Radio.com: Listen to John Mellencamp’s New Song ‘Easy Target’

By Hayden Wright - Radio.com

John Mellencamp released his new track “Easy Target” as a state-of-the-union address on the eve of a new presidential administration. Mellencamp takes a passionate and plainspoken approach to deliver wary, cautious remarks on America’s present and future. The rock icon hones in on social injustice in the track’s powerful lyrics:

“So black lives matter/ Who we trying to kid? Here’s an easy target/ Don’t matter, never did/ Crosses burning such a long time ago 400 years and we still don’t let it go.”

The wistful melody captures “our country’s broken heart” and laments the future of our politics and social progress. Mellencamp premiered the song on Yahoo’s The Katie Couric Interview, sharing a bit about the songwriting process and his distrust for Donald Trump.

“You don’t really know what he’s really going to do or what because he says one thing and does another,” he said. “You know, ‘we’re not going to have Wall Street involved’ and his whole cabinet is Wall Street. I’m just going to sit back and see how weird it gets.”

Nevertheless, he says the song came together quickly.

“As fast as I could write is how long it took me to write the whole song,” Mellencamp told Couric. “I was just daydreaming, probably, as I was going through the motions and all of a sudden I just started singing that song, as if the song was an old song that was written in full.”

Watch the lyric video for “Easy Target” here:

And check out Mellencamp’s interview and Yahoo News performance here: