John Mellencamp: Plain Spoken Live from The Chicago Theatre (2018) - full transcript

Keep it small.

Remember. Always keep it small.

But keep it going.

Keep it small and keep it going.

Try to keep it as plainspoken as possible.

Keep it vague,

so people can include themselves

in what you're saying,

or what you're singing, or what you're painting.

And don't hit it on the nose.

Don't be so specific.



If you're too specific,

it becomes exclusive only to you.

♪ Well you can't Trust your neighbor ♪

♪ Husband or wife ♪

♪ Can't trust the police ♪

♪ With their guns Or their knives ♪

♪ Look out for the creeper ♪

♪ Tappin' on your cell phone ♪

♪ And you better Lock your door ♪

♪ Even when you're at home ♪

♪ My my my ♪

♪ These are lawless times ♪

♪ My my my ♪

♪ These are lawless times ♪



I'm not sure where they're gonna find

the young writers of the future,

because they will not have the opportunity to grow

as I did as a songwriter,

or as a painter, or as an actor.

Because everything is based on this Monday--

what happened on the weekend.

Because of the digital world, and because of the Internet,

you can't tell what's true and what's not true,

and who's writing and who's stealing and...

And there are plenty of people who can write.

And I don't know where they find their voice

in such a world that is so loud

and with so many voices now.

It just becomes racket after a while.

♪ Well I don't trust myself ♪

♪ I don't trust you ♪

♪ Don't get too sick ♪

♪ It'll be the end of you ♪

♪ Don't expect a helping hand ♪

♪ If you fall down ♪

♪ And if you want To steal this song ♪

♪ It can be Easily loaded down ♪

♪ My my my ♪

Seems like, once upon a time ago,

I was where I was supposed to be.

My vision was true, and my heart was, too.

And there was no end to what I could dream.

♪ These are lawless times ♪

Life is short, even in its longest days.

♪ So you might ask yourself ♪

♪ Well what can I do ♪

♪ I can't trust the future ♪

♪ What's been promised to you ♪

♪ Better run far and fast ♪

♪ Take care of yourself ♪

♪ And keep your eyes open ♪

♪ On everybody else ♪

♪ My my my ♪

I went to New York initially

to look into the New York Art Student League,

and, oh, by the way, I took a-- a demo tape

that I had made with a local band

that I was singing with.

♪ My my my ♪

♪ These are lawless... ♪

And so I dropped that off at different record companies

and management companies, and, uh...

♪ My my my ♪

...and before I even got back to Indiana,

I had a call from one of the management agencies,

and they wanted to handle me, manage me.

So, as it turned out,

the New York Art Student League wanted money,

and the, uh, management agency wanted to give me money.

So for a 21-year old guy, fresh out of college,

money coming in was better than money going out.

Sometimes, the way people act,

it surprises me that they show

any interest at all in other people.

They seem-- The world seems so selfish, sometimes.

♪ It's the wake of all evil ♪

♪ A universal mess ♪

♪ I've always found trouble ♪

♪ Even at my best ♪

♪ No hopes to get better ♪

♪ Till they put me Down to rest ♪

♪ I am a troubled man ♪

But then again, we are always

interested in other people.

I've always been interested in observing people

and watching what they do and their mannerisms

and how they talk and-- and how they dress.

And, uh, what kind of hustle is this person running?

♪ Anxiety and sorrow ♪

You know, what kind of

Why is this guy being so aggressive?

Why is this girl being so quiet?

♪ I laughed out loud once ♪

All of those things, uh, seemed to zoom by me,

and I never could really make much sense

out of it until after the fact.

♪ I am a troubled man ♪

I've always been interested in other people,

and at the same time,

always found other people in my way.

♪ I am a troubled man ♪

♪ I am a troubled man ♪

♪ So many things ♪

♪ Have fallen Through my hands ♪

♪ I am a troubled man ♪

Yeah!

I hear people talk all the time

that they tried to please their parents,

or they tried to please their teachers or their coach

or-- or their lover. Or somebody.

I-- It never dawned on me.

I-- I'm not a people-pleaser.

♪ People up on the East Side ♪

♪ People on a gravel road ♪

I guess I'm just...

It's not part of my make-up

or the way I was brought up.

♪ Too late came too early ♪

I-- I understand people who do that.

But, to me, it always looked like boot-licking,

in some fashion.

I never really wanted to go to the girl.

I always wanted her to come to me.

I never wanted to go to the music.

I wanted it to come to me.

♪ I won't do anything But hurt you if I can ♪

So, I never really, um, thought too much

about what my parents thought of what I was doing,

or the grades I was making,

or the girl I was dating,

or the car that I was driving,

or-- or why I stayed out when they told me to come in.

But, that way, I always figured,

it was just left to me.

At the end of the day, I can take your suggestion,

but if it fails then it's my failure, not yours.

I always, uh, paid attention to the way people spoke.

I found it interesting that there were different accents

in the United States at one time.

Not so much anymore, now that we're all on the same page,

and all on the same CNN, and all on the same networks.

♪ On a Greyhound 30 miles Beyond Jamestown ♪

♪ He saw the sun set On the Tennessee line ♪

But when there were pockets of the United States

that you could tell a Boston accent

from a Southern accent,

or somebody from Texas, uh...

I always enjoyed the rhythm of those dialogues,

and those-- that language and the way they spoke,

and the way they enunciated their words, and...

and, uh, it created a rhythm for me.

♪ My family and friends are The best things I've known ♪

♪ Through the eye of the Needle I'll carry them home ♪

And I just loved talking

to people from New Orleans, you know.

