At the start of ‘Plain Spoken’ he declares himself ‘a troubled man,’ while on ‘The Isolation of Mister’ he confesses that he’s ‘never looked forward to the future, never enjoyed where I’ve been.’ Give him an opening in conversation, he’ll grouse with gusto about the political right, the deteriorating state of the music industry and declining opportunities for artists in the Internet age. It makes a guy very colorful.’Įarly on, in fact, Mellencamp dubbed himself The Little Bastard on production credits in a nod to his sometimes surly temperament and the bad-boy posture of his music. But I will tell you that being in a rock band – I don’t even like to use the word ‘rock’ anymore – early in my career and now being a songwriter and my own boss tends to make it all very colorful, to be kind. ‘I’m very grateful that I never had to have a straight job. ‘We were all kids when we signed our first (record) deals, and you didn’t really anticipate making records your entire life,’ says the thrice-married Mellencamp, who has five children and has been linked with actress Meg Ryan, who took the cover photo for ‘Plain Spoken.’ ‘I got a text from another artist the other day that just read, ‘Can you … believe we’re still doing this?’ I wrote back, ‘No. Nearly four decades in, Mellencamp still sounds quietly awed by how durable his career has been.
Mellencamp began his career as Johnny Cougar during the mid-’70s, eventually retaking his surname and growing from brash ne’er-do-well into an Americana troubadour and activist who co-founded Farm Aid in 1984. It’s his first new release in seven years, and Mellencamp’s first in a new lifetime deal with Republic Records. The theaters and opera houses are also better suited for Mellencamp’s latest album, the aptly titled ‘Plain Spoken,’ which came out in September. That was all really fun when you were 28. I really have no interest in doing that.’īut before he sounds like, well, his father, Mellencamp adds, ‘Don’t get me wrong I have nothing with people having a drink or being stoned a little bit, but I don’t want fights breaking out and I don’t want to have to stop the show because people are jumping on the stage and all that stupid (stuff). I’m not here for your folly and your throwing up, too. ‘There’s nothing there for me to do that. ‘I just can’t go out in front of 10,000 drunk people and play anymore,’ the Indiana native says in a recent interview. The albums and radio play are not as abundant as they were during the multiplatinum ’80s heyday of ‘American Fool,’ ‘Uh-Huh,’ ‘Scarecrow’ and ‘The Lonesome Jubilee.’ Fortunately, however, that dovetails with a time in his life when Mellencamp, at 63, has less interest in playing the big rock shows. Some of it is pragmatic, he freely acknowledges. Nowadays, however, the ‘Small Town’ guy likes the smaller places. John Mellencamp used to feel at home playing the biggest arenas and amphitheaters that could hold him during his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame career.
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