The Tapes Archive

John Mellencamp: Marc, it’s John Mellencamp.

Marc Allan: Hi, how’re you doing?

John Mellencamp: I’m squeaking by.

Marc Allan: Yeah, where are you?

John Mellencamp: Dallas.

Marc Allan: Oh okay, are you just doing an interview tour now, is that it?

John Mellencamp: No, we’re playing live on the radio, acoustically and Kenny, Kenny’s playing some bongos and shakers and stuff and Mike Wanchic’s playing guitar, and I’m playing guitar. Acoustic guitar.

Marc Allan: Oh cool, are you gonna do that here?

John Mellencamp: Yep.

Marc Allan: When?

John Mellencamp: Thursday, I think.

Marc Allan: on Q95, I take it?

John Mellencamp: Uh-huh.

Marc Allan: All right. Anyway, let me ask you some questions about the album. You said in the “New York Times” in the past you tried to sing about overlooked Americans on “Lonesome Jubilee” and tried to speak for them. On the new album, it seems to me you that you seem to by trying to shake them out of their malaise. Is that an accurate assessment?

John Mellencamp: Well no, not really, I’m not trying to do that. I’m still just trying to look around to see who the hell I am probably, asking myself the same questions that maybe somebody else might relate to. I’m not really trying to get anybody to do anything. I’ve given up that thought.

Marc Allan: And why is that?

John Mellencamp: Well, it just seems to get worse. I mean, it’s not getting any better. I mean, look how long we’ve been dicking around with the farm problem and it’s worse now than it’s ever been.

Marc Allan: Yeah I agree, but I thought some of the songs were pointed in our direction.

John Mellencamp: They are, they are, sometimes songwriters strive to what they wanna be and not what they are. What I think is only what I think. It doesn’t make it real, it doesn’t make it the truth. It just makes it what I think, and what I think and what I hope sometimes gets mixed up. I’ve given up on trying to save the world

Marc Allan: Does that sadden you?

John Mellencamp: Somewhat yeah, I mean, I don’t know how many thousands of times I’ve jumped up on a little soapbox for a moment and said, “You guys better be careful “of corporate America, it’s gonna do this “it’s gonna do that,” and now you know every town in America looks just the same. Milwaukee’s lost its identity just like Bloomington’s lost its identity, I mean you drive into town it’s the same strip of malls and the same names above the strip of malls, and they stole rock and roll from us, and that’s pretty much the way it is, sports fans.

Marc Allan: Yeah, that’s very true, I always think about it. I used to live in Springfield, Illinois, and I had to go to Fort Wayne one time, and I thought “If you drop me in the middle of here and didn’t tell me “where I was I’d think I was still in Springfield.”

John Mellencamp: Yeah, and how would you identify? See I mean, but it used to not be that way. Every town had its own little signature, had its own little “Man, we have the best fucking hamburgers in the world “right down the street here,” now you can’t say that. Well we got the same goddamn thing where I come from. But you had a little Mom and Pop store that survived and helped the town, and quite frankly these big conglomerations, they don’t give a shit about your town. They only care about themselves.

Marc Allan: Yeah, you get no argument from me on that. That’s exactly right, I wonder why you see that and I see that and so much of America doesn’t see that?

John Mellencamp: Well I think that they see it too. I just think that they just feel helpless and quite honestly, they have phone bills to pay. I don’t even know who said it, keep the masses worried with small things and conquer the world. Keep us busy with nothing and then we can get on with business. But that’s the biggest fear for me, is that everybody talks about how great it’ll be if we have a global community, fuck that. If we have a global community guys like me and you just are not gonna count, talk about being pawns in a game. We will be less than pawns in ways that matter.

Marc Allan: Now it just seems to be harder and harder to do things. I talk to some musicians who say, Graham Nash, I asked him if he thought we could still change the world and he said, “Very definitely,” but I don’t see it. I don’t think we can do it.

John Mellencamp: Those guys, sometimes they say those things ’cause they feel like that’s what you wanna hear.

Marc Allan: Yeah, well they lie or they’re wrong. Anyway, let’s talk about the sound of the album a bit. Did you wanna get back to this raw-edged guitar sound?

