His earliest influences were Anglo inspired and he became something of an expert on the British glam rock movement with particular regard to Roxy Music and David Bowie, enabling him to be viewed as a trailblazer in otherwise conservative Indiana circles where country and old school rock were perhaps more the norm.Īfter touting his wares across the New York record business John fell in with Bowie’s MainMan manager Tony DeFries and the Englishman swiftly signed him to a deal while insisting that he adopt a stage name, Johnny Cougar, and sport a US version of high camp glam with make-up. He seems to be at the peak of his powers right now and that is testimony to his enduring appeal.Īfter a difficult childhood when he recovered from spina bifida, Mellencamp immersed himself in pop music as a teenager. His habit is to address social realism head-on rather than wallow in nostalgia or escapism for their own sake. An inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (2008) his combination of liberal protest music, partially derived from the likes of Dylan and Woody Guthrie, rock and soul has been expanded across the years to encompass rural instrumentation and what he calls a ‘raw Appalachian’ sensibility. His most recent disc is Plain Spoken, which does what it says on the cover and has garnered enthusiastic reviews to match a career where maturity and craft are a byword.Īlongside Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan and Neil Young, Mellencamp is one of the founders of the influential Farm Aid organisation, a more American grass-roots answer to Band Aid. His successes include the fact that he has had more number-one on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, seven, than any other artist and he is a Grammy winner to boot with 13 nominations. His album sales flourished exponentially and he has moved over 40 million discs while hitting the Top 40 in America 22 times.
His lucid style enabled him to crossover during the 1980s from an established cult figure with a fanatical following to a somewhat more mainstream entertainer and eventually, a superstar in his field, though he hasn’t actively sought out the shallower end of fame and concentrates on his work regardless of whatever fad and fashion is around at the time.įrom 1982 on he enjoyed a string of hit singles, including “Hurts So Good”, the signature piece “Jack and Diane”, “Crumblin’ Down”, “Small Town”, “R.O.C.K in the U.S.A.” and “Cherry Bomb”. One of Indiana’s most celebrated sons, John Mellencamp’s music has become a byword for blue-collar authenticity, literate songwriting and heartland rock verity.
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