" of painting. For Mellencamp, painting has always been a refuge, a solitary antidote to the hectic life of touring and performing. He doesn't see it as a precious or rarified activity but rather about staying productive, keeping his mind engaged, making something out of nothing."
"Every day that I walk up in my art studio and I complete a painting, I have something to show for my time", says Mellencamp, who sees himself painting through old age. "I have millions of them in me."
Mellencamp has also honed his skills by his own self-education in art history, visiting museums across Europe and America whenever he was on tour and studying a broad spectrum of artists and the mechanics of their work and by looking at signs and billboards out the windows of cars and buses while crisscrossing the country. According to Sheets, "In recent years, Mellencamp has incorporated the looser, more jangly rhythms of street art into panoramic canvases that reflect his social and political activism also present in his music."
"The songwriting and the painting are very closely knitted together," says Mellencamp, who often will pick up his guitar or start a canvas without premeditation and see what suggests itself to him. "Everything is a possible song. Everything is a possible painting."
Nationally known art writer Lilly Wei, who interviewed Mellencamp for ''Studio International'', also wrote a brief essay, in which she points out, "Mellencamp is a writer and often uses words in his paintings, from the graffiti scribbled across earlier work inspired by what he saw in the streets and
Jean-Michel Basquiat to his present versions of text painting, a genre that is increasingly commonplace in works by artists such as Lawrence Weiner, Richard Prince, Glenn Ligon and Christopher Wool. Mellencamp, who works in a very different, very personal idiom, makes plainspoken paintings, he says, because he's a plainspoken man. If these works are any indication, plain painting can be extraordinarily eloquent."
An exhibit of Mellencamp's paintings, titled "American Dreams: Paintings by John Mellencamp", was on view at the Morris Museum of Art in Augusta, Georgia from January 11 to April 12, 2015. It included 50 oil and mixed-media paintings, including several never before seen by the public. In the fall of 2015, a showing of Mellencamp's artwork, titled "John Mellencamp: The Isolation of Mister", ran at the ACA Galleries in New York City. Mellencamp's latest painting exhibition, titled ''Life, Death, Love, and Freedom'' (named in honor of his critically acclaimed 2008 album's 10th anniversary), was on display at the ACA Galleries from April 26 through June 2, 2018.
In addition to the exhibitions listed above, Mellencamp was part of a group show at the Gerald Peters Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. His work has also been exhibited at Herron School of Art and Design, a division of Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. In 1989, he was part of a two-man show with jazz legend Miles Davis at The Triangle Gallery in Los Angeles. Harper Collins published ''Paintings and Reflections'', an overview of Mellencamp's earlier work as a painter, in 1998.
Other work
Acting
Mellencamp has made several forays into acting over the years, appearing in four films: ''
Falling from Grace'' (which he also directed) (1992), ''
Madison'' (2005, narration only), ''After Image'' (2001), and ''
Lone Star State of Mind'' (2002). His older brother, Joe Mellencamp, appears in ''Falling from Grace'' as the bandleader during the country club scene along with his band Pure Jam.
In 1980, Mellencamp turned down the lead role in the movie ''
The Idolmaker'' because, as he told the ''
Toledo Blade
''The Blade'', also known as the ''Toledo Blade'', is a newspaper in Toledo, Ohio published daily online and printed Thursday and Sunday by Block Communications. The newspaper was first published on December 19, 1835.
Overview
The first issue ...
'' in 1983, "I was afraid that if I made too much money, I'd have no motivation to make records anymore."
Mellencamp told VH1 that he was originally offered the
Brad Pitt role in ''
Thelma and Louise
Thelma is a female given name. It was popularized by Victorian writer Marie Corelli who gave the name to the title character of her 1887 novel ''Thelma''. It may be related to a Greek word meaning "will, volition" see ''thelema''). Note that altho ...
'': "You know they used to want me to be an actor all the time and I used to get more movie role offers. That's when I was – believe it or not, I used to not be as ugly as I am now. And they gave me this script called ''Thelma & Louise'' and they said, 'The guy wrote the part with you in mind, John, you really gotta do this part.' And I read the script and I thought, 'Yeah, I get it but I don't want to take my shirt off.' So Brad Pitt took his shirt off and look what happened to Brad Pitt. I was that close."