John Mellencamp: Yeah, this record we pretty much knew what we wanted to do before we went in, we put the violins and stuff back in their cases for the time being and pretty much turned the drums down, we got rid of the atypical drum sound that most records have today and came up with a different drum sound for Kenny and then we turned the guitars up pretty loud.

Marc Allan: Now how did the change of guitarists affect things?

John Mellencamp: Well actually, I love Larry to death but it’s for the better because I don’t really think, when we started discussing this record Larry really wasn’t in the mindset to do it. And Dave is a guy that’s been on the fringe of this band for years, and he loves to play live.

Marc Allan: Is it strange for you to be on stage with a different guitarist?

John Mellencamp: Yeah, it’s a little strange, I’ve always Larry and I have been on stage together for years and years and years, but Dave’s a real good guitar player but Larry knew a lot of nuances, the things that I needed on stage that he provided that Dave just doesn’t do. But I’m a big boy, I can find a way to get through it. Yeah, it is weird.

Marc Allan: A couple other things on this and then I’d like to go through the songs and talk about them individually. You actually, this is the first time you’ve reclaimed your name right, completely, are you glad about that?

John Mellencamp: Well, it just seems like something long overdue. It was silly to start with and after 15 years it got just downright stupid.

Marc Allan: Are you finding that people are accepting of that and understanding, or are you finding that people are still referring to you as John Cougar Mellencamp?

John Mellencamp: Oh see I don’t really care what they, it doesn’t bother me they can call me anything they want and they probably do. But no, it’s just for me, it’s not for anybody else. I don’t care if the DJ calls me Johnny Cougar or John Mellencamp, or whatever he wants. See, it’s just for me, it’s just a personal thing. It doesn’t really have much to do with the general public. As a matter of fact I would imagine it’s confusing to them.

Marc Allan: Anyway, how about your thoughts about turning 40?

John Mellencamp: I don’t mind, at least I don’t think I do. Sometimes guys get these weird things in their head and they do mind, but I don’t really mind. I wouldn’t be 18 again if you paid me cash money.

Marc Allan: Really?

John Mellencamp: No hell no, I don’t want to be 18 again, goddamn.

Marc Allan: Is there another age you’d rather be?

John Mellencamp: No, I like being the age I am. A few years ago, the one thing I know is that the older you get the less you know. But when I was 30 hell, I knew everything. You couldn’t tell me nothing, I literally thought I was different, and then I find out hell, I aint no different than anybody else, just the same old guy. Just another guy with brown hair and blue eyes trying to make a living.

Marc Allan: On the songs, let’s see, well we’ll start out we’ll go from the beginning, “Love and Happiness”. Most likely the people you refer to in the last verse who sell arms and run dope are not the people who your music reaches, are you hoping that the people that you do reach will rise up against those people and everything else that’s going wrong?

John Mellencamp: Well I think that’s an awfully lofty ambition for a rock song, you know what I’m saying? I don’t think I could through a song make anybody do much of anything. The way this world is with corporate America if, and I’m not really pointing towards corporate America that it’s their fault, but it just seems like that there’s a whole different world out there that you and I don’t know about, and this world is run by men that we never hear of, they’re very private they’re very secretive, and presidents and dictators they’re just names that we all hear. Something to identify the leader with. George Bush, I don’t know what the fuck he knows. I don’t know that he’s really making any decisions about anything, particularly about the global economy which is basically what I’m talking about there. I mean, that’s who matters in this world, arms dealers. They’re the guys making the big deals. They’re the guys making decisions that affect all of us. And obviously, the same goes for anybody that’s dealing in that type of money, they’re important people. You got that kind of money, you’re important. If you’re a working stiff making $30,000 a year I’m not really sure how much they care what you think.

Marc Allan: And I’m not sure that the working stiffs making $30,000 a year know enough about them or wanna know enough about them.

John Mellencamp: Well they’re not privy to the information. I think if they did know they would probably or they, if we, if any of us were to know we would probably be a little bit more “Now wait a minute, that’s not what I thought the deal was.” But some people are just hard-headed too. I’ve got a friend who is a Republican and he still thinks that Ronald Reagan was the best President we ever had. He’s unemployed, I’m like, “Wait a minute man. “You’re my age, and you’re unemployed, and you can’t “draw unemployment, and who do you think made these laws?”

