Yes, they are for sale, but as the article indicates, they aren't cheap.

[John Mellencamp on Life as a Painter, Taylor Swift and Why 'You've Got to Work at' Happiness]

John Mellencamp on Life as a Painter, Taylor Swift and Why 'You've Got to Work at' Happiness
Before he went on to sell 27.5 million albums, John Mellencamp was determined to make it as a painter. The legendary rocker walks Billboard through his first New York exhibition


John Mellencamp photographed on Oct. 20, 2015 at ACA Galleries in New York.

"Is that lipstick?"

Breezing through a new ­exhibition of his moody oil paintings at ACA Galleries in New York, John Mellencamp stops short after ­spotting a crimson daub near the face of Bug, an impressionistic, four-foot portrait of a woman who works for him.

"Somebody kissed this f--ing painting," he says, leaning in close to the canvas, more amused than annoyed. "See this? I didn't paint that. I just noticed it."

With a quick laugh, the rocker turns and walks away. Doesn't he want someone from the gallery to remove the rogue lip print?

"No!" says Mellencamp, 64. "I want my paintings to look like they were found in a garage. If they get a scratch or a hole in them, it just becomes part of the painting."

Painting has been part of Mellencamp's life since he was a 10-year-old kid in Indiana. His mother was an artist, and he was determined to follow suit by studying in New York. A lack of money and a ­surging interest in rock'n'roll derailed those plans in the 1970s. But Mellencamp, who is strongly influenced by the German Expressionists, returned to his first love in the '80s, setting up shop at home and showing at galleries.

His New York debut, "The Isolation of Mister," shares its title with a song from 2014's Plain Spoken and runs through Dec. 19 (prices range from $2,500 to $40,000). Lyrics and Bible quotes are frequently used to spell out themes that he often tackles in his music, from heartbreak to racism.

The political bend fits right in at ACA, established in 1932 as a haven for artists eager to explore social issues. The father of five who will tour Australia in February was introduced to the ­gallery by Bob Dylan. "I wanted to be with a gallery that wasn't for tourists," says Mellencamp, who has charted 19 albums on the Billboard 200 and sold 27.5 million units, ­according to the RIAA. He signed a lifetime ­contract with Republic Records in 2014 and, in December, will start work on an album of duets and covers with Carlene Carter. "I like the history of ACA. The goal isn't to sell paintings that match your couch."

There aren't a lot of smiles or happy people in your work.

Shiny, happy people? I'll let R.E.M. make those paintings.

You're suspicious of joy, eh?

If I laugh a couple of times a day, I'm doing good. People think it's their God-given right to be happy, and it's just not. It's something you've got to work at. I like to paint the human condition, and the human condition is not smiles and happy people.

Do you care how your art is perceived?

I paint for myself. Somebody asked me earlier -- it was kind of an insulting ­question -- "Do you paint for the people who might buy your paintings?" I was like, "Are you kidding me?" I never consider that.

What's the starting point for you?

The main subject. I'll give you an example. See this Used People painting? Me and my son Speck painted that. He's a junior at [Rhode Island School of Design] and came home for a few days. Actually, he came home to go to jail. (Laughs.) He had to serve four days because he beat up some kid. Anyway, I said, "Let's go up to my ­studio and figure this out because I can't get the math right. It has to weigh properly." Speck did the ­shadowing and the placement of the people, and it turned out great because he did shit that I wouldn't have. He put this average person on the pig, who is George Bush.


Rob Light, Christie Brinkley, John Mellencamp, a guest and John Sykes attend Mellencamp's "The Isolation Of Mister" art exhibition opening at the ACA Galleries on October 21, 2015 in New York City.

How do your subjects react? For ­example, you depict Meg Ryan and Laura Dern in clown face.

They're best friends. Meg and I were together five years -- she's a great gal. I think they both thought it wasn't going to be what it turned out to be. I don't know that she ever liked this painting very much, but I do. I spent a lot of time on it.

Did painting come as naturally to you as music?

More natural. Music was like a second choice. I wanted to study at the Art Students League in New York when I was young, but I didn't have the money. Then I was fortunate enough to become Johnny Cougar Mellencamp. At the time, I thought I'd make a couple of records and get back to painting. It never dawned on me that I'd be 64 years old and still ­making music.

Sounds like a great memoir. Think you'll write one?

Never. What of any interest am I going to say? I'm 64 years old. I've still got shit to do, and writing a memoir ain't on the list.


Elaine Irwin and John Mellencamp during Grand Opening of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum in Cleveland, 1995.

Really? You must have some thoughts on how the industry has changed.

The consumer doesn't get to hear the ­quality of music that I grew up listening to, and young artists don't get a chance to develop. I made five albums before I sold one. You take a girl like -- who's that girl who's so popular right now? Country singer...

Taylor Swift.

She's a really smart gal. A guy like me wouldn't have a chance today. For starters, if I was 21, the last thing I'd want to do is be in a f---ing rock band. How the f--- would you make a living? You'd have to have a straight job, and I've never had that.

What was your main gripe with the business?

I'm on Republic Records now, and those two guys who run it are good guys. I like Monte and Avery Lipman. But I've ­probably been with a thousand record-company presidents, and I didn't like any of them -- and they didn't like me. I was never interested in ­kissing anybody's ass. I even punched a record-company president once.

What did he do?

He fell down. (Laughs.)

['The Battle of Angels']

John Mellencamp photographed on Oct. 20, 2015 at ACA Galleries in New York, where his Big Apple exhibition, "The Isolation of Mister," is on display through Dec. 19.


'The Battle of Angels'
"We were married 20 years and we got divorced," Mellencamp says of ex-wife Elaine Irwin (whom he references in his painting). "She’s a great gal, a really great gal. We loved each other a lot but… 'The Battle of Angels' is also a Tennessee Williams play. It just made sense to use that title."


'The Stardust Sisters'
"I like this painting, although the subject doesn’t like it. That’s Meg Ryan. Meg and I were together for five years. That’s Laura Dern right next to her. They’re best friends. And I think they both thought that it was gonna be not what it turned out to be. So I don’t know that Meg ever liked this painting very much but I did. I spent a lot of time on this painting. Weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks."


'Why Are U Angry'
Mellencamp's 2012 painting is displayed at the ACA Galleries. Prices for the artwork range from $2,500 to $40,000.


For Art's Sake
"I paint for myself," says Mellencamp. "Somebody asked me earlier -- it was kind of an insulting question -- 'Do you paint for the people who might buy your paintings?' I was like, 'Are you kidding me?' I never consider that."


