There is no truth to this. This was mistakenly reported in the early days of the web in the mid-90's, and has remained there ever since.

Falling From Grace: Here's more than a little bit of information about this terrific movie!

Falling From Grace (1991)

"One of the best films of the year." Roger Ebert, Siskel & Ebert

"A vibrantly funny and touching film...It sneaks into your heart with the power of a song." Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

"A very fine filmmaking debut from John Mellencamp." Gene Siskel, CBS This Morning

Singer John Mellencamp makes his acting and directing debut in this heartfelt love story about a famous singer's return to his small-town roots. Written by Pulitzer Prize-winner Larry McMurtry (Lonesome Dove, Terms of Endearment), Falling From Grace travels the same rural roads as Mellencamp's best music. Jetting in from Los Angeles singer Bud Parks (Mellencamp) and his wife Alice (Mariel Hemingway) return to his Indiana hometown to celebrate his grandfather's 80th birthday. But once there, Bud immediately returns to the wild ways of his youth. He risks his marriage by renewing a love affair with his high school sweetheart (Kay Lenz), and risks his life with the hard drinking and highwire antics that made him famous. Like A Star Is Born, Falling From Grace is an unforgettable portrait of a star driven to make music - and desperate to find live.

Falling From Grace is John Mellencamp's acting as well as directorial debut. Falling From Grace is the result of John's discussions with Larry McMurtry about writing a script for a movie for him to star in that began in the mid 1980's. While John had much input on the general story it is not the autobiographical tale that many believe the film is. However there are many similarities between the character Mellencamp plays and his real life. Falling From Grace was not a blockbuster at the box office. However it did respectably and is looked upon as an artistic success for Mellencamp's first attempt at acting and directing a feature film. Falling From Grace was mostly filmed in Southern Indiana and specifically in John's hometown of Seymour Indiana. Since its theatrical release in 1991 the movie has been released on home video and is also show occasionally on movie networks such as HBO, Cinemax, Showtime and the Independent Film Channel.

After Image: 2001 John plays a crime-scene photographer. The DVD release is available as of 8/2/05.

Lone Star State of Mind: 2002. Described in the press release as a "comedic crime-romp". John plays a slightly deranged (and very funny) family member . Available on DVD.

Madison: 2005. John is a narrator for this movie. Released to theaters in late Spring 2005. The DVD was released on 9/13/05.

No. The terms of service for the John Mellencamp Club Cherry Bomb Fan Club clearly state that there are no refunds for fan club memberships, for any reason, including non-use of the site, or the inability to purchase pre sale tickets.

John's management allows the fan club one photo pass at most Mellencamp headlining concerts. Fan club photographers are treated just like photographers from local newspapers. They have to have pro grade or semi pro gear and skills. They have to shoot from the soundboard area, and typically only get to shoot for the first few songs of the show.

If you have high quality camera gear and would like more information please e-mail help@mellencamp.com

Anyone can volunteer, but you need to have the appropriate equipment to be able to take pictures from the soundboard, which is usually about 30 rows back from the stage. A high quality camera is required.

Tentatively titled ìThe Ghost Brothers of Darkland Countyî, John said he hopes it will be in front of people in 2006, possibly staging it in the Chicago area. In mid 2005, John and Steven had a read through of the show with some actors in NYC to evaluate their progress. The story was outlined by John, and then fleshed out by Steven. The music is written by John.

Everything is tentative at this point. Check back for updates!

When signing up for a FREE or PAID Club Cherry Bomb membership you will have to pick a user name and password. Your USER NAME is what will be displayed when you post to the Club message board, be sure to pick something you are comfortable with other members seeing.

On the bottom of every page of Club Cherry Bomb is a link to the Frequently Asked Questions section as well as a link to Contact the club/website/provider. Use the contact section to enter your information and choose the type of question you have. We will try to respond as soon as possible.

We are very happy to announce that John's Fan Club has been re-launched! The club is now called Club Cherry Bomb - The Official John Mellencamp Fan Club. We are going to work hard to make it a fun place for Mellencamp fans to have insider access, meet other devoted fans and better enjoy John Mellencamp's career.

For a $40 annual membership fee, members will receive the following Club benefits:

• Access to premium John Mellencamp concert tickets in advance of the public on sale.
• Member's only Club website featuring: news and updates, multimedia content, message board, Minutes to Memories Online Fan Journal, online membership card, and JohnMellencamp.com email address.
• Member's only contests including: autographed items, CD's, posters, concert tickets and more!
• Member's only exclusive access to Mellencamp events, appearances, concerts, TV tapings and other special events not open to the public.
• $15 coupon to the John Mellencamp online store. (Valid for one (1) year).#
• 10% discount for the John Mellencamp store for the length of your membership.#
  #Note - some exclusions apply.