Marc Allan: And what does he say to that?

John Mellencamp: “Well he did this and he did that.” They just don’t hear that part, a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.

Marc Allan: Yes, that’s amazing, you’d think that those would be the people that would be the most bitter.

John Mellencamp: Well yeah, I mean if it was me I’d be pissed off. I mean, for all practical purposes if I was a good businessman I would have really liked the ’80s for that reason and that reason only, ’cause I make enough money that it really helped me out. But I say fuck that.

Marc Allan: It’s interesting, because you’re doing well and you’re pissed off, this guy’s unemployed and he’s all right, I mean he doesn’t care.

John Mellencamp: Yeah it’s funny, I mean, I think it’s weird the ’80s were not a time of rebellion. We had a grandfather for President and we all wanted to behave accordingly or something, I don’t know.

Marc Allan: Okay, also on that song that shrill trumpet is just a great sound, was there a–

John Mellencamp: Well as far as that goes it was like let’s give them something that they don’t expect, we love doing that. I’ve always like the fact that that was part of what people liked about us, “Well I wonder what “his record’s gonna sound like this time?” At least that’s the way the record company looks at it. Who knows what this record’s going to be like ’cause they never hear it until I’m done with it. So you’re sitting there and you think oh yeah and then all of a sudden that trumpet comes in and it’s like “Goddamn, I’ve never heard that before.” So I think that’s great. It’s predictable but it’s not.

Marc Allan: Yeah, I don’t think it’s predictable at all but it’s not unwelcome or it’s certainly it may be a surprise in the scheme of things but it’s not a bizarre surprise, or–

John Mellencamp: Yeah, I think sometimes you can get that way too. I know guys that have made records that they really made some nice records and then all of a sudden they want to do something different. I was big Todd Rundgren fan for a long time and all of a sudden it’s like, “What is the fuck is this? “I don’t get this part,” you can’t get so far out there that nobody gets it but you.

Marc Allan: Yeah, “Now More Than Ever” among the many things that you’re talking about in there, I was wondering if this was a bit of a plea for some more intelligent political songwriting?

John Mellencamp: Well not so much even that, that’s kinda it, but it’s just when people divide anything, like the way rock and roll is divided now, on one hand you’ve got groups that are saying, some heavy metal groups are talking about very over the top weird things, and then on the other end of the spectrum you’ve got some artists that are writing ♪ It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood ♪ and it’s so far apart, where rock and roll was really the one thing that held everybody together that everybody related to the one thing or another. Now music is so fragmented, so I don’t know.

Marc Allan: That it just seems that the less you say the better chance you will have of getting accepted anymore, it’s like people who make you think it just seems to be that a huge audience of people that don’t want to think about anything.

John Mellencamp: Well, we’re programming people to be that way. When I was a kid, you’d watch a movie and you’d have to listen and get involved in the movie. Movies just aren’t that way anymore. It’s like “Terminator 2”, all you have to do is just pay attention and watch, oh my God the good guys and the bad guys are very well identified for us, like those old spaghetti cowboy movies. One guy’s got a white hat on, one guy’s got a black hat on. Okay, I got it, I can understand that. Melodically does that song “Now More Than Ever” sound like “Pink Houses”? That’s been said to me, and if it does than that’s good. I think that’s great, it doesn’t bother me. I mean, the fact that that song was written “Pink Houses” was written in ’83, so I mean how many records have you heard by guys who have made as many records as me that every fucking song sounds the same. So if I have one that kinda sounds that way that’s all right with me, I mean considering I’ve written hundreds of songs since and all these records really ultimately finally come from me, and how I feel, and it’s the same band so I don’t think every now and again it’s not so bad to hit on something that might be familiar.

Marc Allan: Okay, “I Ain’t Ever Satisfied”, my question is why?

John Mellencamp: Well, I think that for me the creation is the fun part, the product of the creation never was that important to me, it’s like when I paint. I don’t care if the paintings even turn out. It doesn’t matter to me what the paintings look like but I had fun painting and it took me someplace and maybe I learned something by the process of painting or writing songs, or what the hell ever I’m doing. Directing movies, whatever it is, I’m learning something from it, if the movie turns out, great. If not, that’s okay too, I at least had the opportunity and the experience of doing it, I get it. I like the fact that I have written.