[ Mellencamp could've been a movie star]
. VH1.
Film music composition
Mellencamp wrote the score for the
Meg Ryan
Meg Ryan (born Margaret Mary Emily Anne Hyra; November 19, 1961) is an American actress. She began her acting career in 1981 when she made her acting debut in the drama film ''Rich and Famous''. She later joined the cast of the CBS soap oper ...
movie ''
Ithaca
Ithaca most commonly refers to:
*Homer's Ithaca, an island featured in Homer's ''Odyssey''
*Ithaca (island), an island in Greece, possibly Homer's Ithaca
*Ithaca, New York, a city, and home of Cornell University and Ithaca College
Ithaca, Ithaka ...
'', which premiered on October 23, 2015, at the Middleburg Film Festival in Virginia and was released in theaters and on-demand by
Momentum Pictures
Momentum Pictures is a film distributor and a subsidiary of Entertainment One, itself part of Hasbro. Prior to 2013, it was a brand of Canadian distributor Alliance Films used for its releases in the United Kingdom, and was one of the leading in ...
on September 9, 2016. "Not one note [in ''
Ithaca
Ithaca most commonly refers to:
*Homer's Ithaca, an island featured in Homer's ''Odyssey''
*Ithaca (island), an island in Greece, possibly Homer's Ithaca
*Ithaca, New York, a city, and home of Cornell University and Ithaca College
Ithaca, Ithaka ...
''] is anything other than Mellencamp. He did everything," said Ryan, Mellencamp's on-again, off-again girlfriend.
In a May 6, 2016, Q&A after a screening of the movie at
Geena Davis
Virginia Elizabeth "Geena" Davis (born January 21, 1956) is an American actor ' Bentonville Film Festival, Ryan said: "The music is so beautiful. John Mellencamp wrote every note – everything – the tiny little needle drops you hear in the back. He wrote about half of it after I read him the script, and then the next half after he saw the movie. He's just incredible."
In addition to the score, Mellencamp wrote two original songs for ''
Ithaca
Ithaca most commonly refers to:
*Homer's Ithaca, an island featured in Homer's ''Odyssey''
*Ithaca (island), an island in Greece, possibly Homer's Ithaca
*Ithaca, New York, a city, and home of Cornell University and Ithaca College
Ithaca, Ithaka ...
'': "Sugar Hill Mountain" (sung by
Carlene Carter
Carlene Carter (born Rebecca Carlene Smith; September 26, 1955) is an American country music singer and songwriter. She is the daughter of June Carter Cash and her first husband, Carl Smith.
As of 2020, since 1978, Carter has recorded 12 alb ...
) and "Seeing You Around" (sung by
Leon Redbone
Leon Redbone (born Dickran Gobalian; August 26, 1949 – May 30, 2019) was a singer-songwriter and musician specializing in jazz, blues, and Tin Pan Alley classics. Recognized by his hat (often a Panama hat), dark sunglasses, and black tie, Re ...
). "Sugar Hill Mountain" is a fiddle-driven folk song that describes an idyllic location where there's "bubble gum and cigarette trees", no clocks, every day is spring, and anything you need is "gratis." (The song would later be included, in a re-recorded version, on Mellencamp's 2017 album ''
Sad Clowns & Hillbillies''.) Meanwhile, the piano-heavy "Seeing You Around" has the sound of a 1940s standard (the movie takes place during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
) and is made all the more authentically '40s-sounding by Redbone's gruff, baritone vocals. Mellencamp's band provided the backing on both tracks and performed all the music that is in the movie.
Said Carter in 2015: "The way John Mellencamp and I met was he invited me to come and sing this song he had written for the movie that Meg Ryan has coming out called ''
Ithaca
Ithaca most commonly refers to:
*Homer's Ithaca, an island featured in Homer's ''Odyssey''
*Ithaca (island), an island in Greece, possibly Homer's Ithaca
*Ithaca, New York, a city, and home of Cornell University and Ithaca College
Ithaca, Ithaka ...