'Slate'
"That’s my granddaughter. Her name is Slate. That was my name when I was born and then they changed it," says Mellencamp. "Anyway, she’s got very big hands [in the painting] because she’s gonna reach out and do something with her life. And, as you can see, she’s got the world on a string."


No Smiles Necessary
"Shiny, happy people?" says Mellencamp about the lack of smiling faces in his artwork. "I'll let R.E.M. make those paintings."


Garage Sale
"I want my paintings to look like they were found in a garage," says Mellencamp. "If they get a scratch or a hole in them, it just becomes part of the painting."

http://www.billboard.com/photos/6753752/john-mellencamp-art-exhibition-new-york-city-gallery/7

[AC: I saw that Mellencamp is going to Australia in January. Are you going too?]

AC: I saw that Mellencamp is going to Australia in January. Are you going too?

Carlene Carter: We’re actually making a duet record together starting in December, so I’m writing for that. It’s different, because I’ve never really sat down and tried to write duets. That’s going to be a fun challenge. And yes, it’ll be my first trip to Australia, so I’m really excited about that.

http://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/music/2015-11-12/10-minutes-with-carlene-carter/

The song John wrote is called "Sugar Hill Mountain" and it is sung by Carlene Carter.

[Inside Christie Brinkley and John Mellencamp's Hot New Romance]

Just posting this for those who may care about this kind of thing and hadn't seen it, and for archival purposes if someone wants to look this story up years from now on this board. Nothing had been mentioned here about it.

Inside Christie Brinkley and John Mellencamp's Hot New Romance

It was far from a lonely ol’ night for Christie Brinkley and John Mellencamp.

After enjoying a romantic dinner together at The Bowery Hotel in NYC on Sept. 14, the cozy twosome — he was affectionate with Christie throughout the night — were smitten as they rode off together in John’s waiting limo.

The smiles continued two nights later, when Christie accompanied John to his performance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert on Sept. 16. It may seems like an odd pairing, but mutual friends of the new couple are not surprised that the stunning supermodel, 61, and the 63 year-old rocker have hooked up. In fact, Christie and John first met more than 30 years ago when she was married to Billy Joel.



“John invited Billy to perform at a Farm Aid benefit in 1985,” says a source. “They all got along like a house afire.” All these years later, Christie and John are both single and have rekindled the spark they first felt.

Until now, a lasting relationship has evaded both stars. John’s endured the heartbreak of three divorces, and hasn’t been spotted with on-again, off-again girlfriend Meg Ryan since last November.

“John and Meg just could never get on the same page,” says the source. Ending the relationship was tough on John — he had become close to Meg’s 10-year-old daughter, Daisy — and for a while, he hoped for a reconciliation.

http://www.closerweekly.com/posts/christie-brinkley-john-mellencamp-hot-new-romance-71429

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/Rek6H44f61I?fs=1&amp;amp;hl=en_US" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/Rek6H44f61I?fs=1&amp;amp;hl=en_US</a>

[John Mellencamp’s No Better Than This was a darkly inspiring triumph]

John Mellencamp’s No Better Than This was a darkly inspiring triumph
BY NICK DERISO

It’s not just that John Mellencamp’s No Better Than This, released on Aug. 17, 2010, was an old-fashioned project done in an old-fashioned way. It’s that the album created an eerie, resilient world unto itself, one of half-seen haints, very old secrets and dusty hopes held close.

Everything on this, another in an ongoing run of career-redefining albums for John Mellencamp that started with 2007’s Freedom’s Road, was rooted with an ageless sense of place. It was older than old, and stronger for that. Producer T Bone Burnett copped to it, in the liner notes to No Better Than This: “All those ghosts. All those spirits. This is a haunted record.”

These 13 songs were also written in a mirrored 13 days, during time off all across the Deep South during a 2009 summer tour with Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson. Burnett and John Mellencamp carried around a half-century old monophonic tape recorder and a single, vintage microphone – recording without overdubs or other studio add-ons at places like Memphis’ Sun Studios, where Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins launched their legends; at the First African Baptist Church in Savannah, Ga., where the Underground Railroad once sparked a dream of escape for enslaved African-Americans; and the Gunter Hotel in San Antonio, Texas, where doomed blues legend Robert Johnson made world-changing recordings of “Dust My Broom” and “Terraplane Blues” for Brunswick Records. Each spot provided, perhaps to no one’s surprise, some powerful mojo.

Poet Richard Hugo, in The Triggering Town, talked about how these kind of environments, even glimpsed from a passing car or across the street from a local bar, can spark creativity — becoming a jumping-off point to some deeper thought. He says something else in that book that resonates here: “All truth must conform to music.” What makes No Better Than This so remarkable is how John Mellencamp internalized both sentiments, embracing places and a sound that gets older and older with every new song — but also boldly rebuking the earliest hopes of his own pop-star prepackaging as Johnny Cougar. “It’s not a graceful fall,” he wrote, “from dreams to the truth.”

Shadows gathered all around No Better Than This: “Give me back my youth,” Mellencamp sang on the rollicking title track, “and don’t let me waste it this time; stand me up at the golden gates at the front of the line; let me lie in the sunshine, covered in the morning mist; then show me something I ain’t never seen — but it won’t get no better than this.” “Save Some Time To Dream” offered both the melancholy vocal (“Could it be that this is all that there is?”) and hard, echoing guitar signature associated with the disaffected rock of the late 1960s — as Vietnam and the often violent reactions to the Civil Rights movement bled out that decade’s legendarily colorful expectations.

A similar steely realism, borne out of disappointment, seemed to have welled up inside of John Mellencamp. Even as he became locked in a desperate struggle to rebuke fame’s dimming heat, Mellencamp couldn’t get away from every adulthood’s sharp-edged themes — the empty aftermath of love’s dissolution (“Thinking About You”), his own body’s failings (on the staggering “Each Day of Sorrow”) and — I guess, most particularly — with this world’s larger untruths: “I’m sick of life, and it’s lost its fun,” he sings in “A Graceful Fall.” “I’ll see you in the next world, if there really is one.”

Mellencamp had for some time been a voice for a rural world riven by change, but into the 2010s he began more completely inhabiting a broader persona forever divorced from the times of youth, and — like Robert Johnson and his country counterpart Hank Williams Sr. — found himself alternately accepting of and then gripped by white-knuckled fear of the end: “Things sure have changed here since I was a kid,” he sang at one point. “It’s worse now; look what progress did.”