Marc Allan: Something about the lyric in that song. “I’ve got seven of everything and more in the till.”

John Mellencamp: Yeah, it’s supposed to be funny.

Marc Allan: Okay.

John Mellencamp: It’s supposed to be funny, it’s like it doesn’t matter how much you get, you remember in “Key Largo” you know that movie?

Marc Allan: Mm-hmm .

John Mellencamp: And he’s standing there and he’s going and Humphrey Bogart’s going to, what’s his name? Edward G. Robinson, and he’s going “Well when were you gonna miss that man?” “I don’t know.” “You can never get enough, can you?” “Well I guess not.” “When will you be finished?” “Well maybe never.” “That’s right, you’ll never be happy, will you?” “I guess I won’t,” it’s a great shame. But that’s the way people are, that’s the way I am.

Marc Allan: I wondered if when you’re saying that two songs after you’re saying that if you’re a young couple today, forget buying a house, that’s the way, I realize that you meant this as a joke or to be funny but I wonder if it will be interpreted as thumbing your nose at people?

John Mellencamp: No, I wouldn’t think so, I think if you think that I think you’re thinking too much. I mean, you’re really thinking, really tying stuff together that really never was intended to be tied together. No, I don’t think that, and quite honestly I don’t feel that I should feel that way anyway. If is was a guy who made a lot of money and told everybody to go to hell and didn’t try to give anything back to anybody, then I would say there would be a case to be made. But I don’t think anybody could ever say that about me. “Yeah John Mellencamp, he took the money and ran.” No, fuck you man, I never did that and you know it. So I don’t, see I know that you making that observation is really the first time it’s even ever dawned on me.

Marc Allan: Okay, a couple other specific ones. Were you addressing a specific they when you wrote the song?

John Mellencamp: They being the they I guess it’s your choice man, government, bosses. I never wanted to be anybody’s boss. ‘Cause I mean, I hate the fact that I even am. But that’s not what I chose to be. It’s like what we were talking about earlier. There’s a certain hoop that you’ve gotta jump through and if you don’t wanna jump through that then to hell with you, that’s what I’m saying. So we all have to jump through the hoop with the piper that we need to go, that we work for and that’s basically what that song’s dealing with.

Marc Allan: I think that people forget that even you have to do that because you’ve got a record company to deal with the public to deal with and stuff.

John Mellencamp: Oh it’s actually even simpler. Everybody has got bosses, I’d like to meet the last guy wouldn’t you? I’d like to see who that last guy is. Now man, I’m the boss of everybody. I’d just like to see what the fuck he looks like. See what kind of man he is, that would be interesting. Probably scare you to fucking death.

Marc Allan: I think it’s the guy that owns Walmart, actually.

John Mellencamp: You could be right.

Marc Allan: We’ll go through the rest of the songs and tell me anything about them that you want to tell me. Anything, whatever inspired them or anything else you want to address, “Get a Leg Up”.

John Mellencamp: “Get a Leg Up” is about, it really is closely knitted with the name of the record, “Whenever We Wanted”. It’s like what we think and what is. Just because I think it doesn’t make it right. Or it doesn’t even necessarily make it what is. It just means that’s what I think, you know what I’m saying? And what I think is worthless except to you. Except for the only person it means anything to is to me. And we’re all that way, you think this, I think that. That’s what makes the world go round. And in the song, we make light of that by here’s a guy who spent all his money on a girl and she says, and he thinks, “Well forget it man. “I might as well go home,” and then much to his surprise hell, he’s gonna be Lucky Pierre. That’s how wrong he was, and we’ve all been that way. Not necessarily in that type of situation but you walk into a room and you look at the situation and you go, “Yeah, I know what’s going on here.” But guess what, you don’t. And that happens to me all the fucking time. Oh yeah, I got this figured out, I thought I had that figured out about life about 10 years ago. Yeah, I got this all worked out. No, sorry man, you’re wrong again.

Marc Allan: Okay, “Crazy Ones”.

John Mellencamp: Well I’ve known a couple girls in my life and that’s just the way it works out for me. And that’s just a a song about a girl I met.