And the language that they used.

And "Big Daddy" this, and "yes, sir,"

and it was interesting, to me.

Even though I can't spell, and I can't

Uh, I'm a terrible speaker, myself,

I always enjoyed the rhythm of language that they used.

♪ The rain hit the old dog in The twilight's last gleaming ♪

♪ He said son it sounds Like rattling old bones ♪

♪ This highway is long but I know some that are longer ♪

♪ By sunup tomorrow I guess I'll be home ♪

♪ Through the hills of Kentucky 'Cross the Ohio river ♪

♪ The old man kept talking 'Bout his life and his times ♪

♪ He fell asleep with His head against the window ♪

If you listen to the dialogue

of Tennessee Williams,

it's-- it's just amazing,

the way that Blanche spoke in such poetry, and--

and the way that Stanley Kowalski spoke

with such brutality,

and this all coming from one man.

One guy could create these characters

that were so different from each other,

but it was all coming from the same voice.

♪ And be the best you can ♪

And, uh... and then, of course I loved the music.

As long as I can remember, I grew up in a house

where I had young parents.

They were only 20 years older than me,

and, uh, I can remember listening to Odetta,

a folk singer.

♪ The old man had a vision but It was hard for me to follow ♪

And at the same time listening to Julie London

and listening to, uh, something

as ridiculous as Mitch Miller,

and listening to something as, uh, interesting to me as--

as Woody Guthrie.

All those records existed in my house.

♪ It's my life It's what I've chosen to do ♪

♪ There's no free rides No one said it'd be easy ♪

♪ The old man told me this My son I'm... ♪

My dad, uh, would have these bongo parties, you know.

On Friday nights, my dad and his buddies

would bring their bongos and congos over,

and they'd play records on the stereo.

And they'd all just play the bongos together,

and, uh, at the time,

there were three boys and my parents

living in this small house,

and I remember falling asleep many nights, hearing...

...and laughter.

I was born with spina bifida,

which is a, uh, a birth defect of the spine,

and the spine is not fully formed,

and the nerve endings come out of the spine.

So, when I was born, I had a sac of fluid

with nerve endings on the back of my neck.

♪ Well I was born In a small town ♪

♪ And I live in a small town ♪

Most people who are born with spina bifida

don't make it.

Uh, particularly in 1951.

So, there was a young doctor in Indianapolis

at the Riley Children's Hospital who said,

"You know, listen, we've got these kids--

we've got four kids in here with spina bifida,

and they're just gonna die

if we don't try to do something,"

so he tried an experimental surgery,

and, uh, of those four kids, I was the only kid that lived.

♪ Educated in a small town ♪

♪ Taught the fear of Jesus In a small town ♪

♪ Used to daydream In that small town ♪

♪ Another boring romantic That's me ♪

I never even knew I had it.

♪ But I've seen it all In a small town ♪

I was 11 years old and a kid said,

"Hey, Mellencamp, what's that big scar

across the back of your neck?"

And I said, "What scar?"

♪ Now she's small town Just like me ♪

And he said, "You got a big red scar

looks like somebody smashed a night crawler

on the back of your neck."

So I went home and I asked my parents,

I said, "What's with this big scar

on the back of my neck?"

And they just said, "Ah, don't worry about it.

You had an operation when you were a baby."

That was all the information I ever had.

And I never even questioned it.

It never stopped me from doing anything.

I played sports. I played football.

I had contact, I got in fights.

Uh, it never, you know, worried me

until I got to be older.

But the greatest thing that happened--

you know, there's no wind so bad

that something good doesn't blow out of it,

and the good thing was that my parents were really young,

and, uh, they didn't really know

what to do with this deformed baby.

So they just went "boom" and handed me to my grandmother.

♪ Got nothing Against a big town ♪

And thank God for her,

because she, uh, willingly took me in

and doted over me,

so I had total eyeballs on me all the time as a child.

♪ Well I was born In a small town ♪

And she would tell me every day,

every day of my life,

"Buddy"-- she called me Buddy, she never called me John--

she'd say, "Buddy, don't forget, you're the luckiest,

most handsome, most talented boy in the world.

Don't ever forget that, Buddy."

And she told me that

every day.

Until, like, I was, like, 40.

One, two, three, four!

♪ Ooh my my my yeah ♪

♪ Small town small town ♪

♪ Said yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah ♪

♪ Yeah yeah yeah ♪

♪ Said yeah ♪

Thank you very much. I'm John Mellencamp.

When I first went to New York,

there was no place for me inside the music business.

Now, we're gonna be doin' all kinds of songs

for you folks tonight.

It was 1974, '75, when I was getting a record deal,

and the first record didn't come out till '76.

We're gonna be doin' all kinds of songs...

You didn't really have to have much talent,

or much of anything, to get a record deal.

Back then they handed out record deals

to young guys for many different reasons.

The way they looked. The way they sang.

The way they wrote songs.

And the record business was flourishing.

Most people would say,

"Oh, it was really hard to get a record deal."

No. It was fucking easy to get a record deal.

I mean, I didn't even try, and I got a record deal.

♪ Well I got stones In my passway ♪

♪ And my road Seems black as night ♪

I, for some reason, thought

that once I had a record deal that the deal was over.

I didn't realize that when I got my first record deal

that the deal had just started.

And I got off to a very, um, obtuse start, to say the least,

with the people I got involved with.

♪ And I got a bird to whistle ♪

♪ I got a bird to sing ♪

♪ Yes I got A bird to whistle ♪

♪ I got a bird to sing ♪

♪ I got a woman That I'm lovin' ♪

My mother considered herself some kind of a rebel.