''. That was when we became friends, when I went to Indiana and recorded with him and the guys this really cool song called 'Sugar Hill Mountain' that's in the movie. And the movie is wonderful. We got to see a rough cut of it and I was very impressed."
The film news website Deadline Hollywood, reported that the filmmakers of "The Legend of Jack and Diane," were inspired by Mellencamp's song "Jack & Diane," began production in Los Angeles in January 2022, and are in talks with Mellencamp’s team about music for the film.
Musical theater
Mellencamp began working on a musical with
horror author
Stephen King, entitled ''
Ghost Brothers of Darkland County
''Ghost Brothers of Darkland County'' is a musical by John Mellencamp, Stephen King, and T Bone Burnett. It debuted at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia, in 2012. A touring production began in late 2013 through the South and Midwest. A ...
'', in 2000. The musical debuted in the spring of 2012 at Alliance Theatre in
Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
, Georgia, where it ran from April 4 through May 13. A CD/DVD deluxe edition, featuring the dialog, soundtrack, handwritten lyrics and a mini-documentary about the making of the musical, was released on June 4, 2013. Production on the musical's recorded soundtrack began on June 15, 2009, when
T Bone Burnett
Joseph Henry "T Bone" Burnett III (born January 14, 1948) is an American record producer, guitarist and songwriter. He rose to fame as a guitarist in Bob Dylan's band during the 1970s. He has received multiple Grammy awards for his work in fil ...
, who served as the project's musical producer, began laying down tracks in Los Angeles for the songs Mellencamp wrote for the project. The soundtrack includes
Rosanne Cash
Rosanne Cash (born May 24, 1955) is an American singer-songwriter and author. She is the eldest daughter of country musician Johnny Cash and Vivian Liberto Cash Distin, Johnny Cash's first wife. Although she is often classified as a country art ...
,
Sheryl Crow,
Elvis Costello,
Taj Mahal
The Taj Mahal (; ) is an Islamic ivory-white marble mausoleum on the right bank of the river Yamuna in the Indian city of Agra. It was commissioned in 1631 by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan () to house the tomb of his favourite wife, Mu ...
,
Ryan Bingham,
Will Dailey and
Neko Case
Neko Richelle Case (; born September 8, 1970) is an American singer-songwriter and member of the Canadian indie rock group the New Pornographers. Case has a powerful, untrained contralto voice, which has been described by contemporaries and cr ...
among others singing the songs Mellencamp wrote.
In November 2010, Mellencamp told the ''
Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...
'':
Ryan D'Agostino of ''
Esquire'' stated in a review of a New York rehearsal of ''Ghost Brothers of Darkland County'' in the fall of 2007, "Musicals aren't usually a guy thing. This one, though, is not only tolerable, it's good. It may be the first-ever musical written by men for men. There's no orchestra, just two twangy acoustic guitars, an accordion, and a fiddle. The songs are both haunting and all-American."
The Alliance Theatre described the show as a "Southern Gothic musical fraught with mystery, tragedy and ghosts of the past."
The official description of ''Ghost Brothers of Darkland County'' from the Alliance Theatre website:
''Ghost Brothers of Darkland County'' received mixed reviews upon its initial run in Atlanta. The musical toured 20 U.S. cities as a "radio play" in the fall of 2013 and toured 18 more cities across the U.S. in the fall of 2014. In 2015, the show was further developed in London, although King and Mellencamp are no longer as actively involved: "Steve and I are taking a step back ... but if they called and said they needed a song, I would write one," Mellencamp told ''USA Today''.
In October 2018, it was announced that Broadway Licensing have redeveloped ''Ghost Brothers of Darkland County'' and made it available for worldwide licensing beginning in 2019.
