[On the road with Johnny Cougar]

On the road with Johnny Cougar
30 years later, here's a little ditty about the tour that made John Mellencamp famous and the guy who drove the bus.

By Cindy Uecker

Bill Klaes asked himself the same question in 1982 that every recent college graduate struggles with: What now? It was two summers after his graduation from Indiana University, and, without a better idea, Bill attempted to start his own photography company. After spending the day shooting with a client, Bill stopped for a bite to eat and a beer at a small sandwich shop in his hometown of Seymour. A man with a familiar face walked up.

"Hey Billy? Your dad still have that big motor home?" "Yeah.""

"Would he be interested in renting it out?"

"I'm sure he'd probably do that, yeah."

"They'll need a driver, too. You wanna drive it?"

That familiar face belonged to Ted Mellencamp, and he was talking about a music tour for his older brother, John Cougar Mellencamp.

That fall, Johnny Cougar was touring as the opening act for the band Heart and promoting his new album, "American Fool." Although Mellencamp had already hit the road the previous year touring for the album, "Nothing Matters And What If It Did," his fifth attempt at a successful record, he wasn't a rock star yet.

Zach Dunkin, who has known Mellencamp since 1976, has followed his music career since day one. When the Indianapolis Star and Indianapolis News merged, Zach became the arts and entertainment editor for the Star, along with simultaneously writing as a music critic for 12 years. Zach wrote an article for the Star when Mellencamp was first picked up by Tony Defries, the manager behind David Bowie's success and responsible for Mellencamp's transformation into Johnny Cougar.

"He created this Johnny Cougar character, this cool, Elvis kind of guy with slicked back hair," Dunkin says. "Defries flew in all kinds of people to Seymour from magazines like Rolling Stone for the debut of Johnny Cougar. It was a big deal, with spotlights out in front and everything. But nobody bought it. They didn't fall for it-- the whole plan failed."

Despite the moderate hit "Ain't Even Done With the Night," Mellencamp's "Nothing Matters" album belly-flopped into his pool of failed past records. It did, however, hoist Mellencamp onto the Billboard charts for the second time ("I Need A Lover" made it's way to spot number 28 in 1980) and paved the road for his "American Fool" tour.

Bill was behind the wheel of that tour - literally. He drove his father's Blue Bird Wanderlodge from show to show. The motor home was nothing fancy - Bill had used it to tailgate with his fraternity brothers during his college years - and not too big - it was a narrow-body, front-engine 31 footer. He felt like he was driving for a small bar band that was warming up the crowd for a big leaguer.

But success came faster than Bill's motor home could drive. For four weeks, the single "Jack and Diane" held the number one spot on the Billboard charts, with "Hurts So Good" on its tail at the number two spot. The atmosphere of the tour began to change, and venue signs now put the name John Cougar before Heart. The band moved up to jet planes bumping the road crew up from the class C Minnie Winnie they were riding in to Bill's Blue Bird. "American Fool" climbed the charts.

"I was backstage the night the album went number one," Bill remembers. "There were bottles of champagne, and they were celebrating - the band and the managers and the crew. They toasted that night, and after it was over I stole the wine rack they used to hold the wine bottles. I still have it, that $2 wine rack. There is nothing on it that says it was backstage with John Mellencamp when his album went number one, so it has no value. But I've still got that thing."

Kenny Aronoff, who played drums with Mellencamp for 17 years, remembers that electric atmosphere. "It was a great time for us," Aronoff says. "We were all over the radio stations. Back then, if you were number one you were everywhere, on every radio station, MTV, any music news and all the big music magazines. We were the new kids on the block and started to get a lot of attention. It's amazing to look back and realize we were a part of the music business when it was the most happening, ever."

At 22, Bill was the youngest member of the tour (Mellencamp celebrated his 31st birthday on the road). That was true until one day when Bill was spending his down time swimming in one of the hotel pools.

