It was always easier for them to treat him as some kind of heartland-rock cliché. Because he never sought their approval, he rarely received it. He never played the game of flattering critics or industry power brokers in fact, it took him a while to even realize that was a game he was supposed to play. As a self-professed “kid from a small town in Indiana,” he still carries a chip on his shoulder-one that has prevented him from getting credit for all the risks he has taken and all the distinguished and varied work he has done. Rock stars don’t often win prizes for bolting out of their lane, but Mellencamp has, quite simply, never cared about that. Those collaborations represent one of Mellencamp’s most winning traits: his fearlessness. He came out to Bloomington this past spring to duet with Mellencamp and play guitar on John’s forthcoming album, Strictly a One-Eyed Jack. And Springsteen, to whom Mellencamp has often been unfavorably compared, has recently become his good friend. Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist Larry McMurtry, the author of The Last Picture Show and Terms of Endearment, among other modern classics, wrote the script for the 1992 film Falling From Grace, which Mellencamp starred in and directed. “You know that every project Steve does ends up being a movie,” Mellencamp says with a chuckle. King recently mentioned to John the possibility of a film adapted from the play. A soundtrack from the play was released on which Mellencamp’s songs were performed by the likes of Elvis Costello (who also co-wrote with John), Rosanne Cash, Sheryl Crow, and Kris Kristofferson. Mellencamp collaborated with Stephen King and T Bone Burnett on the musical Ghost Brothers of Darkland County, which premiered in 2012 and toured through the South and Midwest. I would add that what’s important is not just the quality of the names that John has worked with, but the range of artistic endeavors they represent. So if he tells you he’s proud of what he’s been able to accomplish, you can absolutely believe it. He has left some bruises because of that, and taken a hit or two himself. John has been a rarity in the world of rock stars-someone who has never been afraid to tell you exactly what’s on his mind. It feels good to hear him taking genuine pleasure in the things life has brought him. Male and asked if she could write about it for my class. I first heard of him in 1978 when a student of mine, a young woman from French Lick, handed me a copy of an EP titled U.S. I was a New York hick before I moved to Indiana, and John has always trusted me for that reason. Though I was born and live in New York-a definite danger sign in John’s eyes-the five years I spent in graduate school in Bloomington hold me in good stead with him. I’ve interviewed John many times over the past 37 years. I mean, I’m a kid from a small town in Indiana. “ANTHONY, I’M NOT DROPPING NAMES or anything, but look at the people I’ve had the opportunity to work with over the years,” John Mellencamp says as we near the end of an hour-long telephone conversation.
0 kommentar(er)