He saw loss everywhere. There was a parent’s nightmare in “No One Cares About Me” (“I lost one of my boys to the drug man; it was the only time I cried in my life”); a violent, Dylan-esque narrative in “Easter Eve”; and a soul singer’s crying lament in “Don’t Forget About Me.” Even the seemingly lighthearted “Love at First Sight” had a darker, perhaps murderous portent.

Truth is, though, that John Mellencamp’s No Better Than This is a blinding shard of sunlight compared with his most recent Burnett-produced release, 2008’s stark and weary Life, Death, Love and Freedom. There, we heard a seemingly defeated Mellencamp confessing that “I feel like taking my life, but I won’t.” On the other hand, here Mellencamp eventually found his way to the precipice of real passion during “Clumsy Ol’ World,” even if he ultimately pulled back: “She don’t eat meat, but she smokes cigarettes; she remembers things that I’m trying to forget.”

A theme that perhaps ran throughout had Mellencamp exhorting us to “save some time for living.” It may not be much, he told us, but it’s something. The years had weathered his optimism, but it still peeked out on occasion: “Save some time to dream,” Mellencamp continued, “’cause your dream might save us all.”

That starts, on No Better Than This, with John Mellencamp himself.

http://somethingelsereviews.com/2015/08/18/john-mellencamp-no-better-than-this/

[Mellencamp relates life's highs, lows in Indianapolis]

Mellencamp relates life's highs, lows in Indianapolis
In his home state, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer touches all the bases

By David Lindquist

Sandwiched among songs John Mellencamp recorded during the past decade and his big hits from the 1980s, "The Full Catastrophe" emerged as the unlikely centerpiece of Tuesday's concert at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.

Originally recorded for 1996's "Mr. Happy Go Lucky Album," "Catastrophe" was resurrected in radically revamped form. Mellencamp, in neither folkie or Rock and Roll Hall of Famer mode, gave his audience something new.

He resembled a gritty lounge singer in Tom Waits' ballpark, bathed in blue light and accompanied by Troye Kinnett on upright piano. As its title implies, "The Full Catastrophe" is an encyclopedic overview of the human experience. "I've seen goodness, I've known the baddest around," sang Mellencamp, offering couplet encapsulation of the final date of his 80-date "Plain Spoken" tour of North America.

Ranging from rough-hewn storytelling in the tradition of Woody Guthrie to unrestrained arena-rock splendor, the show touched on life's highs and lows.

The persona adopted for "The Full Catastrophe" wasn't far removed from The Shape, a devilish character from "Ghost Brothers of Darkland County" -- the "play with music" Mellencamp devised with author Stephen King. It probably wasn't a coincidence that two songs from "Ghost Brothers" followed "Catastrophe" on Tuesday's program.

Supporting act Carlene Carter was featured on both "Away from this World" and "Tear This Cabin Down." Always looking to the future, Mellencamp mentioned that "Ghost Brothers," a violent backwoods tale, is headed to London's West End Theatre District. Meanwhile, he's taking his "Plain Spoken" tour to Australia.

What energizes a 63-year-old rock star who's seen it all? On Tuesday, Mellencamp found life in a cover of Robert Johnson's "Stones in My Passway." Similar to Bob Dylan, Mellencamp can turn on or turn off smooth, easily understood vocals. Inspired to dance by Andy York's slide-guitar accents, Mellencamp sang clearly and passionately throughout "Passway" and ended with literal kicks to emphasize a repeated announcement that "I'm booked and I got to go."

Despite embracing theaters and modest-sized venues in recent years, Mellencamp didn't conceal his satisfaction at performing for about 8,000 fans in an NBA arena. Hearing Mellencamp perform "Minutes to Memories," "Pink Houses" and "Jack & Diane" in his home state should be a bucket-list goal for every Hoosier. The Seymour native drank in the energy during these tunes and let it flow back toward listeners on unexpected highlights "Catastrophe" and "Passway."

But with "The Isolation of Mister," he tested the patience of fans who were out for a good time. Recorded for last year's "Plain Spoken" album, "Mister" burrows deep into self-loathing. "I thought happiness was a transgression," Mellencamp sang, "and I just took it as it came." An attitude that modern life is rubbish certainly belongs on the spectrum of the full catastrophe, but Mellencamp served it in more palatable form on 1987's "The Lonesome Jubilee."

"Mister" gave way to "Jubilee" hit "Check It Out," and its disbelief that instant gratification is "all we have learned about living." Tuesday's show also featured "Jubilee" masterpiece "Paper in Fire" and its observation that "days of vanity went on forever."

Thoughtful commentary isn't a recent plot twist for Mellencamp. He's no longer a mainstream player, but discerning audiences are willing to hear his message. It doesn't hurt, however, to heed a Disney truism: A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.

http://www.indystar.com/story/entertainment/music/2015/08/05/john-mellencamp-indianapolis-bankers-life-fieldhouse-plain-spoken/31149157/

[Indianapolis Monthly: John Mellencamp’s 10 Greatest Indiana Shows]

Note: The 1980 concert referenced below took place at Oscar's in Bloomington, not Jake's as the author indicated. You can watch the full concert by clicking the video below.

Indianapolis Monthly: John Mellencamp’s 10 Greatest Indiana Shows
By Jeff Vrabel - Indianapolis Monthly

John Mellencamp’s 10 Greatest Indiana Shows

As the local rock star returns to the land of pink houses to wrap up his Plain Spoken tour this month, we compiled a list of his best Hoosier sets.

Ask John Mellencamp fans for memories of his best shows in Indiana, and one thing quickly becomes clear: The guy has performed in a lot of places around here. He has played bars and football stadiums, basketball arenas and fancy theaters, Farm Aids and guerrilla gigs. Regardless of venue, though, the shows have rarely disappointed. “As much praise as he’s gotten, I think he’s still underrated as a live performer,” says Anthony DeCurtis, a contributing editor at Rolling Stone who received his Ph.D. in American literature from Indiana University. “I saw him in 1992, and it was just torrid. I don’t think I’d seen John in an arena to that point, and I remember thinking, ‘Boy, he’s not having too much trouble filling up this space.’”