"I felt a guy kick me and he says, 'Hey, you're Bill Klaes?' It was a high school buddy of mine and turns out he was the pilot hired to fly John's private jet. It's funny because the singer's from Seymour, his driver's from Seymour, and now the pilot's from Seymour, too."

Despite Mellencamp's leap to stardom, Bill and the road crew continued to wheel from show to show in the motor home, sometimes with more bumps than just potholes. The first day Bill went to meet up with Mellencamp and his crew, he blew a hole in the radiator. And in the days before GPS, it's no surprise they sometimes got lost.

"Back then, there were no computers, we hardly had technology. The next show we were going to was in Kansas City, so I pulled out my atlas and started looking at the state of Kansas," Bill says. "Well it turns out Kansas City is in Missouri, and I was in the wrong state entirely. Everyone is sleeping in the back of the bus and I turn on the radio to try and hear about Mellencamp coming to town and that's when I figured I was in the wrong place. Nobody ever knew I made that mistake, everyone was back there sleeping and never woke up. I was running early, so no one was late for the performance." It's ironic that Bill made the mistake of thinking Kansas City was in the state of Kansas, since the entire crew called him Einstein. He was the only one to have graduated from college.

The day-to-day life on the tour consisted of a lot of standing around and hanging out. They would roll into town early in the morning, around 6 or 7 a.m., and Bill would drop everyone off at the hotel. The sound checks were in the afternoon and the performance at night. Bill, however, was on a different schedule than the rest of the band.

"I would sleep during the concerts because I was on the night shift," Bill says. "After the concert, we'd load up, and I'd drive all night to our next stop while the band slept on the bus. I'd stay at different hotels with the other drivers because they were on the same schedule as I was."

The opposing schedules didn't mean that Bill missed out on the experience of being on tour with a rock star. "I got to go to as many concerts as I wanted and had an all-access sort of pass," Bill says. "But it got to the point where you just wanted the concerts to be over. Not because you weren't enjoying the music, but because you wanted to start driving and doing your job again."

The boy with a guitar from small town Indiana had become a full-fledged rock star and everyone wanted a piece of him. An editor from an Indianapolis magazine approached Zach Dunkin and asked him to write a story on Mellencamp. With his success, however, Mellencamp was only giving interviews to big name papers in cities such as Chicago or New York. But Zach gave him a call, and he agreed to do the interview.

"John asked if I was going to make any money on the story," Zach says. "I told him I'd probably make a couple hundred dollars, so he said 'Let's do it.' He thought if he could help me out, he should do it. What he did for me meant a lot, it meant a lot to get the story and I got an interview with John Cougar when no one else could."

After the tour was over, Bill packed up his father's motor home and headed back to Seymour. Not only did he return home with memorabilia that he didn't realize would become valuable -like vintage Aerosmith t-shirts from a music festival, just "stuff laying around when you were working" - but also with Mellencamp's legacy. Bill pitched the idea to the Jackson County Visitors Center of a driving tour of Seymour for fans that came to learn about Mellencamp.

"I wanted to produce something that you could only get when you came to experience Seymour," Bill says. "Not something for sale to just anyone or on the Internet, but something you could only get by coming to see where John grew up."

Working with the Visitors Center, Bill spent 10 years producing "The Roots of an American Rocker: A Driving Tour of Seymour, Indiana." Pop the CD into your car and listen to Mellencamp's family and friends tell you about the different places where he spent his childhood. The guide takes you to 14 different stops, including the schools he attended, and the hospital he was born in.

"John was never on the tape himself, but even after listening to it, I felt something was missing," Bill says. "So I added some of his music in the background, and then it felt complete."

Back in his hometown, Bill went out and bought his own motor home. He is involved in corporate video training, and with friends in the video business as well, has gotten good use out of that motor home. When a friend of his is shooting a commercial in Indianapolis, they'll ask to rent out his motor home as a space for people such as Peyton Manning, Tony Stewart and politicians to rest.

"I've come back around to the point where I'm driving my bus and hanging out with stars, 30 years later."

A few years ago, Bill ran into that same high school friend - the pilot - from the hotel pool again.

"Did you ever do anything more with flying Mellencamp around?" Bill asked him.

"Nah. It was a one-time thing. Did you ever do anything more with it?"

"Nah," Bill said. "It was a once-in-a-lifetime gig."

http://www.812magazine.com/article/2012/05/on-the-road-with-johnny-cougar

[John Mellencamp: 'I never expected to win awards']

John Mellencamp: 'I never expected to win awards'

By Elysa Gardner, USA TODAY

"I never expected to win awards," says John Mellencamp, who has nonetheless accumulated a bunch of them. "I'm just always trying to be a better songwriter."

On April 27, at the 33rd annual ASCAP Pop Music Awards in Los Angeles, the Grammy winner, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member and recipient of the Americana Music Association's Lifetime Achievement Award will add another prize to his collection: the Founders Award, the top honor assigned by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.

"All I can figure is that they've run out of people to give it to," quips Mellencamp, whose predecessors include Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach and Hal David.

At 64, Mellencamp seems entirely comfortable in the ranks of pop music's productive elder statesmen — still eager to write and perform, but hardly intent on getting his face back on magazine covers, or his name prominent in social media, for that matter.

"The business has changed so dramatically that I don't even pay attention to it anymore," he muses. "I've had a lot of hit records, but I found that when you get to the top there's nothing else there. I've got to keep reinventing myself in a way that I can be happy doing what I do. All the people I admire have done that."

For Mellencamp, that has required some creative multi-tasking. He and author Stephen King spent 15 years developing the Southern Gothic musical Ghost Brothers of Darkland County, which premiered at Atlanta's Alliance Theatre in 2012 and toured as a concert performance two years later. The show is being further developed in London, with a table reading expected this year, though 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."

The 2014 touring company — which, like the original staging, didn't feature composer/lyricist Mellencamp— included another noted singer/songwriter, Carlene Carter, who then joined Mellencamp as a guest on his own trek promoting Plain Spoken, his most recent album, also released that year.

"Every night she's been my singing buddy," says Mellencamp, who's wrapping up his current leg of the tour this Saturday, with one more scheduled for October. "If there is a spitting image of June" — that is, Carter's mother, the late country music legend June Carter Cash — "it's Carlene. She talks like her mom, has the same opinions as her mom. We got along immediately."

So much so, in fact, that Mellencamp and Carter have recorded an album together, titled Sad Clowns and Hillbillies. Though no release date has been announced yet, Mellencamp says, "We wrote a couple of songs together, and she wrote some and I wrote some." For one song, Mellencamp also wrote music for words penned by one of his heroes, Woody Guthrie. "If Woody Guthrie were starting out now, no one would give him the time of day," Mellencamp quips.

"But I've been very fortunate," he adds. "I played last night to a soldout house. So I can't complain. But I do."

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2016/04/20/john-mellencamp-never-expected-win-awards/83177764/

Thirty years ago today--on April 16, 1986, if you can believe that--John Cougar Mellencamp played the Pacific Coliseum.

This was smack-dab between his John Cougar and John Mellencamp periods.

Maybe you were there?

Here's my review, which I retyped from the April 25, 1986, issue of the Georgia Straight. Pretty sure nobody else has previously bothered to retype it from the April 25, 1986, issue of the Georgia Straight, so you could say that it's the review's cyberspace debut today!

Big friggin' whoop, eh?

==============================================================

He calls himself Little Bastard on his album productions credits, and after meeting John Cougar Mellencamp backstage before last week’s Coliseum show, I half understood why. He’s not a bastard. On the contrary he seemed like a very nice fellow, all smiles as he shook hands with various rock reporters and music-industry types.

But he is little.

At any rate, the show he put on later that night made him look pretty huge to the 14 thousand-odd fans in attendance.



The concert kicked off with a short acoustic intro, then the curtains around a glossy white stage were pulled, and the band ran out to the familiar chords of “Small Town”. There weren’t even any stage monitors up front to divide Mellencamp from his fans, and the communication between the two was evident from the word go.

“Jack and Diane” came next, followed by a couple of tunes from his latest album Scarecrow. “You sure know how to make a fellow feel at home,” he declared, then asked the people standing on their seats up front to sit down so that others could see. As usual at Coliseum shows, most of them stayed up.

“Rain on the Scarecrow” came next, along with a short spiel on the plight of the American farmer. (Cougar was a major attraction at last year’s Farm Aid benefit concert.) He pulled a male fan from the front row up to sing along on one of this early songs, “Hand to Hold on To”, and brought a roar when he gave the lucky guy the mike and let him sing a verse alone.

Mellencamp hopped on guitarist Larry Crane’s shoulders for the rocking “Rumbleseat”, and his first big hit, “Hurt so Good”, had ’em dancing in the aisles. The twangy guitar intro to his best tune, “The Authority Song”, kept them there.

When Mellencamp left the stage the crowd brought him back for an encore of “Under the Boardwalk”. “Where I come from [Seymour, Indiana] they didn’t have any boardwalks,” he shouted. “But we could sure relate to the hotdogs and the sunshine and the girls!”

After the Mellencamp show it was time for a trip to The Embassy, where members of the New York-based metal band Bon Jovi had congregated. They took the stage for a slinky version of Tom Petty’s “Breakdown” and their scorching hit single “Runaway”. The group is in town recording their third album, and club manager Ziggi is expecting them at jam night this Wednesday (April 30) as well.

http://www.straight.com/blogra/680001/30-years-ago-today-john-cougar-mellencamp-plays-pacific-coliseum-his-scarecrow-tour

Pretty sure those pics are from February 11, 2008 in Winnipeg.

Between 8:30 and 8:40.

[Review: Mellencamp mixes up wild night of music]

Review: Mellencamp mixes up wild night of music

By Mark Nicklawske, For the News Tribune
Apr 7, 2016

If you mixed a preacher, a punch press operator and an old bluesman together in the back of a cement mixer, John Mellencamp would come out in the pour.

The Bloomington, Ind., native knows the power of words, the sweat of hard work and the guts of a good song.

Mellencamp hauled his “Plain Spoken” tour, now in its second year, to a sold-out Duluth Symphony Hall on Thursday night. More than 2,200 people witnessed a 21-song, 110-minute show that covered almost 40 years of music-making, from the heartland anthems of his “Cougar” days to newer, more introspective work.

Strolling on stage chewing gum and dressed in the black formal wear of an orchestra conductor, Mellencamp kicked off the show with two songs from the “Plain Spoken” album, his 20th studio album, which was released in September 2014.

Backed by a six-piece band, dressed in matching black tuxedos and, in the case of the fiddle player, a long black dress, Mellencamp was in fine voice and hearty spirit.

“You’re going to hear all kinds of songs tonight,” he told the audience. “Some you know. Some you don’t know. Some you can dance to and some you can sing to,” he said.

Indeed, the audience got to hear every shot of music Mellencamp pours into his song cocktail.

A string of hits early in the set showcased his strong, from the heart songwriting ability: “Minutes to Memories,” “Small Town” and “Human Wheels.”

Mellencamp then grabbed an acoustic guitar and led the audience through his 1982 No. 1 single “Jack & Diane.”

He even admonished fans for skipping the second verse and going straight to the chorus.

Mellencamp duetted with his opening act, Carlene Carter, the daughter of country music legend June Carter, saying the two will release a new album together called “Sad Clowns & Hillbillies” later this year. Mellencamp and Carter held hands as they sang “Indigo Sunset,” easily the sweetest moment of the show.

After a wonderful fiddle and accordion instrumental break, the band opened up the show.

