I always looked at that song like a graphic novel, and now it takes on a whole new seriousness I never realized existed in it. It doesn't sound anything like that version on radio. It's the folk song it always meant to be. It's the first time I've enjoyed playing it in 20 years. Last night during a show during a slow, quiet section, someone yelled out, 'Jack and Diane!' I said, 'You're impatient.' I play it, but you don't know what it is till I start singing it. I'll play "R.O.C.K." again, but not in a way you'll imagine. The only thing to do is to try and figure out a way to get to people who want to hear songs like "Easter Eve" and do a good job at it. If you played it like you did in 1985, perhaps.Ī. Playing "R.O.C.K." tomorrow night would certainly be insulting. No matter what you do, someone's going to be insulted. Am I worrying about insulting people? Well, there's no winning that. By denouncing those early records, aren't you also insulting your fans?Ī. There was no way those folk songs were ever going to get anywhere unless I had hit records. You have pretty clear contempt for your early work.Ī. Anything, he said, that might detour around, say, 1983's "The Kid Inside." And this is what much of our conversation was about: looking to the past without being nostalgic, back-tracking through decades of "progress" to a point further back - and taking a different route from there. If he could erase parts of the past and start over, he said he would. If people are coming to see 'The Coug,' they should stay home." Jumping off an amp at my age would be stupid. She said, 'Really, I like the old John better.' And I said, 'Well, Cathy, that guy doesn't exist anymore.' It'd be foolish of me to try and do at my age now what I was doing at 32. "I talked to my next-door neighbor this morning," Mellencamp, 59, said during our recent interview from his Indiana home. (That same year, he helped found Farm Aid with Neil Young and Willie Nelson.) Each album since - an admirable catalog of a dozen more records with a thoroughly Midwestern blend of Friday-night fun and corner-diner speeches - has received various and consistent acclaim.īut people at the shows still expect him to do the splits. in the U.S.A." but also rootsy, populist tracks like "Small Town," "The Face of the Nation," "Justice and Independence" and "You've Gotta Stand for Somethin'." It was a bid for critical respect, and it worked. The turning point came when Mellencamp, a native of Seymour, Ind., released 1985's "Scarecrow," a transitional album that gave us "R.O.C.K. The name change, for one - Johnny Cougar, then John Cougar Mellencamp, cat-free since '91. John mellencamp band full#When he speaks of his first eight albums of pandering pop-rock - full of Top 40 hits, mind you, like "I Need a Lover," "Hurts So Good," and signature songs like "Jack & Diane" and "Pink Houses" - it's with a scoff and a sneer. He has nothing but contempt for his own early work as a late-'70s/early-'80s, floppy-haired heartland poster boy. He doesn't want to become Johnny Cougar again - God, no. Authenticity is key with Small Town, they do not sample any past records or have any pre-recorded tracks, everything you hear at the show is exactly what you would have heard at a real John Mellencamp show.John Mellencamp wants to go back and start again. Small Town has recreated his high energy shows and the music that everyone knows and loves. Mellencamp is an Indiana native and legendary rock icon With over 25 Top 20 hit songs spanning 40 years. This tribute band, composed 100% of Hoosier natives, has set out to bring the musical catalog of John Mellencamp to life on stage just as Mellencamp has done year after year, decade after decade. Small Town is Chicagoland’s premier John Mellencamp Experience. John mellencamp band free#All shows at the Hoosier Lottery Free Stage are free with paid fair admission and seating is first-come, first-served. The lineup each year consists of some of music’s most legendary acts and this year is no exception. The Hoosier Lottery Free Stage has become a summertime staple for concert goers and music lovers. The best concert value of the summer featuring legendary classic rockers, a GRAMMY-Award winning superstar, timeless '60s & '70s hitmakers, chart-topping country music sensations, a Christian rock favorite, and more!
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