I saw pictures of her protesting

against the factory in Austin, Indiana, in 1945,

standing outside the-- the picket lines,

protesting with people

that worked inside this canning factory.

And there was a guy that looked like Woody Guthrie--

it wasn't Woody Guthrie,

but it was a contemporary of Guthrie--

and there, there was my mom.

She was, like, 15 years old, out with a picket sign.

People that knew my mom

knew that she wasn't shy to voice her opinion.

Like I would never bring girls over to my house,

because, uh, the way my mom would treat them.

Here would be the deal.

♪ I say to you baby ♪

So and so would come over with me and she'd go,

"Oh, hi, Melinda, um, so do you play guitar?"

And the girl would go, "No,"

and my mom would go, "John does.

Too bad. Do you play piano?"

And that's the way my mom was.

♪ Well I got three legs To walk on ♪

♪ Baby please don't Block my road ♪

♪ Yes I got three legs To walk on ♪

She also was a painter.

She had a little painting studio down in the basement,

which is where us boys lived.

♪ All of my friends Have betrayed me ♪

But in the corner of the basement

was my mom's painting area.

So I grew up smelling turpentine and oil paint.

And I thought oil paintings took forever,

'cause my mom was trying to--

she had a job, and she was trying to raise three boys,

and she would paint, but she would only get to paint,

like, 15 minutes at a time.

So I would think, "Man,

it takes forever to do these oil paintings."

And sometimes, uh, she would be so slow with 'em

that I'd just go over and start painting on 'em,

which really pissed her off.

But, you know, in my life, uh...

...if it's out there, it's mine.

Uh, the first time I went to New York, um, I drove there.

It was, like, 1974, I think.

♪ Never wanted to be no ♪

I had really never, um, hardly been outside of Indiana.

A couple of family vacations

to Florida and Colorado or somewhere like that.

But it was always as a child.

♪ I never wanted to hang out After the show ♪

I didn't even know where New York was at, really.

I just knew that's where the music business took place,

and so I went, and I had zero plan.

♪ I never wanted to Have my picture taken ♪

No plan at all to be in the music business.

I was basically just going to New York,

and I had enough money that I checked

into the Holiday Inn on 57th Street,

and, uh, for the first two days,

I couldn't leave the room.

♪ A pop singer ♪

I was too afraid to go out there.

♪ Of pop songs ♪

At the time, New York City was full of all kind of vices,

and I had never seen anything like that before.

♪ Pop songs ♪

So the first two days,

I just peeked through the Venetian blinds

at what was outside the door, uh,

before I got up enough courage to walk out and go,

"Okay, I came here to do these things. Let's do it."

So it took me a little while to get used it,

being around that many people,

growing up in a town that was... 16,000 people

and everybody knew you, and you knew everybody else.

And, uh, that was the first time

I went to New York.

♪ Never wanted To be no pop singer ♪

-♪ Never wanted to write no ♪ -♪ Pop songs ♪

Rock stars were really idolized

and sought after in the Sixties.

It all started for me

with hearing Elvis Presley and hearing Jerry Lee Lewis,

but they were always, just, uh,

little pictures on an album cover.

And, occasionally, you would see them

on some television show

like Hullabaloo or Dick Clark's American Bandstand.

You would sometimes see guys in rock bands,

and then you would hear their songs on the radio.

♪ Never wanted to be No pop singer ♪

So, it was great, because there was such myth

about being a rock star.

You really didn't know who this guy was.

And then MTV was invented.

It's hard to explain the impact that Music Television had.

♪ Pop songs ♪

The first time I went to MTV,

I was sitting in there with an English artist,

and I said, "Well, what is this?"

And he goes, "I don't know,

the record company made me come here,"

and I said, "Same with me.

You know, what are we doing here?"

And the guy goes, "I think they're gonna show our videos."

And I remember laughing, going,

"Nobody wants to watch those things.

They're terrible," but apparently they did.

So being a rock artist, or a singer-songwriter,

or in a rock band,

all of a sudden, you were front and center.

And I was one of those guys that was front and center

where I went from being able

to move about freely with my life,

to I really could not leave the house

without people following me,

without people standing outside my door,

and it was all because of MTV

and the exposure that MTV brought

to being a rock musician,

and everybody in the world in the early Eighties

wanted to be a rock star.

Everybody, but me.

♪ A million young poets ♪

♪ Screamin' out their words ♪

♪ Maybe some day Those words will be heard ♪

♪ By future generations ♪

♪ Ridin' on The highways that we built ♪

♪ Maybe they'll have A better understanding ♪

♪ Check it out ♪

♪ Goin' to work on Monday ♪

When I first, um, started playing in rock bands,

I didn't really realize how crude and mean

sometimes other fellas could be.

♪ You can't tell your Best buddy that you love him ♪

And how crude they were with women,

and how crude women were, uh,

which led me to write a song called "Hurts So Good,"

because I was playing in these bars,

and I just couldn't believe the,

uh, you know, the lows

that people would go to with each other.

The thing that surprised me

is that it fit my personality perfectly.

I fit right in with all of that.

♪ Check it out ♪

♪ Forgot to say hello To my neighbors ♪

And it's not like people think--

I-- I can assure you that whatever you think

your favorite rock star, movie star is like,

they're not.

♪ Just to tell our souls We're still the young lions ♪

Because you only ever see the shadow self of that person.

You only see the image that they leave behind,

that they purposely are leaving behind,

for you to follow and find.