Mellencamp stripped off his black suit jacket and roared full throttle through six classic rock anthems straight out of the KQ playlist. The largely middle-aged audience stood through the whole finish, roaring its approval at the final song of the night, “Cherry Bomb.”

Maybe add rock star to the Mellencamp mixture, too.

As one of the biggest hitmakers of the 1980s, Mellencamp has a huge fan base capable of filling hockey arenas all over the county. But the “Plain Spoken” tour has been booked into smaller, more intimate venues giving fans a closer look at the singer and his songs.

Mellencamp, 64, has built a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame career by putting simple, fun and sometimes melancholy music to the lives of working men and women across the country. He has landed 22 songs in the Top 10, been nominated for 13 Grammy Awards and worked with giants like Willie Nelson and Neil Young to establish Farm Aid, an annual music festival raising awareness to the plight of the family farm.

Carter, 60, opened the show singing solo acoustic songs and dedicating the night to the recently departed country giant Merle Haggard. Her most recent studio album, “Carter Girl,” was released in 2014.

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/features/ae/4004849-review-mellencamp-mixes-wild-night-music

[John Mellencamp brings "Plain Spoken" tour to Sangamon Auditorium on Sunday]

John Mellencamp brings "Plain Spoken" tour to Sangamon Auditorium on Sunday
Elaine Spencer
Correspondent
Apr 6, 2016



When John Mellencamp brings his "Plain Spoken" tour to Sangamon Auditorium Sunday night with guest artist Carlene Carter, the sold-out show will reflect more than 40 years of both artists stubbornly being themselves in the face of music industry conventions.

Decades after Mellencamp, 64, hit the charts with "Hurts So Good," "Jack and Diane,” "Pink Houses" and other hits, he and his band aren't letting either nostalgia or novelty dictate what they perform.

"This is the most well-received tour we've ever had," said Mike Wanchic, Mellencamp's guitarist and backup vocalist, who's worked with him since 1976.

"Being able to go out and take the risk of playing a lot of material that is not popular hits, and having people say 'Thank you for playing something other than your hits'" has been a pleasant surprise, Wanchic said in a phone interview Friday from Tulsa, Oklahoma, the first stop on the current tour.

"There will be some surprises in his set," added Carter, who will open the show. "John's show is rocking as hell and covers a lot of ground."

The 60-year-old daughter of June Carter Cash and stepdaughter of Johnny Cash welcomes the opportunity to perform with an artist that her family held in high esteem.

"My stepdad had great respect for John Mellencamp and my mom just adored him," Carter said in a phone interview Monday from Missouri, the third stop on the tour. "John is a songsmith, a wordsmith, who knows how to make it happen."

This tour, which continues through April 23, extends to smaller communities the 80-city tour Mellencamp undertook last year to promote "Plain Spoken," his 22nd album.

Wanchic said cities like Springfield are "the perfect example of the heart and core of our audience. Where do we live? Bloomington, Indiana. We don't live in New York or L.A. This is where we thrive (and) where our success was born. It's a way to honor that and reach the people who have supported us for all these decades."

Not only is central Illinois close to home for Mellencamp, Wanchic said, it was also the site of a benchmark event in his career — the first Farm Aid concert in 1985. Playing sites such as Memorial Stadium in Champaign for the first time was as exciting to them as playing New York, London or Tokyo, he added. "It was one of those moments when we knew we had made it."

Their professional relationship and friendship has lasted as long as it has, Wanchic said, because of "the musical trust and personal trust" they have formed. "I think a lot of it is just our common brotherhood, respect for each other musically, and that we started this together, from the initial demos," Wanchic said.

Prior to launching the "Plain Spoken" tour, Mellencamp invited Carter to record a song for the film "Ithaca," directed by his then-girlfriend Meg Ryan and released in the fall of 2015. When Carter came to Mellencamp's Indiana recording studio, she recalled, "John said to me 'Are you excited about the tour?' I said 'What tour?' And he said 'You're opening for me.'"

