Mellencamp coming to Reading -- with a longtime sidemanBy JON FERGUSON
Staff Writer
Guitarist Mike Wanchic started playing with John Mellencamp long before the singer-songwriter ever had a hit.
Wanchic signed on when Mellencamp was still fighting to record under his own name instead of John Cougar, the ridiculous nom de plume assigned him by a former manager.
The Bloomington, Ind., native stuck with Mellencamp even when his record company turned up its nose at his 1982 album "American Fool."
"We sent it over to the record company and the record company hated it," Wanchic says during a telephone interview. "John finally said, 'Tell you what: Either release it or fire us and give it back to us.'"
The record company, of course, did release it and the album proved to be Mellencamp's breakthrough. Not only did it produce two huge hits in "Hurts So Good" and "Jack and Diane," it gave Mellencamp the clout to force the record company to start using his real surname.
Wanchic swears he knew all along that Mellencamp, who will perform with his band Friday at Reading's Sovereign Performing Arts Center, was going to make it big.
"When I was young and first met John — we first met in '76 — I just knew there was a star quality," he said. "There was a quality to him that was undeniable. Somehow I was able to see that."
Wanchic has been with him ever since and has worked as much more than just a sideman. He has co-produced many of Mellencamp's albums, he has served as the bandleader of the terrific ensembles that have backed him over the years and he's been a loyal friend.
"I take pride in ownership myself," Wanchic says. "This is mine as well as John's. I don't think you can ever do your best unless you have that pride in ownership. If you're just a tenant worker, you're not going to care. This is not just a paycheck; this is life."
Mellencamp and his band (Wanchic, guitarist Andy York, violinist Miriam Sturm, bassist John Gunnell, drummer Dane Clark and accordionist/keyboardist Troye Kinnett) are touring in support of his latest album, "No Better Than This," a stripped-down affair produced by T Bone Burnett.
The concert will begin with a film about the making of "No Better Than This," which was recorded at various locations in the South, including a hotel room where Robert Johnson recorded in 1936. All the recording for the album was done using a single vintage microphone.
Mellencamp and the band will hit the stage after the one-hour film. Wanchic says Mellencamp will perform some songs all by his lonesome and the band will perform both as a quartet and as the full ensemble.
"It keeps it musically interesting and it allows us to really build the show properly," he says.
For this tour, Wanchic says, Mellencamp and the band are digging into the prolific musician's huge catalog, though they won't be ignoring the hits.
"We're trying to keep it fun for us and we're trying to keep it fun for the listener," Wanchic says. "That's why we've chosen to do these soft-seated rooms, so people can actually be in a comfortable listening environment. This tour is designed by nature to reach into the catalog and really play some of our best songs. And that doesn't always match up with the hits. Certainly the hits are there, because we owe that to people."
Though the current band has been together for the better part of a decade, Wanchic says its members still practice mightily in a studio in Indiana. Taking a page from high school athletic teams, Wanchic says there are two signs posted in the rehearsal space. One reads, "Practice doesn't make perfect; perfect practice makes perfect," and the other, "You may think you're good when you walk in this room but you'll be great when you walk out."
"John has an extremely high standard," Wanchic says, "as do the rest of us. There's no slackers in this band. Everyone in this band has the same pride in what we do."
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