Concerts. [36], When debuting "Easy Target" on January 19, Mellencamp delivered insights into Sad Clowns & Hillbillies: "It's crazy the way it startedit was going to be a religious record. Known over the course of his successful four-decade music career for his acutely observed songs about the American landscape and its cast of characters, Mellencamp has been equally productive as a painter mining similar terrain. Each member of the band has many years of not only experience, but has a heart to deliver the best possible experience. Mellencamp also performed "Our Country" at a rally for Hillary Clinton in Indianapolis, Indiana, on May 3, 2008, although he never came out in support of either Obama or Clinton during the primaries. I was totally unaware of it until it showed up on the album jacket. In April 2007, Mellencamp performed for wounded troops at the Walter Reed Medical Center. [18], In September 1996, the experimental album Mr. On his 2007 album, Freedom's Road, Mellencamp included a hidden track called "Rodeo Clown", which was a direct reference to George W. Bush ("The bloody red eyes of the rodeo clown"). Take an election; take an oil field; take advantage of your own people a game of political Three-Card Monte.[79]. Like Freedom's Road, Life, Death, Love and Freedom also sold 56,000 copies in its first week. John Cougar Mellencamp . "Everything is a possible song. Toward the end, I didn't even go to the studio. They depict existential scenes and human beings ridden with the angst of the everyday. With a lo-fi setup that included portable amps and a battery-powered P.A. In 1999, Mellencamp covered his own songs as well as those by Bob Dylan and the Drifters for his album Rough Harvest (recorded in 1997), one of two albums he owed Mercury Records to fulfill his contract (the other was The Best That I Could Do, a best-of collection). ", "The songwriting and the painting are very closely knitted together," says Mellencamp, who often will pick up his guitar or start a canvas without premeditation and see what suggests itself to him. But I want to do it this way, and if I can't do what I want at this point, I'm not going to do it. On November 19, 1994 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Mellencamp performed an acoustic cover of Billy Joel's "Allentown" at a tribute event to Billy Joel. Which is correct? ", "Every day that I walk up in my art studio and I complete a painting, I have something to show for my time", says Mellencamp, who sees himself painting through old age. In 1982 Michael Porcaro joined as bassist. It was just a terrible lifestyle. But we had a very clear idea of what we wanted it to sound like, even before it was written, right through to the day it was mastered. 1 hit for four weeks. He has amassed 22 Top 40 hits in the United States. "[84], Mellencamp lives five miles outside Bloomington, Indiana, on the shores of Lake Monroe,[85] but he also has a vacation home on Daufuskie Island, South Carolina. "Hurts So Good" went on to win the Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance at the 25th Grammys. "[12], As Frank DiGiacomo of Vanity Fair wrote in 2007, "The Lonesome Jubilee was the album in which Mellencamp defined his now signature sound: a rousing, crystalline mix of acoustic and electric guitars, Appalachian fiddle, and gospel-style backing vocals, anchored by a crisp, bare-knuckle drumbeat and completed by his own velveteen rasp."[13]. Mellencamp performed "Small Town" at a Barack Obama rally in Evansville, Indiana on April 22, the night of the 2008 Pennsylvania primary. The arrangements are more ambitious, with programs and loops going right along with real drums and guitars.". When I objected to it, he said, 'Well, either you're going to go for it, or we're not going to put the record out.' Prior to the 198586 Scarecrow Tour, during which he covered some of the same 1960s rock and soul songs he and his band rehearsed prior to the recording of Scarecrow, Mellencamp added fiddle player Lisa Germano to his band. In November 2010, Mellencamp told the Chicago Tribune: T Bone and I and Stephen King are working on a musical. Everything is a possible painting. In 1980, Mellencamp returned with the Steve Cropper-produced Nothin' Matters and What If It Did, which yielded two Top 40 singles "This Time" (No. [94], In September 2015, Mellencamp reportedly started dating former supermodel Christie Brinkley. The album, which was released on July 15, 2008, was produced by T Bone Burnett. People have licensed songs that have already been hits, but nobody's licensed a brand-new song to a major company, and people don't know how to react.". The soundtrack includes Rosanne Cash, Sheryl Crow, Elvis Costello, Taj Mahal, Ryan Bingham, Will Dailey and Neko Case among others singing the songs Mellencamp wrote. After the release of Mr. "We had a lot of discussions about the rhythm and blues music of the day. While it was intended to be a flag football thing, it descended into . He brought the No Better Than This tour to Europe in the summer of 2011, opening in Copenhagen on June 24. This extraordinary collaboration 16 years in the making is a haunting tale of fraternal love, lust, jealousy and revenge, performed by an ensemble cast of 15 actors and a four-piece live band, comprised of members of John Mellencamp's band. He resumed recording on the project in March 2021, with plans to cut at least some of the 17 songs he wrote while in quarantine in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. So Brad Pitt took his shirt off and look what happened to Brad Pitt. Joe McCandless knows what really happened; he saw it all. [83], In August 2020, Mellencamp released "A Pawn in the White Man's Game" to his website along with a video to YouTube. During the recording of Uh-Huh, Mellencamp's backing band settled on the lineup it retained for the next several albums: Kenny Aronoff on drums and percussion, Larry Crane and Mike Wanchic on guitars, Toby Myers on bass and John Cascella on keyboards. "[58], Country music star Keith Urban has consistently cited Mellencamp's influence on his music. Former Creedence Clearwater Revival frontman John Fogerty said of Mellencamp: John is one of the great American songwriters and a great rock spirit. He is known for his catchy brand of heartland rock, which emphasizes traditional instrumentation. Also Known As. "Bruce is singing on the new record and is playing guitar," Mellencamp said. Upcoming John Mellencamp tour dates, ticket links and venue information "On this record, we ended up quite a bit away from where we started", Mellencamp told Guitar World Acoustic in 1998. [42] Mellencamp confirmed in 2021 that it will be a jukebox musical titled Small Town and the story will involve two kids named Jack and Diane. [90], Mellencamp was married to Priscilla Esterline from 1970 until 1981 and to Victoria Granucci from 1981 until 1989. 