You're never seeing the real person.

♪ This is all that we've Learned about living ♪

And I think it's that way in politics.

It's that way in music.

It's that way in acting.

Anybody in the public eye,

you only ever get to see their shadow selves.

Now, my dad, he was a, uh, a strict disciplinarian.

He had three boys. I have an older brother

who is four years older than me.

I had a younger brother who was 18 months younger than me.

He just died.

But in 1955, we were all together,

and we were a bunch of rodeo clowns

inside a small house.

And Dad, we must've drove that poor guy fucking crazy.

♪ Those words will be heard ♪

♪ By future generations ♪

As time went on, my relationship with my dad

really came to a, uh...

a vicious place when I hit him in the face.

♪ Maybe they'll have A better understanding ♪

As a 17-year old kid,

you're not supposed to be hitting your dad in the face,

but I was caught in a lie,

and I had no way to deal with the emotion

of being caught in a lie,

so I just hit the old man.

I was 17, so that made him 37.

And to a 17-year-old, a 37-year-old is an old person,

but in real life, the guy's in the prime of his life.

He hit me so hard, I could feel it today.

"So you think you're a man now, huh?"

And he doubled up his fist, and pummeled me.

I fought a lot as a kid,

and I had felt punches from kids my age.

They didn't really hurt that much,

but when a 37-year-old guy is pissed off at you,

and he punches you, you know it.

So I just kept away

from the old man as much as possible,

and I got married when I was 18

to get out of the house, basically.

And then I didn't speak to my dad for three years.

My grandmother lived to be 100 years old, right?

And she was doin' pretty good till she got

to like 99 and three quarters.

And one day, I got a phone call from the old man,

and he said, "John, we need to get together and talk."

Now, I just had got a record deal.

You know, she's the only woman that ever really loved me...

And I said, "Dad, we got nothing to talk about.

'Cause we're just gonna argue. What's the point?"

He says, "No, we're not gonna argue."

So anyway, I agreed to meet him at a restaurant.

She called me Buddy, you know.

So I go there, and the old man's in his suit,

and I walk in, and we sit down,

and we talk for a little bit.

And then the strangest thing,

and the most manly thing that I've ever seen him do,

was he got out of the booth, and he got down on one knee,

and he said, "John, whatever I've done

that you felt was foul play or wronged you,

I'm on my knee now, asking you to forgive me

because I admit that I was very aggressive with you boys."

But then I noticed her breathing

was starting to get kind of heavy.

"And I'm here to ask for your forgiveness."

Her voice is kind of raising in volume, and then she says,

"Me and Buddy are ready to come home!"

When somebody does that,

and is that much of a man about their shortcomings,

you have to forgive them

and realize that your parents

are only human beings that make mistakes.

And so, when the old man did that, it was like...

"Me and Buddy are ready to come home?

Well, you know, what the hell could I do?

Grandma, Buddy is not ready to come home.

Buddy's got a lot more sinning he intends on doing.

I have never had

a foul word with my dad since that day.

She looked at me and she goes,

"You know, it's just like you to say somethin'..."

Never. And I was 22 years old.

Dad is 86 years old today,

and we still have never had a cross word.

And then we locked eyes.

And the strangest thing happened.

Her face turned into like that of a maybe

13-year-old girl, and her voice even changed.

And she looked at me with such love and affection,

and she goes, "You know, Buddy,

you're gonna find out one day real soon

that life is short even in its longest days."

♪ It seems like Once upon a time ago ♪

♪ I was where I was supposed to be ♪

♪ My vision was true And my heart was too ♪

The relationship I have

with people who listen to my songs always confuses me.

♪ Walked like a hero ♪

Because, for some reason,

they think all of these songs are about me.

♪ And everyone called out my name ♪

You can't write 500 songs and have 'em all be about you.

♪ ...was just a mystery ♪

♪ I was too busy Raising up Cain ♪

I am an observer of life.

I see things that other people don't see.

I pay attention to detail.

That's what my songs are about.

That's where my songs come from.

They're not me.

♪ That's when life is short ♪

They're not about me.

♪ Even in its longest days ♪

♪ So we pretend Not to notice ♪

♪ That everything About us has changed ♪

♪ From the way that we look ♪

♪ To the friends we once had ♪

♪ So we keep on Acting the same ♪

If I hadn't, um, gotten into the music business,

or became a painter

or a commercial artist or something,

I would have probably been a construction worker,

because at least you're making something.

♪ Life is short ♪

Every day, if you're an artist,

a painter, an actor, or...

a songwriter, or a poet,

you have to make something every day,

or else you're not really doing it,

because you're not making yourself available.

I am available.

I wasn't available when I was a young man,

because I thought I had to write a song

that had to be on the radio, that have to have this,

it had to have that, it had to have certain things

to meet certain criterias,

and, consequently, I wrote not-great songs

that were in a box.

♪ Waiting up there For you anyway ♪

And so the songwriting really never came to me,

until maybe my sixth or seventh album,

before I realized,

ah, this is what real poetry and art is about.

♪ That's when life is short ♪

♪ Even in its longest days ♪

So, friends...

♪ Our lives are short ♪

♪ Even in their longest days ♪

The idea of me having to write songs was just like,

"Why? There's already enough songs."

There's more songs than I could possibly sing right now.

But part of being a recording artist,

particularly at the time,

was you just couldn't be a cover artist,

even though the first four Rolling Stones records

were all cover songs.

So I was very resistant

to the idea of having to write songs.

I didn't want to write songs.