In honor of Mellencamp’s August 4 date at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, the final show of a tour that has made a number of Indiana stops already, we compiled a scattered, highly unscientific, and 100 percent debatable list of Mellencamp’s best Hoosier concerts over the past four decades. As you might suspect, the list is culled from minutes and memories, so if yours are different (and they probably are), drop us a line. Here are our choices, presented in chronological order because we can’t really rank them. Well, except for maybe that one.

August, 1980
Jake’s
Bloomington

Late in the summer of 1980, when Wayne’s World–style community cable was a thing, Johnny Cougar took the stage at a now-defunct Bloomington nightclub for what then qualified as a multimedia blowout. As part of a live-music series called Late Night Snack, organizers had arranged to simulcast the show on WQAX (a volunteer-driven FM radio station) and Channel 3 on your (extremely large) home cable box. For a musician who was still coming up in the world, it was a big deal. But Mike Leonard, a former columnist for the Bloomington Herald-Times who believes he has interviewed Mellencamp more than any other journalist, recalls that the aspiring rockstar didn’t care so much about obscenity laws. “I remember thinking, Did he just drop another f-bomb?” Leonard says. Jack Larner, who produced Late Night Snack for 12 years (and first saw Mellencamp in a garage at a Bloomington party), said the band signed on because they’d never seen themselves perform before. “They were getting ready to go out on this big tour with Heart,” Larner says, “and they were surprised at what they looked like. The music was great; the professionalism, not so much.” That episode of LNS probably won’t ever be seen again. “There were two copies of the tape,” Larner says, “and John left with both of them.”

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/YaRHq8UHBBg?fs=1&amp;amp;hl=en_US" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/YaRHq8UHBBg?fs=1&amp;amp;hl=en_US</a>

April 10, 1984
Indiana University Auditorium
Bloomington

In August 1983, Mellencamp dropped both the “Cougar” from his name and the album Uh-Huh, which hit No. 9 on the Billboard charts and produced the singles “Crumblin’ Down,” “Authority Song,” “Pink Houses,” and other songs you can’t remember life before. Mellencamp played those tracks at this show, which was broadcast on the Westwood One radio network for the hordes of fans who couldn’t get what was one of 1984’s fiercest tickets. (Thanks to the broadcast, the show is still available in sterling-sounding bootleg form online.) Decked out in a gray suit and backed by a band in full tuxedo regalia, Mellencamp opened, as he often did on this tour, with a mini-set of covers that included “Heartbreak Hotel.” But once he got rolling with his own stuff, all hell broke loose. He played the fairly new “Jack and Diane” with particular fervor. In fact, the only downside to the night was that the crowd’s enthusiasm—as legend has it—almost made the Auditorium collapse. “He started playing ‘Authority Song,’ and all of a sudden, everybody looked up,” Leonard says. “It looked like the balcony was moving two feet up and down.” Which sounds like revisionist rock-show hyperbole until you learn that it appeared that way from the stage, too. “It looked like a rubber band,” says Kenny Aronoff, Mellencamp’s longtime drummer. “We just kept staring at each other in astonishment.” For his part, Mellencamp issued a safety warning from the mic. But he then went into a fireball run of “Play Guitar,” “Pink Houses,” and “Hurts So Good,” so he couldn’t have been that worried. And in Leonard’s review for the H-T, he reported that “an engineer measured the balcony’s movement at no more than of an inch.” Which still constitutes a hell of a show.

April 26, 1986
Memorial Stadium
Bloomington

By the mid-’80s, Mellencamp was big enough not only to pack a football stadium over the World’s Greatest College Weekend, but also to be part of something called “MTV’s Ultimate College Weekend with John Cougar Mellencamp.” According to John Schwarb, author of The Little 500, 43,000 people packed Memorial Stadium that afternoon, with an estimated 10,000 more in parking lots and adjacent streets. (MTV, Schwarb writes, was “so impressed that it sent crews back to Bloomington in 1987 and 1988 for ‘School’s Out Weekend’ specials, highlighting raging drunkfests.”) The show itself was a parade of hits—Mellencamp delivered “Small Town,” “Jack and Diane,” “Minutes to Memories,” “Lonely Ol’ Night,” and “Rain on the Scarecrow” in the first half-hour. But the encore turned into a grab bag of Motown and ’60s covers, ranging from “Mony Mony” and “Land of 1,000 Dances” to James Brown’s “Cold Sweat.” Possibly the World’s Greatest College Weekend Concert.

September 17, 1987
Bluebird
Bloomington

We don’t feel super-comfortable ranking the other nine shows here, but we’re confident in putting this one at the top of the list. It’s the kind of story you hear all the time but never actually happens to real people. About a hundred lucky fans who showed up at the Bluebird one night to see a band called the Ragin’ Texans got quite a surprise. Mellencamp walked onstage and performed, which he was known to do from time to time at that bar. In this case, it was a warm-up for Farm Aid. But imagine the crowd’s surprise when Lou Reed joined him for a follow-up set that included “Sweet Jane,” “Rock & Roll,” and “I Love You, Suzanne.” Oh, and John Prine went on after. Rolling Stone’s DeCurtis, who is currently writing a book about Reed, says the former Velvet Underground singer-songwriter crashed at Mellencamp’s guest house that night. In attendance at the show was Glenn Gass, who has taught a class on the history of rock ’n’ roll at IU for more than 30 years. Even now, Gass has trouble slowing down when talking about the event. “Mellencamp sounded just great,” he says. “Lou kept going on and on about how good Mellencamp’s band was. And Mellencamp stayed up onstage and sang backup harmonies. He didn’t want to leave. He was as excited as anybody there. Maybe the greatest Bluebird night ever.”

December 11, 1987
Market Square Arena
Indianapolis

It’s tough to overstate how popular Mellencamp had become by the time this homecoming blowout began. “In 1987, you could count on one hand the people who were as big as Mellencamp,” says Gass. “You’d hear he had been spotted at the local mall, and it was a Beatles kind of thing.” This Market Square Arena show was part of the Lonesome Jubilee tour. “He went all over the state,” Gass says. “You could argue for the E Street Band or the Heartbreakers, but I think Mellencamp had the best band on the planet that year.” As great as the show was, the most memorable moment came afterward, when Mellencamp filmed the music video for “Check It Out.” “We told the audience, ‘We’re gonna film something, and if you stick around, you could be in it,’” Aronoff says. Not surprisingly, most people stayed. Gass remembers it as a zenith for Mellencamp. “You couldn’t ask for more—a hometown guy in his home state with that band,” Gass says. “Every artist has that Dylan-in-’66 moment, when they never got any better. I think that was his moment.”