14 single "Key West Intermezzo (I Saw You First)" (Mellencamp's last Top 40 hit) and "Just Another Day", which peaked at No. The musical debuted in the spring of 2012 at Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia, where it ran from April 4 through May 13. Writes Sheets, "While Mellencamp has never been interested in whether he captures a faithful likeness of his subjects; he is after a kind of emotional realism and does follow certain "rules" of painting. A national treasure, he's also one of the truly great music creators that can make us care, move, clap and sing along. I ain't gonna do it. Mellencamp rose to fame in the 1980s while "honing an almost startlingly plainspoken writing style" that, starting in 1982, yielded a string of Top 10 singles, including "Hurts So Good", "Jack & Diane", "Crumblin' Down", "Pink Houses", "Lonely Ol' Night", "Small Town", "R.O.C.K. "The singles were stupid little pop songs," he told Record Magazine in 1983. Others have just one guitar, bass, and drums, which I haven't done since American Fool.". His professional music career began in earnest in 1976 when MCA Records released his first album, The Chestnut Street Incident. But some of those songs we didnt record were pretty good, too.[49], In the summer of 2022, Mellencamp confirmed through his social media channels that he is, indeed, working on the follow-up to Strictly a One-Eyed Jack. "It's been fascinating to me how urban records use rhythm and electronics, and it's terribly challenging to make that work in the context of a rock band", Mellencamp told Billboard magazine in 1996. And the movie is wonderful. You as a listener will be awe-struck as you hear the lead singer, KC aka Casey Corrigan, take on the same powerful, heartaching voice as John Cougar Mellencamp and Bryan Adams. This other step that people keep wanting me to take to become another level of recording artist to be Madonna? We have gone too far with the shameful killing and genocidefrom the Native Americans to where we find ourselves today. If these works are any indication, plain painting can be extraordinarily eloquent.". In 1992 Jeff Porcaro died of a heart attack at the age of 38. Germano played with Mellencamp from 1985-1993 before leaving in 1994 to pursue a solo career. So many people are involved, it's taken a long time. Following the delivery of his address, Indiana University bestowed upon him an honorary Doctorate of Musical Arts. Current Members Of John's Band? It included 50 oil and mixed-media paintings, including several never before seen by the public. In 2015, the show was further developed in London, although King and Mellencamp are no longer as actively involved: "Steve and I are taking a step back but if they called and said they needed a song, I would write one," Mellencamp told USA Today. Never has Mellencamp sounded so artful. system, Mellencamp, armed with an acoustic guitar and accompanied only by an accordionist and a violist, dubbed the jaunt "Live in the Streets: The Good Samaritan Tour". Mellencamp would leave the stage as Donovan played seven or eight of his songs (backed by Mellencamp's band) and then return to finish off his own set after Donovan departed. Farm Aid concerts have remained an annual event over the past 37 years, and as of 2022[update] the organization has raised over $60million. During the next forty years, the events of that night became the stuff of local legend. [31][32] Mellencamp and Carter's duets album, titled Sad Clowns & Hillbillies, was released on April 28, 2017. He is of Dutch ancestry. He's always been somewhat feisty, and his 'Authority Song' tells that story. [21], On July 8, 2014, Mellencamp released a new live album called Performs Trouble No More Live at Town Hall without any advance notice. No Better Than This was released on August 17, 2010, and peaked at No. You know it, and I know it. "[82][bettersourceneeded], Mellencamp supported Michael Bloomberg in his 2020 presidential campaign by taping a Bloomberg 2020 campaign ad that featured Mellencamp singing "Small Town". For Mellencamp, painting has always been a refuge, a solitary antidote to the hectic life of touring and performing. "[103], Mellencamp had a minor heart attack after a show at Jones Beach in New York on August 8, 1994, that eventually forced him to cancel the last few weeks of his Dance Naked tour. Cuttin' Heads also included a duet with Trisha Yearwood on a love song called "Deep Blue Heart". 8), "Check It Out" (No. For the album, see, 19761982: Performing as Johnny Cougar and John Cougar, 19831990: Performing as John Cougar Mellencamp, Last edited on 12 February 2023, at 20:36, Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance, R.O.C.K. The worst thing was that I could have gone on making records like that for hundreds of years. "When the song first came out I was in the car one day and we were driving to the airport and I had my kids with me and a radio station was playing 'To Washington' and having callers call in", Mellencamp said. In August 2000, Mellencamp played a series of unannounced free concerts in major cities on the East Coast and in the Midwest as a way of giving back to fans who had supported him the previous 24 years. Mr. Updated: Oct 16, 2018 / 03:51 PM EDT. But in the years that followed, the family has endured the worst of times. 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