What do we need another songwriter for?

♪ Well, I've ridden Down Sunset ♪

♪ And I've Drank expensive wine ♪

♪ And I've been married Two dozen times ♪

♪ Raised ten children ♪

♪ On a workman's pay ♪

♪ And I'm glad to say ♪

♪ I've enjoyed every day ♪

♪ Of the full catastrophe Of life ♪

It's just that I really had no-- zero interest

or showed any potential to be a songwriter

when I first started making records.

♪ Well, I've sat in courtrooms ♪

♪ I had lawyers call me names ♪

♪ And I've been to London ♪

♪ On a supersonic plane ♪

When I signed my first record deal,

there was no place for me.

They already had guys like me.

Because they handed out record deals to everyone.

♪ I've enjoyed every day ♪

♪ Of the full catastrophe Of life ♪

But there was no place for me.

There was already these other artists

who did what I was trying to do,

or what I was expected to do,

who had already been doing it

for ten years, five years, three years,

and they were so much more advanced in understanding

of what was going on than I ever was.

♪ From the full catastrophe Called life ♪

So, as time went on, I had to create my own image.

I had to create my own place.

It was for sure that the rock critics

weren't on my side, being called Johnny Cougar,

and being hyped the way that I had been hyped

by record companies.

♪ I've known the baddest Motherfuckers around ♪

So I knew I didn't have rock critics on my side.

And the punk movement was just barely starting,

so I knew that I wasn't part of that.

So just where did I fit in?

♪ And showed Moses the way ♪

♪ And I'm glad to say ♪

The first time that I ever experienced

having a successful record

was a song called "I Need a Lover"

that was number one in Australia.

♪ Of the full catastrophe Of life ♪

This was before MTV.

This was like 1978, '79.

And I went down to promote the record,

and I couldn't believe when I landed, there were kids,

a bunch of screaming girls, basically,

and some guys with a haircut just like mine,

waiting for me to get off the airplane.

Thank you very much.

I couldn't even get picked up

in Bloomington where I lived

if I was hitchhiking, but in Australia

at the time, I had the number one album,

and the number one single, in the country.

Steve King and I started workin' on a musical

called Ghost Brothers of Darkland County.

And it's been a long journey,

'cause Steve's got a real job, and I've got a real job.

I couldn't even take it seriously.

It was like a joke.

I never figured that it would ever happen again.

I figured it was an isolated incident.

So along the way though, a lot of people

came and went.

So I figured out after the "I Need A Lover" experience

that I had to go over everybody's head.

I had to go above the rock critics' head.

I had to go above the record companies' head,

and I had to make records that they would play on the radio

that were undeniable hits.

I didn't know how to do that.

I had got lucky with "I Need a Lover,"

but how did I do that again?

I had no idea.

Would you guys please welcome back Miss Carlene Carter.

And that was the only way I knew

I was going to survive,

was to become so radio friendly

that there was no way that anybody could stop me

from continuing to move onward.

♪ Well I got a house Way up in the sky ♪

♪ Yeah I got a house Way up in the sky ♪

♪ Life may be dreary But I can still sing ♪

♪ Fly up to heaven ♪

♪ On my soul wings ♪

Yeah!

I had a couple of little, small hits

that got to halfway up the charts

and then petered out,

and then I wrote a song called "Hurts So Good."

♪ Well my soul Lord ♪

It was just an observational song that went to number one.

And that's when I knew that this was what I had to do.

I had to continue to write those songs

that were on the radio,

that rock critics could say whatever they wanted.

It didn't matter. The record companies could go,

"Mellencamp is a pain in the ass."

It didn't matter. They had to put up with me.

♪ Way up in the sky ♪

♪ Yeah I got a house Way up in the sky ♪

♪ Life may be dreary But I can still sing ♪

♪ Fly up to heaven ♪

♪ On my soul wings ♪

Creating my own image was no image at all.

Because the image that was given to me

by the record company was so far off base

of who I was and what I thought that I wanted to do.

Now, don't forget, I had no idea

what it was that I wanted to do,

but I knew what I didn't want to do,

which is half the battle.

I did not want to be Johnny Cougar.

I did not want to sing love songs.

You know, I did not want to be the next Neil Diamond,

which is what they wanted for me.

They said it to me.

"You need to be the next Neil Diamond,"

and I went, "I-- I don't want to be the next anything."

♪ Way up in the sky Yes I got a house ♪

So I had to figure out what my image was,

and I had a girl say to me,

"John, just be a pair of blue jeans,

that's what you are.

Be a pair of blue jeans.

Don't be any more. Don't be any less."

And the great thing about blue jeans is,

you can dress 'em up, or you can dress 'em down.

You can put a shirt and tie on with them,

or you can wear a t-shirt with them.

And you can do whatever you want to do

in a pair of blue jeans.

Growing up in Seymour,

or growing up in any small town, I assume,

you either rise above the doubting of dreaming,

or you settle into it and accept it.

I, uh, would mention that, uh, I was going to be a painter,

and people would go, "How you gonna make a living doing that?

You need to, like, get something that's more, uh,

more stable, you know?"

And then I'd say, "Well, maybe I'll go to New York

and try to get a record deal."

" Oh, yeah, that's gonna happen, John."

"Are you kidding?

Why do you even have thoughts like that?

Nobody from Seymour, Indiana, makes records.

Name one person.

And you're the one that's going to do it, really?

You really believe that?

You really think you're gonna bust out of this little town?"

And I would always go, "Yeah, yeah, sure.

Yeah, I can do that."

And I always figured if somebody else could do it,

I could do it.