Marc Allan: Okay, “Last Chance”.

John Mellencamp: That’s reporting on the person’s physical and mental condition at a point in their day, it’s just a very simple song about a little bit maybe quiet desperation, that’s not really as desperate as the singer may think it is.

Marc Allan: That’s an interesting break in the album there because you’ve gone through a really pretty upbeat first side I guess, or first five songs, and then you go into that and that’s a little bit more, musically upbeat. I mean, not necessarily what you’re singing about, but–

John Mellencamp: You mean just the music itself.

Marc Allan: Yeah.

John Mellencamp: Well, we planned it that way, you can’t just I didn’t feel like we could just slam it at them the entire record, and I think “Last Chance” is a really pretty song. It’s our rock ballad. It’s our rock ballad, no we want to be contemporary fit right in if we do the rock ballad.

Marc Allan: Okay, will you be doing any Poison covers on your tour?

John Mellencamp: Well, I’ve been looking, I just haven’t really found anything that suited me yet. But I got my eyes and ears open. Don’t wanna say no before I know what’s going on.

Marc Allan: How about “Melting Pot”?

John Mellencamp: “Melting Pot” I think is a interesting thing. When I wrote the song I liked it but then I went off of it, and then we recorded it and I really didn’t like it, but then other people got me to like it, it’s weird the way that song worked. When we were making the record we’d play songs and everybody would go, “Wow, I love that fucking song “‘Melting Pot’,” “You do?” ‘Cause I was on the fence about it but it’s like sometimes these songs sound like a man who has sat quietly for a while and all of a sudden just says, “Hey, this is “what’s on my mind, you asked me. “You asked for it, you taught me how to read. “Now you’re gonna pay for it.”

Marc Allan: And let’s see where else, what else do we have here? Oh, the title song.

John Mellencamp: That’s pretty much about decision making and excesses and maybe even approaching what “Big Daddy” talked about. There was a line in the song “Big Daddy” that said “When you live for yourself it’s hard on everyone.” And this song is maybe akin to that a little bit.

Marc Allan: And that’s a very true line. And the last song, “Again Tonight”.

John Mellencamp: If there’s a pop song on the record I think that’s it, I like the last line where he says “But I’m probably just making a fool “of myself again tonight,” I think that’s and besides that’s a light song to end the record with. So I wrote that song in South Carolina. It’s funny, some songs you remember where you wrote them sometimes you don’t even know, did I write that? When did I write that?

Marc Allan: Why do you remember that?

John Mellencamp: I don’t know, it’s fucking weird, I have no idea. I’m like a lightning rod, you’ve heard this a thousand times but when you’re a young writer and these songs are just out there for anybody to grab. I mean, you can grab them, I can grab them. It’s just whoever, they’re just out there. And when you’re a young songwriter it’s like grabbing apples off a tree, you grab the ones that aren’t so ripe. And you try to make them work for you. ‘Cause I’ve really grabbed some shit songs in my life and tried to make them work for me. But the older you get and the more songs you write if you grabbed one that’s still green you just throw it back, and you don’t really work with it. Does this just sound weird to you?

Marc Allan: No, I think it’s making sense.

John Mellencamp: Imagine that, but I’ve been writing songs for a long time, and if I start writing a song that’s not working out for me now, I just abandon it where I would used to like “Oh this is a good idea, I gotta finish this.” And force things to happen that maybe shouldn’t have happened, but on this record I never did that, if a song was happening then I would finish it, if it wasn’t I just I would abandon it, okay well that was a good idea but it just didn’t work out.

Marc Allan: What’s the plans for a tour?

John Mellencamp: We start January 4th in Savannah, Georgia.

Marc Allan: There’s some discussion here, I’ve heard a lot of rumors about five days at Market Square Arena, is this correct?

John Mellencamp: Oh I don’t know about how many days but we’re definitely gonna play there, it just depends on how many people wanna see us, I guess.

Marc Allan: Yeah, is it before you go out on tour?

John Mellencamp: No, no, it’s during the tour.

Marc Allan: It’s during the tour, okay. So this won’t happen till next year.