July 4, 1992
Deer Creek Music Center
Noblesville

Mellencamp celebrated the success of Whenever We Wanted in 1992 with a weeklong stand at Deer Creek that culminated in a free show on July 4. If you think driving to Klipsch Music Center is a hassle today, imagine what happens when John Mellencamp announces a free show over a summer holiday. There was a catch: You had to have a ticket from one of his four concerts earlier that week. But we still don’t envy the folks in the bathroom lines. “The people of Indiana have supported me from the beginning,” Mellencamp said at the time. “If I wasn’t playing there July 4, I’d be in Indiana just the same, at home in Bloomington with my family.” The show was broadcast on national television and carried on 150 radio stations, so it remains on the Internet. Give it a spin to hear the hip-hop–inflected intro to “Love and Happiness,” which features a full minute of riotous crowd noise before Mellencamp ever sings a note. “Incredible,” Aronoff says. “The place went apeshit.”

March 3, 1997
Indiana University Auditorium
Bloomington

The tour for Mr. Happy Go Lucky was, at the time, a novel experiment. Rather than burn through arenas as he’d done for 15 years, Mellencamp opted for smaller theaters designed for a more intimate experience. He also played just seven cities, adding dates in each to accommodate demand (which meant five consecutive nights in markets like Boston, New York, and Chicago). But as different as this tour was from previous ones, Bloomington still came first—which was good news for, say, graduating seniors who managed to scare up the then-exorbitant ticket price of $46 for opening night. The show was pocket-sized enough to fit on a 90-minute cassette, but what it lacked in length it made up for in punch. An opening volley consisting of “Small Town,” “Key West Intermezzo,” “Love and Happiness,” “Jack and Diane,” “Lonely Ol’ Night,” and “Rain on the Scarecrow” did not afford much time to refresh your drink. This was also the tour that gave prominent stage time to Moe Z. M.D., Mellencamp’s keyboardist and guest rapper, who contributed the electronic foundations to the record and popped in for a hip-hop verse or two.

August 31, 2000
Woodlawn Field
Bloomington

In the early 2000s, Mellencamp supplemented his outdoor amphitheater shows by crashing fields and parks on what he called his “Good Samaritan tour.” He played for 15,000 people in Chicago’s Daley Plaza and 7,000 in Cincinnati before stopping by a meadow near the Indiana University library in Bloomington with a few amps that looked as though they had recently emerged from his attic. Snarling both traffic and any professors who had anything important happening between 1 and 2 p.m., Mellencamp did a nearly hour-long set of originals (“Small Town,” “Pink Houses,” and a bluesy remodeled version of “Key West Intermezzo”) and covers (“Street Fighting Man,” “All Along the Watchtower”). “This isn’t really a concert,” Mellencamp said at the time, adding that he had nothing to promote or sell. But the place, as you might expect, quickly filled with students craning their necks toward the little setup in the corner. “They had sound for a show of maybe 500 people,” says Matt Englert, a B97 radio veteran who’s now the official DJ for IU Athletics. “Most people couldn’t hear if they were more than 50 or 75 yards away. But as far as I was concerned, that day was perfect.”

September 23, 2008
Crump Theater
Columbus

In 2008, A&E’s Biography Channel aired a series called Back Where We Started, which took musicians back to the site of their first-ever concerts—in Mellencamp’s case, the Crump Theater in Columbus, which hosted Johnny Cougar on October 4, 1976, for the outrageous price of $2 per ticket. The television show featured interviews with bandmates and members of Mellencamp’s long-ago Crepe Soul band in addition to a hell of a good reunion concert at the Crump. Indy radio personality Laura Steele was one of just 700 attendees. “What I remember most was getting in the damn place,” she says, laughing. “I went with my best friend from high school, so it was totally a trip back in time. I’m not sure how nostalgic a guy Mellencamp usually is, but it felt like he embraced the nostalgia that night.” True to the show’s nature, Mellencamp hit a number of songs he hadn’t touched in years, including “I Need a Lover.” And in addition to being a sharp homage to his roots, the show raised some $42,000 for United Way flood relief.

February 3, 2015
Indiana University Auditorium
Bloomington

As Mellencamp’s Plain Spoken tour began last winter, he and his band returned to a familiar site with a very different visual presentation. Dressed in formal black, before a backdrop that resembled a graffiti-covered demolition site, he stomped through Delta blues and growled about lawless times. At 63, Mellencamp still clings to that outsider persona. He lets his voice drag across the gravel more than he used to, sounding a little like former tourmate Bob Dylan. The singer came most to life on such blues numbers as “Stones in My Passway,” and with a dark piano reimagining of “The Full Catastrophe,” conjured Tom Waits’s scary Broadway vibe. Introducing the bleak “Longest Days” (“Nothing lasts forever, your best efforts don’t always pay”), he shared some advice. “When you get to be my age,” he said, “you realize that never losing the dream is the important thing. Whether you achieve the dream or not, it doesn’t really matter.” Of course, 40 million albums sold, 13 Grammy nominations, and 22 Top 40 hits doesn’t hurt.

http://www.indianapolismonthly.com/arts-culture/john-mellencamps-10-greatest-indiana-shows/

[John Mellencamp lights up the newly named Microsoft Theater in L.A.]

John Mellencamp lights up the newly named Microsoft Theater in L.A.


By Kelli Skye Fadroski, Orange County Register



John Mellencamp made good on his promise to do a show that fans who appreciate musicianship and songwriting would enjoy. He was clear during an interview earlier this month about putting on an “age-appropriate” performance since, at 63 years old, he doesn’t at all feel pressured to pretend he’s still 25 on stage. Tuesday night at Microsoft Theater (formerly Nokia Theatre L.A. Live) in downtown Los Angeles, Mellencamp played gig 75 of his 80-city tour, which concludes in his home state of Indiana on Aug. 4.

Even that many dates into the jaunt, Mellencamp and his solid backing band, some of which have been with him since the start four decades ago, didn’t show signs of fatigue. They came straight out with “Lawless Times” off the latest record, “Plain Spoken,” which was released last September.

Mellencamp was cool with his strut out on stage, his voice a bit grittier and pleading as the band transitioned into “Troubled Man.” Though his vocal is certainly standout and easily identified, he has always sounded a bit like the late Joe Cocker, mixed with some Bob Dylan and a dash of Leonard Cohen.