What made them any better than me?

When I was a young guy in my early teens,

I, uh, I don't know why,

but I fell in love with every girl I kissed.

It was like I had discovered romance for the first time.

I was the only person that ever really felt that feeling,

and nobody could understand it but me.

I was experiencing something that I remember thinking,

"Hey, I wonder if Dad knows about this."

So hearts were cheap.

Um, because they came and they went so quickly.

And that made love a difficult thing for me.

I understood the beginning stages of love,

but I never did really understand much past that.

Hearts were very cheap,

and when you grow up recklessly with someone's heart,

or many people's hearts,

I think it does something to your heart.

And the heart gets hard

and not open to feeling anything

but that initial spark of emotion

that happens when a person is falling in love.

Well, that's all the farther I ever got with love...

for a long, long time.

If you think that the music business

is about anything other than money, you're crazy.

It's all about the money.

I've always had trouble with record companies.

The very first record executive I met

was at MCA in Los Angeles in 1975, I think.

And he hated me, and I hated him.

♪ Scarecrow on a wooden cross Blackbird in the barn ♪

♪ 400 empty acres Used to be my farm ♪

I walked into his office, and I was 22 years old,

and I looked at him, and he was an old man to me,

and he was criticizing my first record.

Well, I knew it wasn't a very good record.

But I didn't need somebody like my dad telling me

that it wasn't a good record.

And I remember saying to him,

"What the fuck do you know about it?

What do you know about youth culture?"

♪ Rain on the scarecrow Blood on the plow ♪

And that's the way the first meeting

with a record company went.

I was combative.

They were used to people being ass-kissers,

and they just ran into a kid that wasn't gonna do that,

so needless to say, I made two records for MCA

and was dropped immediately and--

♪ Called My old friend Schepman up ♪

But I never could figure out what they needed me for.

♪ Said John this is my job ♪

If you guys know so much about it,

then why don't you just make the records

and leave me out of it?

'Cause I don't need to hear your bullshit.

I don't need to hear your opinion

of what I should be doing.

♪ Grandma's On the front porch swing ♪

♪ With a Bible in her hand ♪

I don't know what I should be doing,

but I know what I shouldn't be doing,

and that's listening to you.

♪ When you take away A man's dignity ♪

♪ He can't work His fields and cows ♪

♪ There'll be blood On the scarecrow ♪

♪ Blood on the plow ♪

♪ Blood on the scarecrow ♪

I wasn't put on this earth

to go to cocktail parties,

or even go to nightclubs.

I played in enough fucking nightclubs.

I don't need to go hang out in a nightclub.

I'm a barroom singer.

I been signing in bars since I was 13.

I don't need to be told,

"You need to be seen at this club in New York

so people will think you're hip."

It'd be like, "Fuck you, I'm not doin' that.

I'm not gonna go hang out in some bar to be seen

because the people from Saturday Night Live are there.

Who gives a shit?

I'm not a fuckin' boot-licker here."

And they just didn't like that,

coming from a kid who had sold zero records.

When I first started trying to write songs myself,

and I realized what a daunting task it was,

I would try to say,

"This is what the song is going to be about,"

and then I would limit myself by not allowing the song

to become what it needed to be.

♪ Scarecrow in the rain ♪

Songs like "Hurts So Good" and "Jack & Diane"

and all those early hit records

were songs that were crafted and hammered out

and worked on and slaved over, and they were hard.

But I started writing every day,

and painting and drawing,

and I found myself open to suggestion.

♪ This land fed a nation This land made me so proud ♪

And I wrote a song called "Pink Houses"

that came very quickly.

I wasn't thinking about it.

I saw something a couple of days before,

and I just more or less reported on it.

And it came out to be "Pink Houses."

True art is always a surprise.

It's not constructed.

If it doesn't surprise the person that's writing it,

it's not going to surprise the person that's listening.

Art always has to be a surprise.

When I was 14 years old,

I was in a band called the Crepe Soul,

which was an interracial band in Indiana in the mid-Sixties.

♪ She had a dream ♪

Everybody else in the band was

seven or eight years older than me,

except the other singer was a-- a black kid.

We traded lead vocal parts back and forth,

and we had little shows, and we had Nehru jackets on,

and-- and we played speedways,

and we played fraternity houses.

♪ Well the dream burned up ♪

♪ Like paper in fire ♪

And they loved us on stage.

But it was when we came offstage the problems began.

And when I joined the band, um,

I was issued a-- a switchblade.

♪ He wanted love ♪

♪ With no involvement ♪

And I said, "What's this for?"

And they said, "You're gonna need it."

♪ So he chased the wind ♪

♪ That's all His silly life required ♪

It really was an eye opener,

to see how black people were treated.

♪ And the days of vanity Went on forever ♪

And still are today, treated in America.

♪ And he saw his days burn up ♪

♪ Like paper in fire ♪

In 1969, 1970,

I became part of the counterculture against Vietnam,

and I had long hair,

which was really frowned upon in Seymour, Indiana.

And it also played into

what I had just learned about being black.

Uh, if you were a hippie

in the Midwest at that point,

you were treated as a second-class citizen.

It was funny to me that when I grew my hair out

and, uh, I would walk down the street,

people would lock their doors when I would walk by,

and I would look at 'em,

and I would go, "You're kidding me.

I was at your house two years ago and we had dinner,

and now because my hair is long,

you are locking your door, as, all of a sudden,

I've become like"

♪ There's a good life ♪

♪ Right across Those green fields ♪

♪ And each generation ♪

♪ Stares at it from afar ♪

At the same time as that was all going on

was my only experimental time with drugs and alcohol.