Any doubts that rock star Mellencamp's fans would embrace a "blueblooded country girl" were quickly dispelled.

"They are so warm to me," Carter said. "I feel blessed … I've probably made some new fans that may not have heard of me before."

From the start of her career as a teenager, Cash advised her to "be yourself" and not worry about fitting into the confines of either the country or rock genre. "That's been great (advice) for me," she said. "I've done all kinds of crazy stuff and it's been awesome."

Carter and Mellencamp have also worked together on the musical "Ghost Brothers of Darkland County," co-written by Mellencamp and horror novelist Stephen King, and plan to release an album of their duets late this year or early next year.

In 2014 Carter released "Carter Girl," a tribute to her musical heritage. "I had always wanted to do this (album) but never felt it was the right time," she said. When her mother, her aunts Anita and Helen Carter, and her grandmother Maybelle Carter were still alive, "I felt it wasn't my place to do it," but now that the emotions of their passing have subsided (her mother and stepfather died in 2003), she felt more comfortable recording their music.

Mellencamp has long been regarded as "The Voice of the Heartland", expressing the doubts and desires of middle America. At Mellencamp's induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008, his friend Billy Joel said, "Stay ornery, stay mean. People need to hear a voice like yours... to echo the discontent that's out there in the heartland."

Through songs from the "Plain Spoken" album such as "Troubled Man", "Sometimes There's God," "Freedom of Speech," and "Lawless Times", Wanchic believes he continues to channel that discontent into a positive channel.

"It's expressive of the human condition," Wanchic said. "That's what John is wonderful at. It includes politics and it includes music. He's gotten better at it and so have I. This is an opportunity for people to come and sit down and witness something that is at its apex."

***

John Mellencamp with Carlene Carter
When: 7:30 p.m. Sunday
Where: Sangamon Auditorium,
For more information, call 206-6160

http://www.sj-r.com/article/20160406/ENTERTAINMENTLIFE/160409739/?Start=2

[Mellencamp guitarist looks back on 40 good years]

Mellencamp guitarist looks back on 40 good years

By Jonathan Turner

Living the lyrics of his hit songs, John Mellencamp still lives in a small town, and he still fights authority. But for years now, he's been the one who wins.

The gritty, 64-year-old poet of the heartland will bring his impressive, plain-spoken catalog of songs to Davenport's Adler Theatre for a Tuesday-night concert.

A Cleveland Plain Dealer review last year called Mr. Mellencamp "the absolute master of songwriting," with a voice "able to emote and evoke with equal skill. It's like the rasp of Tom Waits, but with the power of Placido Domingo. That combination turns songs like 'If I Die Sudden' and 'Minutes to Memories' into heartland arias."

2016 is a special year for the former Johnny Cougar and his musical partner Mike Wanchic -- 40 years since they met and recorded the first album.

"I can remember when we were much younger, saying, 'If we can just make it 'til we're 40 ...' When you're 25, 24 years old, it seemed like an eternity," said Mr. Wanchic, guitarist and the band's musical director, in a recent interview.

"We're hyper-aware of the great fortune we have to be able to do this for 40 years, make 23 albums," he said. "We're one of the most anomalous bands. The business has changed so dramatically. It was radio-driven, record-sale-driven. It's a totally different climate."

Mr. Mellencamp grew up in Seymour, Ind., and Mr. Wanchic in Lexington, Ky., but both listened to the same gospel radio station in Nashville during their high-school years. Both of them now live outside Bloomington, Ind., an hour from Seymour.

Their hits include "I Need A Lover," "Hurts So Good," "Jack & Diane," "Crumblin' Down," "Pink Houses," "Lonely Ol' Night," "Small Town," "R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.," "Paper in Fire," and "Cherry Bomb."

Mr. Mellencamp is a Grammy winner who has been nominated 11 times; a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; and the winner of the 2001 Billboard Century Award, John Steinbeck Award, ASCAP Foundation’s Champion Award, Woody Guthrie Award, and Americana Music Association's Lifetime Achievement Award.