All of that is especially true on the offerings from the new record, which is much more focused on roots rock and folk music. When he belts out, “I am a troubled man,” it’s believable. The same goes for “The Isolation of Mister” when the music lowers and he honestly delivers, “Thought I was livin’ a life of freedom, but I was living in a cage.”

All three of those new tracks sat well within this carefully thought out setlist. He didn’t ignore the hits – there were still a few of those sparsely peppered in. After playing “Small Town,” which obviously went over awesome with his loyal followers, he finally spoke to the crowd and introduced himself. He had a little fun and danced across the stage with spirit, but he definitely doesn’t have moves like Jagger.

He dug deep into the blues with a cover of Robert Johnson’s “Stones in My Passway” and took on almost an entirely different personality as the lights dimmed and he stood solo in a spotlight, giving the feeling as if we had all been transported into an old underground blues nightclub as he performed “The Full Catastrophe.”

Storytelling was also a fun and interesting part of the show. Mellencamp has a lot of personality and some decent comedic timing. Before heading into “Longest Days,” he shared a story about going over to spend time with his 100-year-old grandmother, who always referred to him as Buddy, before she passed away and how he laid on her bed with her as she prayed. At some point during the prayer, she muttered, “Lord, me and Buddy are ready to come home.”

“What?!” he said with a laugh. “Grandma ‘me and Buddy’ are not ready to come home! Buddy has a lot more sinning he wants to do.” He got the idea for the song after his Grandma looked him dead in the eyes and said, “You’re gonna find out that life is short even in its longest days.”

It was moments like this that really made the evening feel more intimate and special. Sure, Mellencamp doesn’t have the vocal range he used to, but he still performs with gusto and a whole lot of heart. He didn’t have to do much with “Jack & Diane,” which got the acoustic treatment. Fans roared along as he played guitar solo on stage, but everyone jumped the gun and skipped a verse and headed right into the chorus.

“No!” he yelled with a laugh, stopping for a moment. “That’s the chorus! There’s two verses and then a chorus. It goes like this ... Suckin’ on a chili dog, outside the Tastee Freeze ...”

Once corrected, everyone got back in line and handled business correctly. Mid-set, violinist Miriam Strum and accordion player Troye Kinnet played an entertaining instrumental medley, both very serious seasoned pros, but they were having a good time. Opener Carlene Carter, daughter of June Carter, joined Mellencamp on two songs off of the soundtrack to “Ghost Brothers of Darlkand County,” a musical Mellencamp worked on for almost 15 years with horror author Stephen King. Carter took the lead on “Away From This World” and the pair shared a mic and joined hands for “Tear this Cabin Down.”

Drummer Dane Clark and bassist John E. Gee got to go a little crazy with “Crumblin’ Down” and Mellencamp pointed out the similarities between his hit “Authority Song” and one of his favorite tunes to cover since he was performing at the age of 13 in Indiana clubs, his version of Cannibal & the Headhunters “Land of 1000 Dances.” Everyone sang along to the “na na na na na” hook. Carter came out once again at the end of “Pink Houses” and the evening came to a close, without an official encore, but with a grooving extended version of “Cherry Bomb.”

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/mellencamp-674499-buddy-stage.html

[Solid John Mellencamp entertains Comerica Theatre]

Solid John Mellencamp entertains Comerica Theatre

By Randy Cordova, The Arizona Republic



John Mellencamp knows what he wants to do, and he knows how to get the job done. That much was clear during a solidly entertaining concert at Comerica Theatre on Wednesday, July 29.

The singer-songwriter launched his tour in January and finishes next week in his home state of Indiana. That's a long time on the road, and it probably explains why the concert moved with the brisk efficiency of a Broadway show. The pacing, the patter — it was all carefully orchestrated and flawlessly executed. Perhaps that's why the singer seemed momentarily thrown when an overeager fan interrupted a touching story about Mellencamp's grandmother. "I'm gonna come to your work and yell (expletive)," Mellencamp said, though he appeared more playfully indignant than angry. Once the audience's laughter died down, Mellencamp, old pro that he is, quickly switched back to the tale of his grandmother who lived to be 100, and the train was back on the track.

Back to the pacing: The setlist was so smartly mapped out, you could almost put a formula to it. Layer a big hit song in the playlist every four or five numbers, then hammer it out of the park at the end by playing one smash after another. It was a good way to work in a few tunes from his current disc, "Plain Spoken," and to showcase some overlooked material from his deep catalog. That included the wistful midlife reflection of "Check It Out" and "If I Die Sudden," a chugging blues number. There was even a plug for "Ghost Brothers of Darkland County," his theatrical collaboration with Stephen King. Opening act Carlene Carter joined Mellencamp for two songs from the show, which has had a troubled history (Mellencamp says an opening in London's West End is imminent).

Mellencamp's band looked as if they were ready for church, with the men in suits and violinist Miriam Sturm in a pretty dress. Everyone had a chance to shine. Andy York's slide guitar work was a highlight of "Stones in My Passway." Sturm, who recalls stage actress Julie Harris with her pixie hairdo, added a playful edge to "Troubled Man."

At 63, Mellencamp's voice has more gravel than it once did. He bordered on Tom Waits territory in the character study "The Full Catastrophe." Aided by some spooky lighting, the song actually had more of a theatrical edge than the "Ghost Brothers" material. Otherwise, he sounded in good shape, and his raggedy soulfulness on tunes like "Crumblin' Down" is appealing. He still likes to play the underdog, too. "I was about 25 years old when I wrote this song," he announced during "Authority Song." "I still feel the same way as I did then." Granted, it's a little hard to buy coming from a wildly successful entertainer who until recently was romantically linked with Meg Ryan, but he obviously means it.

Opening act Carter delivered a captivating set that was full of storytelling and her rich, penetrating voice. Though the mood of her songs was often darkly somber — "Lonesome Valley 2003" is about the death of her mother, June Carter Cash — Carter's sass and molasses-and-honey delivery is like the aural equivalent of a warm hug.

Setlist

"Lawless Times"

"Troubled Man"

"Minutes to Memories"

"Small Town"

"Stones in My Passway"

"Human Wheels"

"The Isolation of Mister"

"Check It Out"

"Longest Days"

"Jack & Diane"

"The Full Catastrophe"

"Away From This World" (with Carlene Carter)

"Tear This Cabin Down" (with Carlene Carter)

Overture

"Rain on the Scarecrow"

"Paper in Fire"

"If I Die Sudden"

"Crumblin' Down"

"Authority Song"/"Land of 1,000 Dances"

"Pink Houses"

"Cherry Bomb"

http://www.azcentral.com/story/entertainment/music/2015/07/30/john-mellencamp-concert-review-phoenix/30886363/

[Respected yet restless, Mellencamp forges folky path]

Respected yet restless, Mellencamp forges folky path
By David Lindquist

Hoosier rock star will wrap up 80-date tour at Bankers Life Fieldhouse

With friends in high places, it’s not easy for John Mellencamp to keep a low profile.

