John Mellencamp
John J. Mellencamp[1] (born October 7, 1951), previously known as Johnny Cougar, John Cougar, and John Cougar Mellencamp, is an American singer-songwriter. He is known for his catchy brand of heartland rock, which emphasizes traditional instrumentation. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008,[2] followed by an induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2018.[3]
"John Cougar" redirects here. For the album, see John Cougar (album). For Mellencamp's self-titled album, see John Mellencamp (album).
John Mellencamp
John J. Mellencamp
- Johnny Cougar
- John Cougar
- John Cougar Mellencamp
October 7, 1951
Seymour, Indiana, U.S.
- Singer
- musician
- songwriter
- Vocals
- guitar
1974–present
Mellencamp rose to fame in the 1980s while "honing an almost startlingly plainspoken writing style" [4] that, starting in 1982, yielded a string of Top 10 singles, including "Hurts So Good", "Jack & Diane", "Crumblin' Down", "Pink Houses", "Lonely Ol' Night", "Small Town", "R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.", "Paper in Fire", and "Cherry Bomb". He has amassed 22 Top 40 hits in the United States. In addition, he holds the record for the most tracks by a solo artist to hit number one on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, with seven. Mellencamp has been nominated for 13 Grammy Awards, winning one. He has sold over 30 million albums in the US and over 60 million worldwide. His latest album of original songs, Orpheus Descending, was released in June 2023.
Mellencamp is also one of the founding members of Farm Aid, an organization that began in 1985 with a concert in Champaign, Illinois, to raise awareness about the loss of family farms and to raise funds to keep farm families on their land. Farm Aid concerts have remained an annual event over the past 37 years, and as of 2023 the organization has raised over $60 million.
Early life[edit]
Mellencamp was born in Seymour, Indiana, on October 7, 1951. He is of German and Dutch ancestry. He was born with spina bifida, for which he had corrective surgery as an infant. Mellencamp formed his first band, Crepe Soul, at the age of 14.[5]
Mellencamp attended Vincennes University, a two-year college in Vincennes, Indiana, starting in 1972. During this time, he abused drugs and alcohol.[6]
During his college years, Mellencamp played in several local bands, including the glam rock band Trash, which was named for a New York Dolls song, and he later got a job in Seymour installing telephones.[7] During this period, Mellencamp, who had given up drugs and alcohol before graduating from college, decided to pursue a career in music and traveled to New York City in an attempt to land a record contract.[7]
Music career[edit]
1976–1982: Performing as Johnny Cougar and John Cougar[edit]
After 18 months of traveling between Indiana and New York City in 1974 and 1975, Mellencamp met Tony DeFries of MainMan Management, who was receptive to his music and image.[6] DeFries insisted that Mellencamp's first album, Chestnut Street Incident, a collection of cover versions and some original songs, be released under the stage name Johnny Cougar, insisting that the bumpy German name "Mellencamp" was too hard to market.[8] Mellencamp reluctantly agreed, but the album was a commercial failure, selling only 12,000 copies. Mellencamp confessed in a 2005 interview:
Other work[edit]
Acting[edit]
Mellencamp has made several forays into acting over the years, appearing in four films: Falling from Grace (which he also directed) (1992), Madison (2005, narration only), After Image (2001), and Lone Star State of Mind (2002). His older brother, Joe Mellencamp, appears in Falling from Grace as the bandleader during the country club scene along with his band Pure Jam.
In 1980, Mellencamp turned down the lead role in the movie The Idolmaker because, as he told the Toledo Blade in 1983, "I was afraid that if I made too much money, I'd have no motivation to make records anymore."
Mellencamp told VH1 that he was originally offered the Brad Pitt role in Thelma and Louise: "You know they used to want me to be an actor all the time and I used to get more movie role offers. That's when I was – believe it or not, I used to not be as ugly as I am now. And they gave me this script called Thelma & Louise and they said, 'The guy wrote the part with you in mind, John; you really gotta do this part.' And I read the script and I thought, 'Yeah, I get it but I don't want to take my shirt off.' So Brad Pitt took his shirt off and look what happened to Brad Pitt. I was that close."[70]
Film music composition[edit]
Mellencamp wrote the score for the Meg Ryan movie Ithaca, which premiered on October 23, 2015, at the Middleburg Film Festival in Virginia and was released in theaters and on-demand by Momentum Pictures on September 9, 2016. "Not one note [in Ithaca] is anything other than Mellencamp. He did everything," said Ryan, Mellencamp's on-again, off-again girlfriend.[71]
In a May 6, 2016, Q&A after a screening of the movie at Geena Davis' Bentonville Film Festival, Ryan said: "The music is so beautiful. John Mellencamp wrote every note – everything – the tiny little needle drops you hear in the back. He wrote about half of it after I read him the script, and then the next half after he saw the movie. He's just incredible."[72]
In addition to the score, Mellencamp wrote two original songs for Ithaca: "Sugar Hill Mountain" (sung by Carlene Carter) and "Seeing You Around" (sung by Leon Redbone). "Sugar Hill Mountain" is a fiddle-driven folk song that describes an idyllic location where there are "bubble gum and cigarette trees", no clocks, every day is spring, and anything you need is "gratis". (The song would later be included, in a re-recorded version, on Mellencamp's 2017 album Sad Clowns & Hillbillies.) Meanwhile, the piano-heavy "Seeing You Around" has the sound of a 1940s standard (the movie takes place during World War II) and is made all the more authentically '40s-sounding by Redbone's gruff baritone vocals. Mellencamp's band provided the backing on both tracks and performed all the music that is in the movie.
Said Carter in 2015:
