06.13.2019 - John Mellencamp is a rebel without a cause but not the spitfire refractory type who raises a painting palette with a clenched fist against the art establishment. He’s not a rebel who proclaims a cerebral doctrine, decrees an oppressive ideology or a proponent of some altisonant theory or authoritarian manifesto.
His rebellion is embodied in the physical phenomena, in the palpable materiality of his art. He does not pay any deferential tribute to any arching esthetic dictamina. He propounds in a serenely quiet and countervailing way that art need not subscribe to any one restrictive philosophy but can embrace expansively myriad paths and approaches to self-discovery and the realization of self-expression. Read David L. Shirey's perception of John Mellencamp after the jump. Read More
06.12.2019 - This is a story about those people who live,
love and die on the underside of the American Dream in small towns all across
our country. This is a tale, laced with humor and visceral energy, about
star-crossed lovers, and their stubborn refusal to give up, to lie down, to let
go of the potential their youthful dreams once promised. This is also a story
about a town in free-fall, and the tough choices people make, not always in
their best interests. Book by MacArthur Fellow, Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and
Obie Award winning playwright Naomi Wallace and will be directed by 3-time Tony
Award winner Kathleen Marshall, music and lyrics by John Mellencamp.
More details will be announced in the Fall. Read More
06.12.2019 - "Jack & Diane," John Mellencamp's little ditty 'bout star-crossed lovers in a
small town, has a playwright and a Tony Award winner lined up to direct and
choreograph the hit song's previously-teased transformation into a staged
musical.
Republic Records, Federal Films and Universal Music Theatricals announced on
Wednesday that a musical written by Mellencamp (music/lyrics) and Naomi Wallace
(book) is officially in development, with Kathleen Marshall, winner of three
Tonys out of nine nominations, signed on to direct and choreograph. Read More
06.06.2019 - The 20th Annual WhyHunger Chapin Awards took place at City Winery in New York
City last evening, honoring singer-songwriter John Mellencamp with the ASCAP Harry
Chapin Humanitarian Award, which shines a spotlight on artists who have proven
their commitment to striving for social justice and creating real change in
combating hunger worldwide. Read More
04.29.2019 - “I don’t think that anybody in 1975 imagined that we would still be doing
this today,” John Mellencamp stated near the end of a 25 minute documentary
video that served as an overview of his long career which preceded his
performance at the Paramount Theatre in Oakland Thursday night, adding “The
longevity of this is surprising.”
But over four decades later, the artist initially branded as John Cougar by
his record company against his will has more than established his own identity,
and earned universal respect for a career that’s seen over 40 million album
sales worldwide on the way to induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Read More
04.22.2019 - John Mellencamp, even at age 67, is still kind of a punk.
Not a punk in the mohawk, slam-dancing, Sex Pistols way, but in the way old-timers used to eyeball a certain sort of long-haired, cigarette-smoking loudmouth and mutter "damn punk" at what he saw as a harbinger of society's collapse.
At his packed concert at Spokane's First Interstate Center for the Arts Saturday night, Mellencamp proved to still be the kind of guy who revels in stirring shit up. Whether it was calling the folks screaming during the show's quieter moments "motherf—-ers," or including point-blank political commentary in favor of Black Lives Matter (including taking a knee) and the working poor in his between-song banter and videos, Mellencamp still loves to fight authority, as one of his biggest hits says, and he comes out grinnin'. Read More
04.22.2019 - Before he took the stage Saturday at the First Interstate Center for the Arts,
John Mellencamp sent fans on a trip down memory lane via a documentary detailing
the ups and downs of his lengthy career.
“I don’t think in 1975 anybody would have imagined that we’d be doing this
today,” he’s heard saying as photos of a young Mellencamp flash on screen. “The
longevity of this is surprising. It’s all been a happy accident.”
The documentary touched on the health scares that led to Mellencamp taking a
break from life on the road and the impact of Mellencamp’s music over the years. Read More
He wears coveralls with the sleeves rolled up, showing off his tattoos. Onstage, he chews gum, his hair slicked back. And he talks like us too, his voice with a plain Midwestern accent, a quick joke and the occasional f-bomb.
He looks like, sounds like, seems like 1,000 guys sitting in 1,000 small-town bars.
But unlike most of us regular people, Mellencamp has the uncanny ability to say things in a plainspoken way that expresses and explains our lives in a universal way. Read More
04.14.2019 - The challenge in writing about John Mellencamp is to somehow put into words
the work of a master with words.
A songwriter who can take you to the outskirts of town, outside the Tastee
Freeze and to 400 empty acres that used to be a farm — without ever leaving your
"Small Town."
An artist who can turn a little ditty about Jack and Diane and how “life goes
on, long after the thrill of living is gone” into the most joyous sing-along
chorus you’ve ever heard.
A rocker who, at 67, still comes out swingin’ and grinnin’ at any opportunity
to fight authority. Read More
04.12.2019 - Johnny Cash called him one of the best songwriters of all time. Bob Dylan
counts his output among the best around. Today’s country stars worship his brand
of heartland rock.