John Mellencamp: Right, I mean people were saying “Well why don’t you just take the Dome?” It’s like no, fuck that, I don’t wanna play that yet. I don’t wanna do that to people.

Marc Allan: Yeah, it’s a pretty nasty place to see a concert.

John Mellencamp: I don’t wanna play that yet.

Marc Allan: How about the movie, is everything a still go for that?

John Mellencamp: Yeah, comes out in February, and it’s called “Falling from Grace”, you know all the particulars. It’s by Larry McMurtry, and we’ll see how that goes. You should put that if you liked “Terminator 2” you probably won’t like this film.

Marc Allan: Uh-oh.

John Mellencamp: This film is very slow, and it’s an old American type of movie, where people are talking and you’ve gotta pay attention, and it’s something you’ve gotta throw yourself into as a viewer as opposed to sitting there like “Terminator 2” just sit there and go, “Wow man, that’s cool.” It’s not like that, it’s more literature in the movie. And Larry’s in it, Larry’s fucking great in the movie. Larry’s the guy you should ask about his movie career because I bet you he gets a lot of offers from this movie ’cause he’s so good.

Marc Allan: You’re getting major distribution on this and everything?

John Mellencamp: Yeah, distributed by Columbia.

Marc Allan: Columbia, okay, so that’s pretty good. Now this has been done for a while though, right?

John Mellencamp: The film’s been done, well not really done. Hell, we’re still working on it as time goes by. I mean, people have the illusion that once a film is shot that it’s over, fuck, editing goes on forever. I mean, actually we didn’t really finish editing the movie till about three months ago, and we still as short as two weeks ago were changing things. Film editing is never done, it’s only abandoned. “Well we could change that,” “Yeah, let’s go ahead “and change that,” “Well, I didn’t like the way that worked. “Put it back,” so it’s just an ongoing thing.

Marc Allan: Did you find that much more aggravating than being in the studio and recording an album?

John Mellencamp: Well, yeah, absolutely. Making this film for me was like riding a bike. I never learned how to ride a bike, I never knew when I was gonna fall over. I didn’t have anything to base it on. I had never done it before, so I didn’t know when I was getting near the edge or doing something wrong or when it was going right, or if it was the way it was supposed to be, or not supposed to be. I mean, quite frankly as I was making it I didn’t care. People would go, “Well John, the way you’re shooting.” I don’t give a fuck the way you guys did it in Hollywood. If I wanted to do that I would’ve made “Terminator”. Let’s try to tell a story, because most stories are the same story right? Let’s tell a story but try to tell it a little differently, and with a little different camera moves, and different camera angles and a little different slant of the personality of the person, and like I say, it doesn’t matter how the movie turns out, it doesn’t matter if millions of people come and see it. That’s not why this film was made. This film was made for one reason, that was for really because I wanted to have the experience of making a film, and I wanted to see what it was like. And if people like it, great, and if they don’t that’s okay too, I can understand that.

Marc Allan: Is this like Martin Sheen in “Apocalypse Now” where he says he wants a mission, and for his sins they gave him one, and when it’s over he prayed he’d never have another?

John Mellencamp: No, if you see me in another film you can bet somebody paid me a lot of money to do it. I’m not soliciting work as a director or as an actor, ’cause quite frankly I could care less. If I never make another movie I don’t really care. But I’m not saying I won’t, but at this point in my life it’s like, I already did that, let’s do something else.

Marc Allan: Anything else you wanna tell people about what you’re up to?

John Mellencamp: Well just painting away, and trying to get guitars back on the radio, last week “Get a Leg Up” was the most added record in the country at CHR, which for the climate of CH Top 40 Radio that’s pretty good. Because mostly if you listen to those type of stations they don’t have guitars on those radio stations anymore. It’s a big point of contention. “Well there’s guitars on that song, isn’t there?” “Well yeah, we are in the rock and roll business.” So it was a real accomplishment for all of us when we found out that it was the most added record last year, I mean last week, because it’s like hey, maybe things are turning around. So can you imagine being John Mellencamp right now at 19 trying to get a record deal, or trying to get on the radio if you play guitar? I think you’d probably take that guitar and throw it away and get a sampler.

Marc Allan: Yeah, you wouldn’t, you’re right, exactly. You wouldn’t be doing the same thing.