The Rolling Stones, Mellencamp said, wanted him to be the supporting act for the band’s July 4 show at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Mellencamp declined the offer. “I don’t want to be a hit jukebox for a bunch of drunk people,” he said during a July 7 interview, sharing his idea of the Independence Day scene at the track.

Candid talk is a defining Mellencamp trait, and “Plain Spoken” is the name of the album he released last September. An 80-date tour to promote the album wraps up on Aug. 4 at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.

The Seymour, Ind., native is performing a wealth of folk and country-blues tunes in a show the 63-year-old characterizes as being “age appropriate.”

A stripped-down and reflective style dominates “Plain Spoken” as well as previous albums “No Better Than This” and “Life, Death, Love and Freedom.” So Mellencamp has a point when saying he no longer meshes with the still-raging Rolling Stones.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer did open for the Stones once. The occasion was a private 60th birthday party for billionaire David Bonderman in Las Vegas in 2002. Robin Williams served as the evening’s MC.

These days, Mellencamp said Bob Dylan is the only act he would agree to play before.

Dylan is fond of Mellencamp, too. In February, Dylan singled out Mellencamp when delivering a 30-minute acceptance speech for the MusiCares Person of the Year award.

Speaking to a Grammys weekend crowd in Los Angeles, Dylan spoke highly of Johnny Cash, Jimi Hendrix and Nina Simone before pausing near the speech’s conclusion to call Mellencamp tune “Longest Days” one of the better songs of the past few years. For emphasis, Dylan said, “I ain’t lying.”

Mellencamp didn’t anticipate a shout-out for the 2008 song. “We were all shocked,” he said. “I was sitting there like, ‘What?’ ”

With mainstream attention mostly a thing of his past, Mellencamp is happier to be known as a gifted songwriter than as an industry darling.

Dylan’s endorsement was worth more than 10 Grammys, said Mellencamp (the owner of one Grammy trophy for 1982’s “Hurts So Good”).

“I would rather have Bob say something in front of the entire music business like he did,” Mellencamp said. “Bob doesn’t say anything that doesn’t come from an intellectual place or from his heart.”

Another musician keeping Mellencamp’s name in the news is Keith Urban, who is climbing the country charts this summer with a single titled “John Cougar, John Deere, John 3:16.”

Evoking the era of Mellencamp’s “John Cougar” stage name and 1980s hits such as “Jack & Diane” and “Pink Houses,” the song features a chorus of, “I learned everything I needed to know from John Cougar, John Deere, John 3:16.”

Mellencamp said he’s OK with the song written by Shane McAnally, Ross Copperman and Josh Osborne.

“I thought it was kind of cute,” he said. “That was it.”

Urban, meanwhile, has credited Mellencamp as a musical influence throughout his career. In May, Urban sang “Pink Houses” with Mellencamp and his band during a “Red Nose Day” telecast on NBC to raise funds for children and young people living in poverty.

Mellencamp made a big impression on Urban in 1988, when the former’s “Lonesome Jubilee” tour visited Australia. During a 2005 interview with The Star, Urban described the show as a “life-changing moment.”

Looking back at that tour evokes mixed emotions for Mellencamp.

“We were the best band in the world,” he said. “There’s no question about it. We were doing something that nobody had ever done before with accordions and violins. The hits were hits all over the world. I knew that we were great, and I was miserable.”

After landing 12 singles in Billboard magazine’s Top 20 between 1981 and 1988, Mellencamp said he felt like a “monkey on a string.”

He spelled out his frustration in the lyrics of “Pop Singer,” the lead single from 1989 album “Big Daddy”: “Never wanted to be no pop singer. Never wanted to write no pop songs. Never had no weird hair to get my songs over. Never wanted to hang out after the show.”

No tour accompanied the release of “Big Daddy.” Mellencamp put music to the side to pursue painting and make the film “Falling from Grace,” the story of a fictional music star grappling with family drama in his Indiana hometown.

In the 21st century, music is front and center for Mellencamp. But he has had his fill of self-marketing.

“At this point in my life, anything I do is strictly for myself,” he said. “If I’m enjoying it, I’ll do it. If I don’t think I’m going to enjoy it, I won’t do it.”

Despite a round of media interaction when “Plain Spoken” arrived in stores, Mellencamp admits to being an unreliable narrator when talking about his work. “I might say anything,” he said, distancing himself from quotes in which he summarized “Plain Spoken” as album based on the male perspective.

According to Mellencamp, you are reading the only interview he has given during the tour that began on Jan. 21 in South Bend.

No need to make a fuss, said Mellencamp, who strives to follow advice given by late folk-music icon Pete Seeger: “Keep it small and keep it going. Turn yourself into a three-ring circus, and you’ll be forgotten immediately.”

Theaters have served as venues throughout the tour, making NBA arena Bankers Life Fieldhouse a jumbo-sized exception. (The Rolling Stones could not be reached for comment regarding who they wanted to open the July 4 show at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.)

All dates have featured Carlene Carter as supporting act. After the Aug. 4 show, Mellencamp plans to make a duets album with Carter, daughter of June Carter Cash and stepdaughter of Johnny Cash.

Then it’s off to Australia for more than a dozen shows.

With his youngest children, Hud and Speck, in college and his on-again, off-again relationship with Meg Ryan seemingly off (“I have no woman,” Mellencamp said), he is settling into the never-ending tour format of one of his heroes.

“I’m in the Bob Dylan way of life,” he said. “Let’s just keep slugging.”

John Mellencamp

• WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Aug. 4.

• WHERE: Bankers Life Fieldhouse, 125 S. Pennsylvania St.

• TICKETS: $39.50 to $129.50.

• INFO:Ticketmaster.com, or call (800) 745-3000.

John Mellencamp’s “Plain Spoken” tour presents two hours of songs focused on the topics of life and death. He sings three songs from the current album and two from 2008’s “Life, Death, Love and Freedom.” The musical Mellencamp wrote with Stephen King, “Ghost Brothers of Darkland County,” supplies the songs “Away from this World” and “Tear this Cabin Down.”