Politics and activism
In 2003, Mellencamp became one of the first entertainers to speak out against the
Iraq War
{{Infobox military conflict
, conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق ( Kurdish)
, partof = the Iraq conflict and the War on terror
, image ...
when he released the song "To Washington", which was also critical of the
2000 U.S. Presidential elections. "When the song first came out I was in the car one day and we were driving to the airport and I had my kids with me and a radio station was playing 'To Washington' and having callers call in", Mellencamp said. "Some guy comes on and says, 'I don't know who I hate the most, John Mellencamp or
Osama bin Laden.'"
In an "Open Letter to America" on his website, Mellencamp stated:
On his 2007 album, ''
Freedom's Road'', Mellencamp included a hidden track called "Rodeo Clown", which was a direct reference to
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
("The bloody red eyes of the rodeo clown").
In April 2007, Mellencamp performed for wounded troops at the
Walter Reed Medical Center. His original intent was to duet on the ''
Freedom's Road'' track “Jim Crow" with singer and activist
Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez (; born January 9, 1941) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and activist. Her contemporary folk music often includes songs of protest and social justice. Baez has performed publicly for over 60 years, releasing more ...
. Army officials barred Baez from performing, however. Mellencamp told ''Rolling Stone'' magazine:
According to a February 8, 2008,
Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. ne ...
report, Mellencamp's camp asked that the campaign for presidential candidate Sen.
John McCain stop using his songs, including "Our Country" and "
Pink Houses
"Pink Houses" is a song written and performed by John Cougar Mellencamp. It was released on 23 October 1983 album '' Uh-Huh'' on Riva Records. It reached No. 8 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in early 1984 and No. 15 in Canada. "Pink Houses" wa ...
", during their campaign events. McCain's campaign responded by pulling the songs from their playlist. Mellencamp's publicist, Bob Merlis, noted to the Associated Press: Merlis also noted that the same songs had been used, with Mellencamp's approval, by
John Edwards's campaign; in response, the McCain campaign ceased using the songs.
Mellencamp performed "Small Town" at a
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...
rally in
Evansville, Indiana
Evansville is a city in, and the county seat of, Vanderburgh County, Indiana, United States. The population was 118,414 at the 2020 census, making it the state's third-most populous city after Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, the largest city in ...
on April 22, the night of the
2008 Pennsylvania primary. Mellencamp also performed "Our Country" at a rally for
Hillary Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...
in
Indianapolis, Indiana, on May 3, 2008, although he never came out in support of either Obama or Clinton during the primaries. "Neither candidate is as liberal as he would prefer, but he's happy to contribute what he can", Merlis said.
On January 18, 2009, Mellencamp performed "Pink Houses" at the
Obama inaugural celebration at the Lincoln Memorial.
In 2010, Mellencamp's music was used by the
National Organization for Marriage
The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) is an American non-profit political organization established to work against the legalization of same-sex marriage in the United States. It was formed in 2007 specifically to pass California Proposi ...
at events opposing
same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being Mexico, constituting ...
. In response, Mellencamp instructed Merlis to pen a letter to NOM stating "that Mr. Mellencamp's views on same sex marriage and equal rights for people of all sexual orientations are at odds with NOM's stated agenda" and requesting that NOM "find music from a source more in harmony with your views than Mr. Mellencamp in the future."
Mellencamp supported
Michael Bloomberg in his
2020 presidential campaign by taping a Bloomberg 2020 campaign ad that featured Mellencamp singing "
Small Town
"Small Town" is a 1985 song written by John Mellencamp and released on his 1985 album ''Scarecrow''. The song reached #6 on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart and #13 Adult Contemporary.
Content
Mellencamp wrote the song about his experiences ...
".
In August 2020, Mellencamp released "A Pawn in the White Man's Game" to his website along with a video to
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
. The song was a re-working of the 1964
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
song "
Only a Pawn in Their Game
"Only a Pawn in Their Game" is a song written by Bob Dylan about the assassination of civil rights activist Medgar Evers in Jackson, Mississippi, on June 12, 1963. Showing support for African-Americans during the American Civil Rights Movement, the ...