The social activism reflected in his songs inspired Farm Aid, the concert series and organization that has addressed the struggle of American family farmers for 25-plus years.

His new tour includes songs from his latest album, "Plain Spoken," which Billboard called “stark, soul-baring." It addresses timely themes like political and social injustice.

Compared to many other artists today, Mr. Mellencamp doesn't care if his new stuff is played on the radio, Mr. Wanchic said. "Certainly, hits are no longer the motivation we have. It hasn't been for over a decade. That's outside of our realm of reality. No longer are we driven to try and please anybody except our own artistic sensibilities. We don't answer to anyone."

"That takes you to a whole new freedom making records," he added. "At this point, our legacy is set -- 30 top 10 singles. But there's something much bigger than that from an artistic standpoint."

In concert, the group tries to please fans with many of the big hits that are meaningful to so many, but the non-singles are a key part of the set list, Mr. Wanchic said.

"In a two-hour concert, it's impossible to play everything for everyone. I think the more banal, juvenile songs we drop off," he said, citing the early hit "Hurts So Good" as an example. "Sometimes we do them, but it doesn't make a lot of sense. That doesn't mean we don't like it."

Those classic sing-along tunes are a treasured part of Mr. Wanchic's career. "Thank God for the hits, or my kids never would have gone to college," he said.

Mr. Mellencamp and his band have expanded musically from a straight-ahead rock band to one that features fiddle, banjo, dobro, mandolin and other rootsy sounds.

"It's a perfect meld of rock music mixed with primitive Woody Guthrie, and splash of Johnny Cash," Mr. Wanchic said. "We feel that is very home to us."

In concert, the band works "to raise the level of energy even if it's a really subdued song," Mr. Wanchic said. "You have to bring it home. I think we're masters of live shows."

He said he appreciates making a lasting impact on fans. "Memories are the strongest things," he said. "I like when a fan comes up reminding you of why you do this; it's very touching."

In concert, Mr. Wanchic plays mandolin and electric and acoustic guitars.

Tuesday's concert will open with Carlene Carter, 60-year-old daughter of June Carter Cash.

If you go

-- What: John Mellencamp, with opening act Carlene Carter

-- When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 5

-- Where: Adler Theatre, 136 E. 3rd St., Davenport

-- Tickets: $39.50, $59.50, $79.50, $115 at the Adler box office, Ticketmaster.com, 800-745-3000 and Ticketmaster outlets

http://www.qconline.com/news/local/mellencamp-guitarist-looks-back-on-good-years/article_c66d9258-b2c1-50f3-a3ea-b58fd788dca0.html

I'm having a major problem buying tickets for this show... Ticketmaster does not even have the show registered! Aren't the tickets supposed to be on sale to the general public now? I cannot find the show at all, look: http://www.ticketmaster.com/search?tm_link=tm_header_search&user_input=John+Mellencamp+soaring+eagle+casino&q=John+Mellencamp+soaring+eagle+casino

Ticketmaster isn't selling tickets for this show. You have to go here to buy tickets: http://event.etix.com/ticket/online/performanceSale.do?performance_id=4308386&method=restoreToken

Andy York - Guitars
Mike Wanchic - Guitars
Jon Gunnell - Bass
Dane Clark - Drums
Troye Kinnett - Accordian/Keyboards
Miriam Sturm - Violin

2. John Mellencamp, May 2, Sony Centre: During the second of two shows, the 64-year-old Indiana-born roots-rocker “delivered a high energy, sonically creative set of music that ran just shy of two hours. ... Equal parts heartland rock, blues, cabaret, gospel, soul, country and musical theatre .... there was really never a dull moment.”

http://www.torontosun.com/2015/12/28/torontos-top-concerts-in-2015

[John Mellencamp rocks football gig on his own terms]

John Mellencamp rocks football gig on his own terms

By Ed Mastley

John Mellencamp and American Authors took two very different approaches to working the crowd at the AT&T Playoff Playlist Live!, a free outdoor series of concerts held in downtown Phoenix to celebrate the College Football Playoff national championship today in Glendale.

