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02/05/2011 - During a soundcheck for an appearance on the Late Show with David
Letterman in December, John Mellencamp performed "Delia," a ballad
originally recorded 71 years ago by Blind Willie McTell. Mellencamp warmed up
with it again at a recent taping for A&E's Private Sessions with Lynn
Hoffman.
Back in December, in his dressing room on the sixth floor of the Letterman
taping, a gravel-voiced Mellencamp sipped from a bottle of chocolate milk and
explained why he’s been playing the blues classic. "If you go back and look at
American music, like 'Delia' for example, it was all about death, it was all
about suffering," Mellencamp tells Rolling Stone. "That's why they call it the
blues. In today's world, we've had so many candy-coated songs that have become
popular music."
Like much of Mellencamp's recent material, the song takes a close look at
mortality, but he doesn't see it as dark. "People say, 'Oh my God! He's talking
about dying, Oh my God! He's talking about sorrow,'" he says. "Then it's like
people hang this tag on it as dark. The original American songs were always
dark. There was probably a couple happy ones I assume, but my research has
always led me to these types of songs. And I think these types of songs are more
of what we hide from then we want to admit. I don't know what people think. I
don't know what they think because I don't read the songs that way. You just saw
me play 'Delia.' I mean, did I sing it sad? You know, it's a sad fucking song."
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