" that reflected on the killing of
Civil Rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life o ...
activist
Medger Evers
Medgar Wiley Evers (; July 2, 1925June 12, 1963) was an American civil rights activist and the NAACP's first field secretary in Mississippi, who was murdered by Byron De La Beckwith. Evers, a decorated U.S. Army combat veteran who had served in ...
. Mellencamp's version featured new lyrics that reflected the
racial conflicts in the U.S. in the wake of the
murder of George Floyd
On , George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, was murdered in the U.S. city of Minneapolis by Derek Chauvin, a 44-year-old white police officer. Floyd had been arrested on suspicion of using a counterfeit $20 bill. Chauvin knelt on Floyd's ...
while in custody of
Minneapolis
Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...
police officers. The video, which included a warning that it might be seen as "inappropriate for some viewers", featured footage of protesters and police clashing violently in 2020 and 1968. YouTube eventually removed the video claiming it violated their community guidelines. Along with the song and video Mellencamp released the statement that read "For my entire life I have seen the mistreatment of minorities in our country. We have gone too far with the shameful killing and genocide…from the Native Americans to where we find ourselves today. In my own way I have tried to address these issues in song."
Personal life
Mellencamp lives five miles outside
Bloomington, Indiana
Bloomington is a city in and the county seat of Monroe County in the central region of the U.S. state of Indiana. It is the seventh-largest city in Indiana and the fourth-largest outside the Indianapolis metropolitan area. According to the Mo ...
, on the shores of
Lake Monroe, but he also has a vacation home on
Daufuskie Island, South Carolina. In January 2018, Mellencamp purchased an loft in the Soho district of
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
for $2.3 million that he is using as an art studio.
Mellencamp is a supporter of
Indiana University
Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana.
Campuses
Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI.
*Indiana Universi ...
and the
Indiana Hoosiers
The Indiana Hoosiers are the intercollegiate sports teams and players of Indiana University Bloomington, named after the colloquial term for people from the state of Indiana. The Hoosiers participate in Division I of the National Collegiate Ath ...
, and received an honorary doctorate from the university in 2000. He donated $1.5 million to the school to build an indoor athletics training facility, which was named
John Mellencamp Pavilion
The John Mellencamp Pavilion is the primary indoor athletics training facility of the Indiana Hoosiers football, Indiana Hoosiers's football program. It was dedicated on April 12, 1996, following a donation of $1.5 million from singer-songwriter J ...
.
Mellencamp was married to Priscilla Esterline from 1970 until 1981 and to Victoria Granucci from 1981 until 1989. He married fashion model
Elaine Irwin
Elaine Irwin (born August 26, 1969) is an American model. She was the face of Almay Cosmetics and Ralph Lauren.
Early life and career
Elaine Irwin was born in Gilbertsville, Pennsylvania. She left home when she was 16 to pursue a modeling ca ...
on September 5, 1992. On December 30, 2010, Mellencamp announced that he and Irwin had separated after 18 years of marriage. Their divorce became official on August 12, 2011, with the couple negotiating "an amicable settlement of all issues involving property and maintenance rights, the custody and support of their children, and all other issues", according to the settlement agreement.
Mellencamp has five children from his three marriages: daughter Michelle from his marriage to Esterline; daughters Teddi Jo and Justice from his marriage to Granucci; and sons Hud and Speck from his marriage to Irwin. Daughter
Teddi Mellencamp Arroyave was a cast member on ''
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills
''The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills'' (abbreviated ''RHOBH'') is an American reality television series which has been broadcast on Bravo since October 14, 2010. Developed as the sixth installment in ''The Real Housewives'' franchise, it has ...
'' for three seasons. After his divorce from Irwin, Mellencamp began dating actress
Meg Ryan
Meg Ryan (born Margaret Mary Emily Anne Hyra; November 19, 1961) is an American actress. She began her acting career in 1981 when she made her acting debut in the drama film ''Rich and Famous''. She later joined the cast of the CBS soap oper ...
. It was reported that Mellencamp and Ryan broke up in the middle of 2014 after dating for over three years.