American Authors were eager to win as many fans as possible — and by any means necessary, blowing the dust off their crowd-pleasing cover of Florida Georgia Line’s inescapable “Cruise” after telling Sunday’s crowd “We’re gonna do a cover song and I want every single one of you guys singing along.”

And that was after playing to the football fans with “We’re gonna go to the game tomorrow and we’re pretty excited. But we’re conflicted. We don’t know what team to root for” as a set-up for a shouting match between the Alabama fans and Clemson fans.

They trotted out the rivalry again before closing their part of the concert with a 10-times-better song than “Cruise,” their triple-platinum breakthrough single, “Best Day of My Life,” lead singer Zac Barnett telling the crowd “Whoever sings the loudest is gonna win the game tomorrow.”

If Mellencamp even knew what teams were playing Monday, there was nothing in his set to indicate such knowledge.  No mention of football. Or college. Or sports. He did his thing — and did it well, leading a stage full of brilliant musicians in a set that touched on any number of his greatest hits but never felt like pandering.

That message was clear when he opened the show with the Dylanesque blues of “Lawless Times,” a scathing if frequently humorous indictment of these lawless times that closes “Plain Spoken,” his latest release.

Then, he reached back to “Scarecrow” for “Small Town,” giving the Top 10 hit a more bittersweet read than the original recording, even slowing it down and stopping on the line “That’s probably where they’ll bury me."

The third song was a Robert Johnson cover — the dobro-fueled “Stones in My Passway,” the same Johnson cover that opens the live album “Trouble No More Live at Town Hall.”

The concert did turn into something of a greatest hits show after that but even then it felt like Mellencamp was doing greatest hits on his terms. After leading his bandmates in a soulful “Check It Out,” he stood alone at center stage, an acoustic guitar in hand and said, “I’ve been doing this song for a lot of years. I don’t even know why I do this song anymore.”

It was “Jack and Diane,” performed without the payoff of a full-band treatment. The hit song turned into a massive singalong, of course, which led to an extremely entertaining moment when the fans jumped the gun and came in on the chorus too early.

“Whoa whoa whoa,” Mellencamp said, with a laugh. “That doesn’t come in now. There’s another verse before that.”

Like “Small Town,” the lyrics, especially “Life goes on long after the thrill of livin’ is gone,” were given a bittersweet read by the singer, who turned 64 last year.

After an instrumental interlude by violinist Miriam Sturm and accordion player Troye Kinnett, the concert returned to the hits with “Rain on the Scarecrow,” “Paper in Fire” and “Crumblin’ Down,” which emerged as a showcase for drummer Dane Clark, who more than earned the spotlight.

A raucous “Authority Song” was performed as a medley with “Land of 1,000 Dances.” And after an anthemic, crowd-pleasing version of “Pink Houses,” Mellencamp ended the concert with “Cherry Bomb,” a timeless rocker he wrote in the '80s while feeling nostalgic for his teenage years, the nostalgic nature of the lyrics made all the more poignant by the fact that it’s been nearly 30 years since “17 turned 35.”

It was the perfect ending, really, to a concert that did a brilliant job of underscoring just how much this veteran artist still has left to offer as a live performer.

http://www.azcentral.com/story/entertainment/music/2016/01/11/john-mellencamp-review-phoenix-football/78632208/

If you didn't get a copy of John's Black Friday 30th anniversary vinyl re-release of "Scarecrow," you can order your copy here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B018OIIRMW/ref=dp_olp_new_mbc?ie=UTF8&condition=new

Interesting side note: George Green had a heart attack just a few weeks after John had his, so they both had the same life perspective when writing the lyrics to this song.

I'm pretty sure that John and George wrote the lyrics to this song together. I don't think George wrote them all.