John Mellencamp is adored by some of the music industry’s best and by fans
who still pay to put “Jack & Diane” on the jukebox or crank up “Play Guitar”
whenever it comes on the radio.
Mellencamp, who plays Omaha’s Orpheum Theater on Monday, is the progenitor of
Americana rock, distilling folk and rock ’n’ roll and blues and country into
something distinctly Midwestern. His 1985 album, “Scarecrow,” not only left us
with memorable hits — “Small Town” and “R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.” among them — it
also made Mellencamp popular with rock stars and regular Midwesterners alike,
cementing him as a once-in-a-generation voice who, in turn, gave voice to us
here in the heartland. Read More
04.09.2019 - John Mellencamp is famous for his music: He has recorded 24 albums, including
the iconic American Fool, which features “Hurts So Good” and “Jack & Diane.” He
is also a respected artist whose paintings and other works have been exhibited
across the U.S. And so he established this intimate studio in New York City when
he started to date Meg Ryan (the two became engaged in 2018). “To live an
artist’s life, you have to create every day,” he says. “When I was there, there
was no place for me to paint, no place for me to write, so I bought this little
place.” Read this exclusive interview and view photos of the loft taken by William Abranowicz after the jump. Read More
04.01.2019 - Mellencamp came to the stage with “Lawless Times”, a song about the current
state of life in the U.S. from streaming music to the Catholic church. John has
always been regarded as a musical spokesman for the Midwest, but the reason his
music resonates across the nation is that he writes about the human condition in
America. Read Vicky Sullivan's Sarasota Post review after the jump. Read More
03.30.2019 - For a few minutes after the house lights went dark Friday night at Ruth Eckerd Hall, some 2,100 fans could’ve been forgiven for wondering: Wait, where is John Mellencamp going?
Before Mellencamp took the stage in Clearwater, he screened a cinematic 24-minute film looking back at his career and philosophy on music, replete with sweeping shots of combines, cornfields and slo-mo brush strokes on canvas – a Koyaanisqatsian tone poem on artistic expression in America. Read the complete Clearwater show review after the jump. Read More
03.25.2019 - It really wasn't supposed to work out this way. John Mellencamp was hoping to
become a painter. To help pay for art school he would sing in bands and
ultimately he was discovered in the mid-seventies. Soon he would be marketed as
a hot commodity leading to eventual rock stardom. That tale was told during a
short documentary film shown before John's first of two sold-out concerts at the
Ryman Auditorium on March 19, 2019 in Nashville, Tennessee. Read the complete Ryman Auditorium review after jump. Read More
03.23.2019 - John Mellencamp performed to a sold out audience at Oven Auditorium in Charlotte, NC on Friday, March 22, 2019. Fans of the singer have developed a connection to his lyrics of everyday life, struggle and perseverance.
03.14.2019 - Not many concerts come with a kind of spoken-word user’s manual, but John
Mellencamp’s show Tuesday night at Stifel Theatre did. “Here’s the way this is gonna go down tonight,” he said a few songs into his 100-minute performance. “We’re gonna do some songs you know, some songs you don’t know, some songs you can sing along with and some songs you can dance to.”
He noted there would also be some quieter moments and said, “If you’re one of
those (expletives) that need to scream during the quiet section, can you please
go out in the hallway and do that?” That’s the kind of announcement nearly every concert could use. Read More
03.11.2019 - WhyHunger — a leader in the movement to end hunger and advance the human
right to nutritious food in the U.S. and around the world—will present
singer-songwriter John Mellencamp with the ASCAP Harry Chapin Humanitarian Award
during the 20th annual WhyHunger Chapin Awards on June 5, 2019 at
City Winery in New
York. Space is very limited, so purchase your tickets and tables today! Have questions? Contact events@whyhunger.org. Read More
02.26.2019 - There was no opening act on this tour, and this marked his second out of three consecutive shows at New York's Beacon Theatre.
The concert began with a video presentation about Mellencamp's journey and how he came from humble beginnings in Indiana. This clip underscored that his motivations derive from his ability to create, whether it is on canvas as a painter, or with his music. Read More
02.26.2019 - During a quiet moment in the middle of his set at the Beacon Theatre on February 25th, John Mellencamp recounted the tale of visiting his grandmother, who was bedridden and nearing the end of her life. After making a “smart-alecky” comment about “more sinning” that he had to do on this earth, the two looked at each other. Mellencamp recalled that her visage suddenly appeared much younger, and she remarked that “life is short, even in its longest days.” Read Glide Magazines complete Beacon Theatre review after the jump. Read More
02.22.2019 - One cue that this wouldn’t be the typical concert was its billing as “The John Mellencamp Show” and the note that it would start promptly at 8 p.m.
The lights at the Providence Performing Arts Center dimmed at exactly that hour Friday night for a 15-minute biographical film about the 67-year-old Rock and Roll Hall of Famer featuring clips of interviews, American Bandstand and MTV appearances and his disembodied voice talking about an industry that made him change his name, tried to direct his music and contributed to his heart attack at the age of 42.