Mellencamp hits “Paper in Fire,” “Human Wheels” and “Small Town” fit the show’s thematic thread, while “Key West Intermezzo (I Saw You First),” “Wild Night” and “I Need a Lover” do not.

“I stayed very close to the vest on what I sang about,” he said of planning the tour.

http://www.indystar.com/story/entertainment/music/2015/07/25/john-mellencamp/30659697/

[John Mellencamp looks back on years of making music]

John Mellencamp looks back on years of making music



Indiana born singer-songwriter John Mellencamp has enjoyed a lengthy and successful music career. He has released 22 studio albums, which spawned over a dozen hits such as “Jack & Diane,” “Small Town” and “Pink Houses.”

He continues to tour North America extensively and has collaborated with numerous top-selling artists and music legends. Mellencamp was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008 and scored his first Grammy that same year. He’s also one of the founding members and still very active with the organization Farm Aid, having helped raise more than $48million to keep families in rural areas living and working on their farms.

The 63-year-old has done it all in these past four decades, he said, by sticking true to his motto: “Try to be honest and never kiss ass.”

It’s just a little something he picked up from Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan, two artists which Mellencamp said during a recent phone interview that he loved just being around.

“Those are the two guys that I think I admire for their songwriting ability and the way they conducted themselves,” he said. “I think that it would be fair to say that both of those guys were always honest and they never kissed ass.”

Mellencamp and his crew put a lot of thought into creating the perfect set lists for their latest North American jaunt, which includes 80 show dates and kicked off in January in support of his 2014 record, “Plain Spoken.” The tour stops in Los Angeles on Tuesday at the Microsoft Theater, formerly Nokia Theatre L.A. Live.

“It’s very important that I present an age-appropriate show,” he said. “I don’t want to, nor do I need to pretend that I’m still 25. When you combine certain songs together, they take on a whole different meaning than they did when I wrote some of them like back in ’85. So, surrounded by songs written in 2015, they’ve taken on a whole different gravity. This show is for people who like to listen to music and appreciate musicianship and songwriting. It’s for people who want to sing along, who want to dance and have a good time. But, if you’re coming just to get drunk, don’t come.”

Though he admits that he’s not so good at recalling which album which songs came from, or even his own song titles at times, he said the sets would include a mix of hits, with some of the more rockin’ tracks getting an acoustic treatment, as well as deep cuts and a handful of new, more roots rock and folk-sounding songs like the lead single “Troubled Man,” “Lawless Times” and “The Isolation of Mister.” Several conversations took place about which songs would be played in which order to really create a good retrospective of Mellencamp’s career.

“I’ll be honest ... I don’t remember which songs are on ‘Plain Spoken,’” he said with a laugh, as he had to call out to someone while we were on the phone to help him remember the title of the song “The Isolation of Mister.” Even after singing a few lyrics, he chuckled at his momentary forgetfulness.

“When we first put this thing together one of the band guys said ‘OK, you have three songs from this album and two from this one, but did you want to play anything from ‘Big Daddy’ or anything from ‘Mr. Happy Go Lucky’ because if you did, you’re not.’ There was a lot of that going on, but it was important that the songs all tied together in some fashion. I had a lot of hit records that I’m not playing because they just don’t fit this format.”

He has also been joined on stage during this outing by tour opener Carlene Carter, a country singer-songwriter and daughter of June Carter, on “Away From This World” and “Tear This Cabin Down.” Both offerings are off of the soundtrack to the musical “Ghost Brothers of Darkland County,” which Mellencamp worked on and launched alongside author Stephen King and musician-producer T Bone Burnett in 2012. Carter and Mellencamp will be getting back together when the tour ends Aug. 4 in Indianapolis to record a brand new duets record, he added.

“Ghost Brothers of Darkland County” was a project Mellencamp had worked on for the better part of a decade and he’s happy with the outcome. The score and soundtrack had him teaming up with artists such as Elvis Costello, Neko Case, Sheryl Crow, Ryan Bingham, Taj Mahal and Dave and Phil Alvin of the Blasters. The musical is currently being set up for performances in London, but will hopefully return to the U.S. sometime next year.

“Broadway is a very different kind of place,” Mellencamp said when asked if he’d consider doing more musicals. “It’s kind of like Nashville in that there’s a certain amount of people that are involved and those people are what run it. You’re either in or you’re not, and Stephen and I weren’t, so we ended up doing things the roundabout way. In London, the people working on ‘Ghost Brothers’ there are people that run the West End, so I feel very confident that good things are going to happen with that.”

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/mellencamp-673578-songs-people.html

[Mike Wanchic reflects on 35 years of giving John Mellencamp the right hook]

Mike Wanchic reflects on 35 years of giving John Mellencamp the right hook

By CBC News

John Mellencamp is playing Saskatoon tonight, following two shows in Regina this past weekend.

Mike Wanchic will be there.

The guitarist will be onstage to Mellencamp's left, a position he's anchored for more than three decades.
Back in 1980, the pair had a single on the charts – Ain't Even Done With The Night – but they weren't happy with the direction that the record company wanted the band to go.

Then they came across the musical template that would set them on their path.

"I think our first a-ha moment was probably not until, maybe, 1980, 81, when we played Hurts So Good and kind of went, y'know, it's simple, it's clean," he said.

"It's exactly what we know. So let's just apply the skills we have."

That one song had the all elements that became the hallmarks of the Mellencamp sound, from the lyrical themes to the distinctively sparse guitars.

Wanchic understands his role in the band, and with his relationship with Mellencamp.

"John is singer-songwriter, he brings us a finished song in a rough form with melody, lyrics, general chords. And then we take that from there and we put a lot of lipstick on it," he said.

"Come up with a great hook line, put a good bridge in it, build a form around it. Find the rhythm that really enhances the lyric."

Wanchic is a multi-instrumentalist who plays electric guitar onstage, writes on acoustic guitar and thinks musically with a piano keyboard. His sympathy with Mellencamp comes from growing up in the same time and place.

"We're both from the midwest, we grew up within a radius of 100 miles of each other, we centralized on a radio station from Louisville, Kentucky," he said.

"We have a really deep understanding of Motown, of early Brit rock, so as we're fleshing out a song those things kind of bubble to the surface."

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/mike-wanchic-reflects-on-35-years-of-giving-john-mellencamp-the-right-hook-1.3149602