In September 2015, Mellencamp reportedly started dating former supermodel
Christie Brinkley
Christie Lee Brinkley (née Hudson; born February 2, 1954) is an American model, actress, and entrepreneur. Brinkley gained worldwide fame with her appearances in ''Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issues'', ultimately appearing on an unprecedented ...
. In August 2016, the couple's publicist confirmed they had broken up.
In July 2017, it was reported that Mellencamp and Ryan had reunited and were dating again. In November 2018, the couple became engaged. On October 30, 2019, it was reported the actress had ended their engagement.
In April 2020, it was reported that Mellencamp has been dating skincare expert
Jamie Sherrill since the beginning of the year. ''
People Magazine
''People'' is an American weekly magazine that specializes in celebrity news and human-interest stories. It is published by Dotdash Meredith, a subsidiary of IAC. With a readership of 46.6 million adults in 2009, ''People'' had the lar ...
'' confirmed in January 2021 that Mellencamp and Sherrill have broken up.
Since college, Mellencamp (with the exception of a continuing addiction to nicotine) has lived a drug and alcohol-free lifestyle. In 1984, when asked about his views on drugs, he told Bill Holdship of ''
Creem
''Creem'' (often stylized in all caps) is a monthly American music magazine, based in Detroit, whose main print run lasted from 1969 to 1989. It was first published in March 1969 by Barry Kramer and founding editor Tony Reay. Influential crit ...
'' magazine, "If you want to stick needles in your arms, go ahead and fucking do it. You're the one that's going to pay the consequences. I don't think it's a good idea, and I sure don't advocate it, but I'm not going to judge people. Hell, if that was the case, you wouldn't like anyone in the music business because everyone's blowing cocaine."
Mellencamp had a minor heart attack after a show at Jones Beach in New York on August 8, 1994, that eventually forced him to cancel the last few weeks of his Dance Naked tour. "I was up to 80 cigarettes a day," Mellencamp told the ''Boston Herald'' in September 1996 about the habits that led to his heart malfunction two years beforehand. "We'd finish a show and I'd go out and have steak and french fries and eggs at 4 in the morning and then go to sleep with all that in my gut. It was just a terrible lifestyle."
Band
Current members
* Mike Wanchic – guitars, backing vocals (1976–present)
* Andy York – guitars, backing vocals (1994–present)
*
Lisa Germano
Lisa Ruth Germano (born June 27, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Indiana. Her album '' Geek the Girl'' (1994) was chosen as a top album of the 1990s by ''Spin'' magazine. She began her career as a violinist ...
– violin (1985–1993, 2022-present)
* Dane Clark – drums, backing vocals (1996–present)
* John Gunnell – bass (1999–present)
* Troye Kinnett – keyboards, accordion, backing vocals (2006–present)
Former members
*
Larry Crane – guitars, backing vocals (1976–1991)
* Robert "Ferd" Frank – bass, backing vocals (1977–1981)
* Tom Knowles – drums, backing vocals (1977–1979)
*
Eric Rosser – piano, keyboards (1979–1981)
*
Kenny Aronoff
Kenny Aronoff (born March 7, 1953) is an American session drummer.
Early life
Aronoff grew up in Stockbridge, Massachusetts He developed an interest in music at an early age and gravitated to the drums as "drumming was one hundred percent ener ...
– drums (1980–1996)
* Kenneth Lax backing vocals (1979-1982)
* Pat Peterson – backing vocals (1981–2006)
*
Toby Myers – bass, backing vocals (1982–1999)
* Miriam Sturm – violin (1996–2020)
*
Crystal Taliefero
Crystal Taliefero-Pratt (née Taliefero) is an American multi-instrumentalist and vocalist. Taliefero grew up with a musical family, performing rhythm and blues with her brother in the Chicago metropolitan area. During her college years she was ...
– backing vocals (1985–1989)
* John Cascella – keyboards, accordion (1984–1992)
*
David Grissom
David Grissom is an American guitarist who has played and toured with several of America's leading bands and recording artists. He is best known for his work with John Mellencamp. He has released four solo albums: ''Loud Music'', ''10,000 Feet ...