The film stoked the audience for the arrival of Mellencamp and his six-piece band. Read the complete Providence show review after the jump. Read More
02.18.2019 - On February 15, 2019, John Mellencamp and his bandmates brought their storytelling show of rock, folk, and blues to Peoria, Illinois. The largest city on the Illinois River, with a population of approximately 120,000, Peoria dwarfs the “small town” of Mellencamp’s origin – Seymour, Indiana – but it shares with Seymour the qualification of “where they are not,” as in the advice Mellencamp recalls Pete Seeger giving him for creative longevity, “Go where they are not.” Read David Masciotra's complete Peoria, IL show review after the jump. Read More
02.10.2019 - On Thursday, John Mellencamp took the stage in South Bend to promote the
release of his 24th studio album, “Other People’s Stuff.” Mellencamp has been
writing and performing his own songs for over 40 years, since his first
professional album in 1976. The setlist was well-organized with a few songs to introduce the tone of the show, a nostalgic section, a part for rumination on life and the passage of
time, some political commentary, an anti-authority segment and feel-good
closers. Read the complete Morris Performing Arts Center review after the jump. Read More
02.10.2019 - There is something almost weirdly dispiriting about hearing a theater full of people decades past high school sing along to a chorus of a song that goes “Life goes on long after the thrill of living is gone.”
Yet John Mellencamp led that chorus from his biggest hit from 37 years ago, “Jack & Diane,” Friday night at the Riverside Theater to a nearly packed house. It’s to his credit that Mellencamp has become a legacy rocker who doesn’t so much romanticize his and his listeners’ lives as reflect them without much in the way of aspiration—and that his music retains enough resonance among enough of an audience so long after being an MTV mainstay to fill the Riverside. Read More
02.09.2019 - Read Piet Levy's complete Riverside Theater show review including the set list after the jump. Here are some excerpts: "Yes, these were largely older songs, but Mellencamp didn't play 'em like they were. He performed everything with vigor and meaning. He played 'em like they still mattered...
"To tweak a line from "Jack and Diane," it was clear to see Friday that for Mellencamp, the thrill of living isn't gone — not when there are still injustices in the world, and important songs left to make..." Read More
12.20.2018 - John Mellencamp lands a No. 1 album on Billboard’s Top Rock Albums chart for the
first time in his career, as his new album, Other People’s Stuff, rules
the ranking dated Dec. 22.
The set debuts atop the tally with 44,000 equivalent album units earned in
the week ending Dec. 13, according to Nielsen Music. Nearly all of its sum came
via traditional album sales.
Mellencamp had previously snagged five top fives on Top Rock Albums, which
began in 2006 (many years after Mellencamp first reached the all-genre Billboard
200 chart back in 1979). Before Stuff, with three -- 2007’s Freedom Road,
2008’s Life Death Love and Freedom and most recently, 2017’s Sad Clowns &
Hillbillies reaching No. 3.
The album also represents Mellencamp’s 11th top 10 on the Billboard 200, his
first since 2010’s Nothing Better Than This and best-charting album
since Freedom 10 years prior.
Stuff features covers in its tracklist, including songs by Robert Johnson,
Jimmie Rodgers and more. Read More
On the album Mellencamp noted: “Most, if not all, of the songs on Other People’s Stuff come from The Great American Songbook. These are songs that have been recorded over the last 40 years of my career, but had never been put together as one piece of work. Now, they have.”
Read the complete press release after the jump. Read More
12.04.2018 - A true storyteller who continually contributes new insights to the Americana zeitgeist, John Mellencamp is poised to deliver a brand-new anthology, the wonderfully-titled Other People’s Stuff, Friday, December 7, 2018, via Republic Records.
Despite the nature of the anthology, Other People’s Stuff is cohesive; these are songs that fit one another perfectly, all individual pieces of the great American songbook belonging to Mr. Mellencamp. The brilliance here is in how well each track fits the others and in how flawlessly Other People’s Stuff fits into the recent Mellencamp oeuvre. Read the complete review after the jump Read More
12.04.2018 - Read Lee Zimmerman's complete Other People's Stuff review after the jump. Here is an excerpt: Clearly Mellencamp is working in a realm in which he seems well suited. Hearing him strut and swagger through opening track “To the River” offers all the evidence needed that he still has the drive and determination to convincingly make other people’s stuff feel like his own... Read More
11.14.2018 - Over the last three decades, John Mellencamp has covered a variety of musical
styles, songs and rhythms under the umbrella of heartland rock. On his newest
offering, Mellencamp digs deep into the archives of his musical experience. An
homage to some of the greatest songwriting feats in history, Other People’s
Stuff is emblematic of John Mellencamp’s storytelling ability and his
time-tested musicality. Read the complete review of Other People's Stuff after the jump. Read More
11.06.2018 - Today, John Mellencamp releases the visual for his politically driven song “Eyes On The Prize” off his forthcoming album Other People's Stuff currently available for pre order HERE! The video accompanying the song comes in time for the midterm elections. Protest songs can still make a difference. Watch “Eyes On The Prize” below.