I became, uh... one of those guys

when I drank too much that just couldn't keep his mouth shut.

♪ Paper in fire Pickin' up the ashtray ♪

And found myself in many scrapes

and started a lot of shit that I shouldn't have started.

♪ A man should spend his days ♪

♪ Do you let them smolder ♪

So from about the age of, like, I don't know, 17

to about the age of 20, 21,

that was all the longer my drug and alcohol days lasted.

♪ Who's to say the way ♪

♪ A man should spend his days ♪

♪ Do you let them smolder ♪

All it took for me was to get beat up

so bad one night in a bar fight

that I was unrecognizable to myself the next morning.

I looked in the mirror, and I said, "Okay.

This drug-and-alcohol thing is not working for me."

I immediately went to the barber shop

and got my hair all cut off,

and I never drank or smoked drugs

or took drugs ever again after that night.

That was one ass-beating that I'll never forget.

I think somebody should take the microphone away from me.

Because I will say exactly what's on my mind

and have no filter.

You're asking me what I think,

so if you want to know what I think

then you'd better be prepared to hear something

that you may not want to hear.

♪ Yeah they like to get you In a compromising position ♪

It doesn't make it right, what I think,

but it is what I think.

It doesn't make it true what I think,

but it makes it what I think.

You're asking me what I think.

You're asking me what this song means.

You're asking me what this painting means,

which are ridiculously stupid questions.

Ridiculously uncalled-for questions.

These things only mean something to you

if they mean something to you.

If the artist has to explain it to you,

what it means, then you're missing

the whole point of the exercise.

You're missing the point of understanding true art.

If you want an explanation,

then you need to go back to your television,

where they spell things out for you

very slowly and carefully.

♪ So I call up my preacher ♪

♪ I say gimme the strength For round five ♪

♪ You don't need no strength ♪

♪ You need to grow up son ♪

Me, having a microphone in my hand when I'm on stage,

allows me to say very quiet things

that I think that you can hear.

♪ So I say I fight authority ♪

Art is about your imagination

and what someone else's imagination

does to your imagination.

So many of my songs, you have to read between the lines.

If you can't read between the lines

then you should never listen to my songs,

because I'm never on the nose.

♪ So I say ♪

If something is out there,

I have no shame in claiming it.

If there is a song or there is a movie

or there is a line from a poem,

if it's in the world, it is now mine,

mine to change, to use, to create art with.

If there is a broke-down tire by the side of the road,

it's mine.

Man...

It's all just raw material for a poem,

for a painting, for a song.

And it happens so quickly sometimes

that I don't comprehend it as it's going down,

but I'm able to go back and process

what I've just seen or heard or been a part of.

♪ I fight authority Authority always wins ♪

I can't do it in the moment, because I'm react--

I react to things that are said to me.

I'm very reactionary.

I understand that about myself.

You may say something to me and hear something

you don't want to hear back.

But after I think about it,

I think, "Well, I shouldn't have said that.

I could have said that better."

So I am thoughtful enough to take the time to realize

what I said could be offensive, could not be offensive,

needed to be said, did not need to be said,

could have been phrased in a better way.

But that is all part of being an artist.

You cannot edit yourself and be an artist.

If you're editing yourself then you're an illustrator.

And that's with songs, paintings.

Nothing wrong with being an illustrator.

Don't misunderstand me. Illustrators are needed.

But it's not the life that I want to live,

and it's not the life that I have lived.

I got married at really young age, basically.

Uh, I was 18, and the girl I married was 24.

What a good deal, you know?

Uh, it got me out of the house,

she had a car and credit cards, a job,

college graduate, and I was still in high school.

And I had my first kid.

I had a girl named Michelle,

and, um, I wasn't much of a parent back then.

♪ Well there's a black man ♪

My idea of being a parent

was throwing water balloons at the kid.

♪ Livin' In a black neighborhood ♪

And, uh... just kind of dragging her around,

like she was... I don't know,

my guitar or something.

♪ There's a woman ♪

Just something that I had to take care of.

♪ Cleanin' up The evenin' slop ♪

♪ And he looks at her And says darlin' ♪

♪ I can remember When you could stop a clock ♪

I eventually figured out that I had to do something.

♪ Oh but ain't that America ♪

And when I got out of high school,

I didn't have a job, wasn't looking for a job,

and didn't want a job.

As long as I had a guitar, some paintbrushes, a stereo,

a little money jingling around in my pocket, and a motorcycle,

it was perfect.

Nobody expected much from me.

I was not ambitious.

I was the world's greatest recreator.

♪ There's A young man in a t-shirt ♪

"We're gonna do this today.

We're gonna ride motorbikes today.

We're gonna ride dirt bikes.

We're gonna go skiing."

And that's how I spent my time, and I felt free.

I felt happy.

It never even dawned on me when I first was a kid, 18...

♪ Said boy you're gonna be president ♪

...that I would ever end up doing what I'm doing.

♪ Those old crazy dreams ♪

♪ Kinda came and went ♪

♪ Oh but ain't that America ♪

♪ For you and me ♪

♪ Ain't that America ♪

♪ Somethin' to see baby ♪

♪ Ain't that America ♪

♪ Home of the free yeah ♪

♪ Little pink houses ♪

♪ For you and me ♪

♪ Whoa ♪

When rock first started, it was about change,

about rebellion, about so many social things

that were going on with young people at the time.

And then somehow, they just turned it in to be about money.