John Mellencamp: Yeah, so it’d be great if in a short amount of time a guy like James McMurtry could get on the radio.

Marc Allan: Yeah but again, he’s somebody who’s singing about something so you can’t put that on the radio.

John Mellencamp: Oh yeah, I forgot about that.

Marc Allan: How long is this little radio tour you’re doing going on?

John Mellencamp: We’re doing 30 cities.

Marc Allan: Wow, so this-

John Mellencamp: Here’s the reason I’m doing this is because a lot of my contemporaries are doing beer commercials and stuff now, right, and I just can’t get on TV and do that, so I thought well, if I’m gonna try to promote this record, I’ve gotta do it the old-fashioned way and that’s do it the way Loretta Lynn did it There’s a radio tower man, let’s go talk to that DJ. See if they’ll play our record. An approach from a real grassroots type of thing and I haven’t gone to radio stations since 1981 so here it is 1991, 10 years later and you know what? It’s kinda fun.

Marc Allan: Anybody turn you down?

John Mellencamp: Fuck yeah, I hate that part. I just did an interview with a guy in Boston who just said to me, “Well how come “you rock guys aren’t on the radio anymore?” And I felt like saying, “‘Cause you pricks “on the radio ain’t playing it,” but I didn’t. The guy was very arrogant about it. If I had to say that there was one interview that I’ve done that was just like I wish I hadn’t have done it, was this guy. But to hell with him.

Marc Allan: Before I let you go I just wanna tell you it’s interesting that you and I are talking. I met you in 1978 I think it was, or ’79. You were playing in Boston at a little club and Mike Ledgerwood was doing your publicity or something like that, and the club was Passim and I thought, “Well this is interesting.” And we sat and talked for a while and stuff and I thought, “Well this is a nice guy. “I’m probably never gonna hear of him again.”

John Mellencamp: I’m getting ready to make another movie about I have a record coming out in about 18 months two years from now, and it’s gonna be like an anthology record, and it’s called “Nothing Like We Planned”, the very first review that was ever written about me in “Rolling Stone” the byline to the thing was “What a Divine Find This Would Be in 1984”. That’s for my interview, the guy that wrote that.

Marc Allan: No, that’s pretty cool, yeah.

John Mellencamp: Yeah, so that’s what we’re gonna try to do with this film is make fun of John Mellencamp and like the name “Nothing Like We Planned”, nothing ever worked out like we thought it would, but it worked out okay.

Marc Allan: Yeah, it worked out real well.

John Mellencamp: And there was no plan, it worked out better with no plan. So we’re gonna tell the truth on ourselves. We’re gonna tell the truth on the music business. We’ve got footage of me 16, 17 years ago going to radio stations, live performances in bars. And we’re gonna throw all that stuff together and put it out as a movie and see what happens.

Marc Allan: Oh, that’ll be interesting, yeah.

John Mellencamp: Trying to give the audience, people who have supported me for years, give them something that they never thought they’d get.

Marc Allan: Yeah, and the last thing I wanna ask you is do you think there’s a hope that you and I will that I will ever get a chance to sit down and talk with you a longer more in-depth interview in person?

John Mellencamp: Sure, I don’t know why not, I live in Indiana.

Marc Allan: Yeah, I know but I’ve been asking for this since February and I’ve been getting turned down and blown off pretty much, so I figured I’d ask you personally and see if–

John Mellencamp: Well I tell you what, there’ll be a downtime. While we’re rehearsing for the, I’ll be in Indiana from December 15th until New Year’s so let’s do it in there sometime.

Marc Allan: Okay, and just go through Harry?

John Mellencamp: All right, I’ll tell them and then you tell them and then we’ll do it, come down to rehearsal or something.

Marc Allan: That’d be great.

John Mellencamp: How would that be?

Marc Allan: That’d be terrific. 

John Mellencamp: You know where Bloomington’s at, don’t you?

Marc Allan: I’ve heard of that, yeah.

John Mellencamp: Yeah, you go down the road and turn left.

Marc Allan: Yeah. Okay.

John Mellencamp: All right buddy.

Marc Allan: Thanks a lot, take care, bye.

John Mellencamp: Okay, bye.