John Mellencamp Community

John Mellencamp: “Little Bastard”

After dropping “Cougar” from his name, Mellencamp apparently thought that he was short a catchy nickname after all, so he adopted “Little Bastard,” which reflects not only his famously ornery demeanor but his relative stature. What rarely comes up is that the name was copped from the roadster in which James Dean had his fatal crash. That might seem like tempting fate, but Mellencamp has managed to avoid similarly ...

http://music.yahoo.com/photos/nicknames-of-grammy-stars-explained-slideshow/john-mellencamp-photo--1269373123.html

Hm, I don´t think this yahoo theory is logical.
"Whenever We Wanted" was the first album without "Cougar", but "Little Bastard" appeared as producer name already some years earlier on "Uh-huh" and "Scarecrow", both released as "John Cougar Mellencamp" albums. So I don´t think "Little Bastard" was to replace "Cougar".

It seemed to have been just a pseudonym as producer that he also used when producing Mitch Ryder´s "Never Kick A Sleeping Dog" in 1983. Similar to what the Rolling Stones did by using "The Glimmer Twins" as producer names.

I can't remember exactly when or where I read it, but I saw an article about this back in the 80's. I don't know if it is true or not. Supposedly, John was doing some work on an album one time, and in his admirable fashion of never kissing ass, he did it his way. Someone did not like his attitude and John overheard them saying, "That Mellencamp is such a little bastard". I guess to show them he did not care what they thought, or maybe he thought it fit and liked it, he took the name on.

and also i bet john sent a lot of people walking away talking to themselves lmao