The John Mellencamp interview - 13 WTHR Indianapolis

Julia Moffitt/Eyewitness News

Bloomington, Nov. 24 - Take one look around and you see the Indiana on which John Mellencamp built his career; small towns, farms, every day struggles; his music personifies life in Middle America.

A Hoosier native, John always stayed true to his roots, despite a record industry's desire to change him. "Listen, I started out as Johnny Cougar, that's how I started. they said, 'You've got a good voice kid, but that Mellencamp thing's not gonna work."

So what is it that keeps him in Indiana? "I think this is where I belong. I said I could have done better if I'd left, but there's the other side of it that tells me, you couldn't have been as creative if you had left."

That creativity earned him 12 multi-platinum albums, 18 Grammy nominations and a nomination into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

"Well, you know the Rock and Roll Hall of fame is quite an honor to even be nominated for it. I don't really anticipate getting in this year. If I get in before Bob Seger, that's going to be weird for me, because you know, I was a freshman in high school when Seger had a hit called Ramblin' Gamblin' Man, which, ya know, was probably one of the reasons I wanted to be a recording artist, because that was a great song. I was a freshman in high school and this guy was making records."

Mellencamp has described himself as an average singer-songwriter performer. 'I've just always tried to keep some kind of humility about myself and tried to be respectful to others and hopefully, they'll respect you. But it doesn't work that way, but that would be the plan. So yeah, I think that I'm the guy with average talent, but I have a tremendous, I'm very tenacious, where most guys are okay, let's quit, no, we ain't quittin!"

Recently, John has used that same tenacity defending his views on Iraq. "I had somebody come up to me the other day and he said, 'Hey John, what's up with all these anti-American songs?' I almost punched the guy. I said, 'What are you talking about? I'm John Mellencamp. There's nobody in the recording industry more American than me. Maybe your position is anti-American. Who are we looking out for? Are we looking out for America or are we paying someone else's bills or are we fleecing people through our tax dollars? Eighty-four billion dollars to keep this war alive. Do you know what we could do with $84 billion, not to mention these poor kids that are out there getting killed for what?"

As Mellencamp fans know, he doesn't just speak his mind, he performs it.

His recent song, To Washington was met with criticism when some labeled it un-patriotic. John disputes the charge in an open letter, saying the song expresses not just his personal views, but those of many people he's run into across the country.

"I'm very fortunate I have a wide selection of friends, people I know from being in the business. But I have an opportunity to hear other peoples' opinions. My view of the world is not my job in Bloomington and then my family and then the restaurant I eat at. I have a very large view of the world."

A world that's constantly changing, which is one of the reasons he returned to his roots in his latest album, Trouble No More.

"Everything that I have ever written, I'm really a folk singer. If we didn't have this technology and rock wasn't popular, I'd be a guy that's driving around the country with an acoustic guitar and being a trubador. That's what I am. That's how I see myself, that's how I always saw myself. During rock's big, hey, ya know-thumping performances, wherever I played, it always felt like it should be me and the guitar. But you know, people didn't want to hear music presented in that fashion of the times and now the times are changin' and, ya know, you have to always be looking to reinvent yourself."

And John is not about to stop reinventing himself. In fact he's still plugging away.

John Mellencamp admits to buckling to music industry demands early in his career. But 25 years in the business taught the prolific superstar you can be a hit and turn them out from small town America.

"People really have a funny misconception about what being a recording artist is or live performer is. The old thing when rock first started, it was a bunch of parties and stuff. There was that part of it, and probably still is that part of it for some people." But not for him.

John and his super-model wife Elaine Mellencamp have two sons, eight-year-old Spek and nine-year-old Hudd, who just happens to grace the cover of his father's latest album, Trouble No More.

Mellencamp: Hudd looks a lot like me, but let's hope he doesn't turn out like me.
Eyewitness News: Do you think they'll get into the businesses?
Mellencamp: I wouldn't want them to be performers, no, because I have a daughter who is 22 who is a junior agent right now. I call her and go, "Hey, Teddy." And she goes, "I can't talk right now, got to call you back."
Eyewitness News: Twenty-two-years-old and she is representing Johnny Depp?
Mellencamp: She is a wheeler and dealer and let me tell you something, charmer, charm you to death this kid, but cross her, and eat your head off.
Eyewitness News: Do you suppose she gets that from you?
Mellencamp: I suppose she does, but she can be so charming, sometimes she starts to charm me and I get kind of enchanted with it, and then I go, wait a minute, I know you.
Eyewitness News: How's your health?
Mellencamp: Good I think, I hope. I hope I don't have one of those secret heart attacks getting ready to jump on me, but I could.

Mellencamp surprised everyone but his doctors when, at age 42, he suffered a heart attack. "When you first hear that that you've had a heart attack ya think I'm dead. It's just a matter of time. What do I got doc, ten more days?

"But it's my own fault. The reason I had a heart attack was my own fault. Doctors had been telling me for years, 'John, your cholesterol is off the map.' Ya, so? 'You need to take this medicine.' I'm not taking any medicine, and then they would say, 'Well, your cholesterol running this, you have risk of heart attack.' And I remember saying half a dozen times, am I alright now? 'Yea, your fine now.' Is my heart strong? 'Yea, heart's strong, yea.' And I'd leave.

"Just like so many other people in America that should pay attention when they have high cholesterol, high cholesterol and smoking is a handgun because it's bad. My cholesterol is under control, my smoking isn't, so I figure I'm half way there."

Eyewitness News: You had described after having that heart attack, you went into a pretty deep depression.
Mellencamp: Well ya know, everything in life has its sunny side and everything in life, if you want to, can have a bad side Yea, it was terrible to realize at 42 that your so vulnerable.
Eyewitness News: So how did you get out of it?
Mellencamp: Well, thing of it was at the same time it was first time I did not work and I did not work for almost 18 months. I mean, I did not work. I did not talk to anybody about music, I didn't write any songs, I didn't do anything but find out about heart disease and I stayed at home and Elaine and I actually knew what was on TV on Thursday night.

Today, John is in good health and looking forward to his next challenge.

"I'm going to release a double CD this time next year on October 7 of greatest hits from my entire career with a few new songs and I'm gonna go on the biggest tour I've gone on since '88 starting next October.

"I don't have a record deal right now, and it's the first time I haven't had a record deal since I was 22-years-old, and I love it.

"And that's the thing people just don't know. 'He doesn't have a record deal. He doesn't want a record deal.' I have been trying to not have a record deal for the last 15 years. I can't tell you how many times I went into the record company and said, 'Let me off he label. Let me off the label. No, you owe us five more albums."

Record deal or not, life these days is good for John Mellencamp.

"I sometimes in a quiet moment will think, man you're lucky. Boy, you're a lucky guy."