In today's music world, it's about your endorsements.

It's about what you can sell.

It's about your brand.

It's not about music, the way it used to be.

The further we got away from the original,

the worse it got.

In other words, the further we got away

from Chuck Berry and the further we got away

from Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan, the worse it got.

And now it's just about selling perfume

or selling clothes or--

I didn't sign up for any of that stuff.

Now I feel like we're just carrying the dead carcass

of rock 'n' roll around and picking up the money

that's left over from the past,

and it's just all nostalgic now.

Makes me sad to say these things,

because at one time, we thought rock would live forever.

But it just didn't.

-♪ Well there's people ♪ -♪ And more people ♪

♪ What do they know know know ♪

♪ Go to work In some high rise ♪

♪ And vacation down At the Gulf of Mexico ♪

♪ Ooh yeah ♪

-♪ And there's winners ♪ -♪ And there's losers ♪

You know I-- I don't really want anybody

to misunderstand me here.

I mean, I am thankful and grateful

to have been part of the lineage

of this thing called rock 'n' roll.

♪ Ain't that America ♪

♪ For you and me ♪

It provided me, um, a life of freedom,

and a life of-- of fun, and the ability to be an artist

and to create and not have to work in the straight world.

It gave me my life.

♪ Ain't that America ♪

♪ For you and me ♪

♪ Ain't that America ♪

♪ Something to see baby ♪

♪ Ain't that America ♪

♪ Home of the free yeah ♪

I tried to find a way to be

gracefully competent at something.

But I didn't need the whole world

to applaud me for it,

because I know my own worth.

I was able to find

my own unique and authentic way of living,

outside of society

without being in trouble.

Well, without being in too much trouble.

And for that, I'm very grateful.

You know, um...

You walk into a bar, and people like to talk,

and you overhear what they're sayin', you know,

and they're talkin' about what?

Talkin' about old times, right?

People just love to talk about old times.

The only problem with old times

is you gotta be old to talk about it.

I mean, really if you face it, right?

So I think it's appropriate that we end this evening

with a song about...

Old times.

♪ Well I lived On the outskirts of town ♪

♪ In an eight-room Farmhouse baby ♪

♪ When my brothers And friends were around ♪

♪ There was Always somethin' doin' ♪

It never bothers me, ever,

to take ownership.

And I've taken ownership of whatever I wanted.

♪ When I think back About those days ♪

You can call that scrappy.

You can call that pushy.

You can call it ambitious.

But I call it just coming into this world

and taking what you want.

♪ And groovin' was groovin' ♪

There is no reward in this world

for settling for something you don't want.

♪ We were young And we were improvin' ♪

There is no reward in this world

for settling for something you don't want.

There is no reward in this world

for settling for something you don't want.

I said it three times.

It's important.

If you settle for something you don't want

then you're going to be disillusioned,

you will feel cheated,

and you're not living life to the fullest.

♪ The winter days They last forever ♪

That's my dead fast rule for myself.

I do not want to settle for something I don't want.

There's no reward in this,

there's no crown in heaven waiting for me

because I settled for something I don't want.

So I always take ownership.

If it turns out good, great.

If it turns out bad, it's my responsibility.

Ultimately and finally, it's down to me.

And it's down to you.

♪ Do you remember when ♪

♪ That's when A sport was a sport ♪

♪ And groovin' was groovin' ♪

♪ And dancin' Meant everything ♪

♪ We were young And we were improvin' ♪

♪ Laughin' laughin' With our friends ♪

♪ Holdin' hands Meant so much baby ♪

♪ Outside The Club Cherry Bomb ♪

♪ Our hearts were Really thumpin' ♪

♪ Say yeah yeah yeah ♪

♪ Say yeah yeah yeah ♪

People have this idea that making and writing a song

is all joyous and, uh, fun.

And it is.

But there's also a lot of work and concentration

that has to go into it,

and instruments have to sound a certain way,

and there's a lot more to it than you could ever imagine.

But for me having the luxury to do this for 40 years

has enabled me to open up my channels

to whatever muse is talking to me.

And now, at my age of 65, I can write songs...

♪ I'm surprised That we're still livin' ♪

...without really sitting down and going,

"Oh, I've gotta write songs."

Take it, Mike!

♪ Well, I hope that we're forgiven ♪

Songs just come to me now.

Sometimes, they come in full form.

Sometimes, they come in short verses.

And a voice will go,

"John, you need to write this down."

And I'll go, "I'm doing something else.

I'm doing a painting."

♪ Talkin' like this to you ♪

But eventually the voice wins, and I write it down.

And I'll find it a few days later and go,

"Wow, when did I write this?"

♪ And dancin' Meant everything ♪

The same thing with painting.

I'll walk up to a canvas and have an idea

of what I think I'm going to paint,

and, of course, I don't paint it.

♪ Holdin' hands Meant so much baby ♪

That is true art.

When the song surprises the creator,

when the painting surprises the creator,

when the performance surprises the performer,

that is pure art.

All right, you guys, thank you very much!

Thank you very much!

Good night, you guys!

Thank you.

That's what you strive to be

to live an artist's life,

to be able to have that ability

to participate in pure art.

I never had that for a long time.

I was an unschooled songwriter,

who became a craftsman,

and then slowly but surely over time,

I started to understand what pure art was.

And pure art has nothing to do

with the amount of records you sell,

or who's enjoying your paintings.

It becomes a way of life.

To live an artist's life is to live

where you have to create something every day.

Every day of my life, I create something.

A painting. A song. A poem. A shelf.

Every day of my life, I create something.