– guitars (1989, 1991–1993)
* Michael Ramos – keyboards, accordion (2002–2005)
* Courtney Kaiser-Sandler - backing vocals, percussion (2000-2005)
* Moe Z M.D. – keyboards, organ, backing vocals (1996–2002)
Discography
Studio albums
* ''
Chestnut Street Incident'' (1976)
* ''
The Kid Inside'' (1977) (released 1983)
* ''
A Biography'' (1978)
* ''
John Cougar'' (1979)
* ''
Nothin' Matters and What If It Did'' (1980)
* ''
American Fool
''American Fool'' is the fifth studio album by John Mellencamp, released under the stage name John Cougar in 1982. The album was his commercial breakthrough, holding the No. 1 position on the '' Billboard'' album chart for nine weeks.
A remaste ...
'' (1982)
* ''
Uh-huh'' (1983)
* ''
Scarecrow
A scarecrow is a decoy or mannequin, often in the shape of a human. Humanoid scarecrows are usually dressed in old clothes and placed in open fields to discourage birds from disturbing and feeding on recently cast seed and growing crops.Lesley ...
'' (1985)
* ''
The Lonesome Jubilee'' (1987)
* ''
Big Daddy'' (1989)
* ''
Whenever We Wanted'' (1991)
* ''
Human Wheels
''Human Wheels'' is the twelfth studio album by American singer-songwriter John Mellencamp. Released on Mercury Records on September 7, 1993, it peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard 200, ''Billboard'' 200. The single "What If I Came Knocking" was Mel ...
'' (1993)
* ''
Dance Naked
''Dance Naked'' is the thirteenth studio album by American singer-songwriter John Mellencamp released on June 21, 1994. The album was released in response to the record company's accusations that Mellencamp's previous album, ''Human Wheels'', di ...
'' (1994)
* ''
Mr. Happy Go Lucky
''Mr. Happy Go Lucky'' is the 14th album by American singer-songwriter and musician John Mellencamp. It was released on September 10, 1996. It was his first album released after his heart attack in 1994. Mellencamp's music on the album is said ...
'' (1996)
* ''
John Mellencamp
John J. Mellencamp (born October 7, 1951), previously known as Johnny Cougar, John Cougar, and John Cougar Mellencamp, is an American singer-songwriter. He is known for his catchy brand of heartland rock, which emphasizes traditional instrument ...
'' (1998)
* ''
Rough Harvest'' (1999)
* ''
Cuttin' Heads'' (2001)
* ''
Trouble No More'' (2003)
* ''
Freedom's Road'' (2007)
* ''
Life, Death, Love and Freedom
''Life, Death, Love and Freedom'' is the 20th folk rock album by singer-songwriter John Mellencamp and produced by T-Bone Burnett. It was released on July 15, 2008. At the end of 2008, Rolling Stone magazine named ''Life, Death, Love and Freedo ...
'' (2008)
* ''
No Better Than This'' (2010)
* ''
Plain Spoken
''Plain Spoken'' is the 22nd studio album by American singer-songwriter and musician John Mellencamp. It was released on September 23, 2014 by Republic Records. ''Plain Spoken'' marks the first project of Mellencamp's new lifetime recording con ...
'' (2014)
* ''
Sad Clowns & Hillbillies'' (2017)
* ''
Strictly a One-Eyed Jack
''Strictly a One-Eyed Jack'' is the 24th studio album by American singer-songwriter John Mellencamp. The album was released on January 21, 2022, by Republic Records. The album's cover, a portrait of Mellencamp, was painted by Mellencamp's son ...
'' (2022)
See also
*
List of best-selling music artists
*
References
External links
*
*
2007 ''Vanity Fair'' feature
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mellencamp, John
1951 births
American agnostics
American expatriates in the United Kingdom
American male singers
American people of German descent
American rock singers
Grammy Award winners
Indiana Democrats
Indiana University alumni
Living people
Mercury Records artists
People from Seymour, Indiana
People with spina bifida
Republic Records artists
Singers from Indiana
Songwriters from Indiana
Vincennes University alumni