No, you are not a member of Club Cherry Bomb unless you have paid to join through our website.

Club Cherry Bomb is an all new John Mellencamp fan club. If you were a member of any of our previous fan clubs (operated by FansRule/FanEmporium) you have to join again.

John's old fan club was closed in June 2003. This club was launched in Feburary 2005.

We suggest you go and read the Ticket FAQ for complete details. You will have a much better understanding of the process after reading that FAQ.

In general, PAID members of Club Cherry Bomb will see a link at the top of the page for Tickets.

When a show has pre sale tickets available, they will appear in the Club Ticket Store when accessed through the Fan Club Tickets link. If you are PAID member log in, then click the TICKETS link. If there are any show tickets avilable, they will then appear.

Please note that all shows will have a limit on how many tickets we will have. All members are not guaranteed to get tickets to a show through the Ticket Sale. We will offer as many tickets as possible, but tickets will be first come, first served.

You will get a confirmation of your order once you have checked out, and then about 1 to 3 weeks before the show your tickets will arrive in the mail.

No. Johnmellencamp.com, Mellencamp.com, and Clubcherrybomb.net will accept only one membership per person. However, a household can have more than one member charged to the same address/credit card.

If we determine that a single person has joined (or attempted to join) more than once, or if we receive multiple membership applications from a single and/or cluster of e-mail addresses verified to single user, we reserve the right to cancel all applicable memberships, invalidate any John Mellencamp concert tickets purchased under the applicable membership(s), and retain all membership fees paid as liquidated damages in order to cover the multitude of damages, costs and fees that we incur as a result of these forbidden activities.

No. We only accept credit cards for payment.

The one on his right arm originally was his ex-wife, Vicky. Later, he had it altered by adding a beard making it look like Jesus. He also has a woodpecker with a cigar or cigarette in its mouth (I believe this is the Thrush Muffler logo) and a broken heart along with the words "forgive us". On his left ring finger, he has what looks like the sign of "female" (circle with a cross).

From the MTV Unplugged book: "The night before the Mellencamp Unplugged, John decided to carve "Fuck Fascism" into his guitar. Because we've stated over and over that the purpose of the show is to showcase the songs and the simplicity of the acoustic instruments, it was pretty much impossible to film him playing without having the message flash across televisions all over America. So we compromised. John agreed to place a 'Censorship is UnAmerican' button across his whittled message. Since it only covered part of the 'U', it's a fair bet that the viewers knew exactly what point he was trying to make. Even if it did look as if it said 'Fock' Fascism."

There is also a partially carved eagle that was started in the mid-'80s on tour, but was never finished.

He lives on the outskirts of Bloomington, IN, about 50 miles from his boyhood home in Seymour. Out of respect for his privacy, please do not ask for the exact address.

The Mellenfest events are fan conventions, if you will. To date, there have been three such gatherings: 1997, 1998 and 2000.. Approximately 300-400 fans (primarily from the MTM fan club and Human-Wheels mailing list from all over the world) got together in John's hometown of Seymour, IN, for 2 nights and 2 days of events which included live music and self-guided tours of Seymour. Mellenfest 2000 was held in conjunction with Seymour's Oktoberfest.

Live music at these events included The Bobby Clark Band (Bobby being John's first cousin), Rusty Bladen and the Shakin' Jakes (John's current bassist, John Gunnell (aka: John E Gee) formerly played bass guitar in Rusty's band), Jimmy Ryser (who contributed to the Dance Naked, Human Wheels and John Mellencamp albums), The Mary Janes (Janas Hoyt performed with John on both John Mellencamp and Rough Harvest), and No Net (featuring Toby Myers and Moe Z MD).

Also at the 1998 Mellenfest, fans were fortunate to have John attend. He performed one song live ("Early Bird Cafe"; solo/acoustically) and played two songs ("Your Life is Now" and "I'm Not Running Anymore") off of the then unreleased album John Mellencamp. He was also gracious enough to stay for a while to sign some autographs.

There are no plans for another Mellenfest.

The book "Paintings and Reflections" (Harper Perennial; 10/23/98; Hardcover $40.00; Paperback $20.00) for the first time gathers beautiful full-color reproductions of John's favorite work. John has donated his profits from the book to VH1's "Save the Music" program which helps buy musical instruments for school children. There will be no further printings of this book in the hardcover edition.

