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1Matters.org: John Mellencamp and Friends! (Make that Family)
07.16.2010 - John reading the PSA Scripts
On Thursday, July 15th we had the privilege to spend part of an afternoon with
singer John Mellencamp during his tour stop in Windsor, Canada.
John shot two public service announcements for 1Matters and conducted a half
hour interview for Toledo Streets. The interview will be made available to all
the street papers nationwide through the National Association of Street
Newspapers and the Street News Service.
It was a very small crew, two shooters, a grip, and my wife. We shot in the
spare guest bedroom of his suite. John gave us about 40 minutes and we
accomplished everything we planned, and more.
Dave Yonke with the Toledo Blade was invited by John’s publicist, Bob Merlis to
cover the “making of.”
I will write more of the full experience later, but I wanted to put down some
quick impressions.
• He just cares, plain and simple. Always has, always will. Since his first band
at age 14, his entire career he has been standing up for justice for all. Look
at today. What else explains why John Mellencamp took time to help a group of
nobodies who
happen to simply love, help, care, and protect a group of people who many
consider ”nobodies.” 1Matters!
• John is rigorously honest. During the interview, he called himself a hypocrite
just because his view has changed on authority since he wrote about it when he
was 20. Hey, who hasn’t changed? We all change our view on things as we get more
information, especially the wisdom provided by age. Later at the show he said “I
don’t do encores, they are fake and just too pretentious.”
• John is funny. ”I wish young John would have had more respect and concern for
old John. Some of the notes in some of the songs young John wrote are very hard
for old John to hit.”
John is all about family. You don’t just see it. You feel it. Everywhere. From
his beaming with pride talking about his sons to the team around him. Guitarist
Mike Wanchic has been with John 35 years. Road Manager Harry Sandler has been
with John for 20 years. In a testament to family, Harry’s daughter, Emilie, is
on this tour and was the first person greeting us. In fact Harry came out his
two-year retirement and the start of his photography passion just to do this
tour with John.
In fact, the entire Team Mellencamp is a team of just damn great people.
Nothing gets to an artist until it has been thoroughly researched and vetted by
his team.
Gratitude goes to his personal manager, Randy Hoffman who we met oh-so-briefly
in 2007. He is the one we contacted two months ago about the idea and who first
thought this venture might be worth looking at so he passed it on to John’s
publicist, Bob Merlis who called us less than an hour after we sent our email to
Randy and told us John had been very touched by his experience at Tent City and
talked about it often.
Bob Merlis gets special recognition here. He is where the kind heart of Team
Mellencamp started for us. “Bow-Tie Bob” as I came to call him, is a record
industry veteran after 30 years at Warner Bros., a blues expert and fan, and
someone who just plain gives a rip about all people too. Thank you Bob!
Lastly, John’s internet guru Tony Buechler has been a huge resource and help all
along.
Having been a comedian so many years I recognize the contribution the team
around an artist makes. And I have found the artist’s team reflects the values
of the artist. Our request was passed on to John because our efforts are part of
his values.
These teams around the artist never want any recognition as it detracts from
their artist. But in this case they are such an important part of the family
feeling we experienced from beginning and through out that it was something
critical to this story.
They made us feel, well, at home. 1Matters.
But away from all of this, here is the bottom line:
HUD’s recent report and strategic plan, “Opening Doors” reported on the average
night 640,000 are unhoused, without domestic autonomy in shelters and on the
streets.
Next month every single one of those 640,000 will know they all are 1 who
matters to those who care to matter.
Next month John will be talking to each and every 1 of them directly in the
nation’s street papers.
His message?
You Matter.
Click HERE to read on their website
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