There are paintings on display at the "Southern Indiana Center for the Arts" http://www.soinart.com

You can view some of the paintings on John's official page http://www.mellencamp.com/index.php?page=paintings

You can contact the "Southern Indiana Center for the Arts" http://www.soinart.com/

We are fortunate enough to have an answer directly from George:
"John Mellencamp and I (grew) up in the same town. We have been close friends for many years and we are the same age. We started writing songs together after high school. I am a lyricist by profession, so for any song my name is on, I wrote the lyrics. Among my songs with John are: 'Hurts so Good', 'Crumblin' Down', 'Rain on the Scarecrow', 'Human Wheels', 'Minutes to Memories' & 'Key West Intermezzo'. I have also written songs recorded by several other artists, including Jude Cole, Vanessa Williams, Hall & Oates, Level 42, Girl Overboard, and Barbra Streisand".

The theatrical release of "Falling From Grace" was 1991. The script was written by Larry McMurtry, and it marked John Mellencamp's acting and directorial debut. It stars John as well as Muriel Hemingway, Kay Lenz and Claude Akins, and is about a famous singer's return to his small-town roots. >

The DVD is available at http://www.amazon.com/

No. German model, Tatjana Patitz, is the model who appears in that video.

She is model Shauna Zadrick. Here's an excerpt from an online bio:

Apart from the Guess? campaign, Zadrick also appeared in ads for Calvin Klein's perfume... Apart from advertising, Shauna also appeared in John Mellencamp's video "Wild Night", the video accompanying the 1994 single from his album Dance Naked.

She was born and raised in Grand Junction, Colorado.

John was a founding organizer of Farm-Aid along with Willie Nelson and Neil Young. John's role is now more of a quiet supporter, letting Willie run things. The goal is to raise awareness of the plight of the American farmers. The day-long concert takes place yearly.

http://www.farmaid.org

To make a donation to Farm-Aid, call 1-800-FARMAID.

Yes. Matthew is a self-professed fan of John's, and has attended at least 3 of John's shows in the past few years. It is reported that they are friends and have even vacationed together. Also, Matthew appeared in the video for "Key West Intermezzo".

When John received the 2001 Billboard Century Award, Matthew gave the induction speech.

There's a publicity photo of Matthew wearing the shirt here: http://www.imdb.com/gallery/ss/0117913/fcs_lt_0020.jpg

The Belmont Mall Studio is John's recording studio. Belmont is an extremely small southern-Indiana town.It's located about 10 miles outside of Bloomington and consists of two “ Belmont ” signs on a state highway, one mile apart, with about 10 buildings in between. The studio is not located on the highway, and to protect John's privacy, the location will not be posted here.

The album Uh Huh was recorded in a mobile recording truck at his sister's unfinished house. After that, John decided he wanted his own recording studio. So he bought a house in the Belmont area, and converted it into a recording studio and a small office area. Since 1985, starting with Scarecrow, all of his albums have been recorded there.

With the exception of when he's recording or being interviewed, John is rarely in the studio. It is staffed by a handful of people who take care of John's business dealings. When time permits, the staff there also deals with John's fan mail and autograph requests. The mail is sorted through and put on John's desk. He goes through it when he has the time. Some fans have been able to locate the phone number and they call trying to get news or information, but the staff deals only in the business and not John's career.

Crape Soul

Snake Pit Banana Barn (1966)

Trash (1971)

The Romans

Mason Brothers

John Cougar and The Zone

He and has band have also appeared incognito under the following names:

COPS

Pearl Doggie

John stipulates in his performance contracts that cameras are NOT allowed at his shows. It is almost always stated on the tickets, and security is usually informed that only professional photographers with approved media credentials will be allowed to take pictures during the first three songs when accompanied by a representative from the promoter.

How security handles fans taking pictures depends entirely on them. Some will let you take pictures, some will make you stop if they see you, some will take your film if they see you, some will take your camera until after the show, and some might even make you leave the show.

Bottom line: If you choose to sneak a camera in, do not use flash. Do not over use the camera by taking lots of pictures right in John's or the band members' faces. Use common sense, as you are taking a chance.

They are a punk-rock group; one of their albums being a compilation of Ramones' cover songs, And, no, John has nothing to do with them. Using that name perhaps was just an easy way for them to try to gain some notoriety and name recognition.

The board will have a general forum where fan club members who are FREE/BASIC member can post.

No. The message board has several forums. Your membership status will determine what forums you can see and post to. All site visitors have access to read a few forums. FREE members can post to those forums. PAID members have access and posting privledges to all off the forums, including forums hidden to guests and FREE members.