John Mellencamp, The #47 Artist of the Rock Era, Part Four

 

(Continued from Part Three)

The following year, Mellencamp released the album Rough Harvest, a collection of acoustical and reworked versions of earlier songs in his catalog.  In 2000, he performed several free unannounced concerts in several cities as a way of giving back after the support his fans had given him over the years.

 

In 2000, John recorded "Yours Forever" for the movie Perfect Storm. 

         In 2001, Mellencamp released the album Cuttin' Heads.  He won the Billboard Century Award in 2001 and earned a Grammy nomination for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance for "Peaceful World", which he co-wrote with India.Arie and for whom he sings a duet with.  

The song was born after a conversation Mellencamp had with backup singer Pat Peterson.  John asked her what was the one thing that she found most disturbing.  "There was no question about it," John related to the Denver Post newspaper.  "It's how this new rap music is really harmful to the black race."

     You have the new Uncle Tom, the guy wagging the                   $200,000 watch and saying, ... 'Gimme the money,

     man, look what I got that you ain't got ... I'll say

     whatever you want me to say, and when this (ends),

     I'll just go back to whatever I'm doing, and I don't 

     care about the damage that I've done.' Meanwhile, 

     white kids in suburbs who buy these records find it                   entertaining if not comical half the time. They have a

     really distorted view of what the black race is about.

     It's a very bad thing."

Mellencamp narrated the voice for a part in the movie Madison and also appeared in the movie After Image.  

 

John followed up Peaceful World with the 2003 release of Trouble No More, an album of Blues and Folk.  Here is his remake of "Teardrops Will Fall", originally recorded by Dickey Doo and the Don'ts in 1958.

 "Stones In My Passway" was recorded by blues musician Robert Johnson in 1937.  Mellencamp does a solid cover of the song on the album.

 

The following year, Mellencamp released the album Words & Music:  John Mellencamp's Greatest Hits, a two-disc compilation.  In 2007, John released the album Freedom's Road, which included "Our Country".  Mellencamp agreed to let Chevrolet use the song, and he sang it prior to Game 2 of the 2006 World Series.  The song was nominated for Best Rock Solo Vocal Performance at the Grammy Awards.

 "Ghost Towns Along The Highway" continues Mellencamp's observations about the decline of American life.  

 

In 2008, Mellencamp was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  He also released the album Life, Death, Love and Freedom, his ninth Top 10 album.  A standout track is "Longest Days", and John told this story before playing it at a concert in Chicago, Illinois:

     My grandmother lived to be 100 years old, and she

     was doing pretty good until she got to 99 and 3/4. And 

     then that last quarter kind of got her. She's the only 

     woman that ever really loved me. She never called

     me John, she always called me Buddy. She called me

     up and said, 'Buddy, why don't you come over here 

     and spend the afternoon with me because I'm not 

     going to be here much longer.'

     She was bedridden, so I had to lay in bed to talk to 

     her. But one day, we're laying there talking, and she 

     said, '"Buddy, we need to pray.' She started saying a 

     prayer we all grew up with, then I noticed her

     breathing was getting kind of heavy, and next thing 

     I know, her voice is kind of raising in volume and she

     says, 'Me and Buddy are ready to come home!"

     I said, "Grandma, Buddy is not ready to come home. 

    Buddy has a lot more sinning he intends on doing."
     Well, I shouldn't have said that. She says, "It's just

     like you to say something smart-alec-y at a time like

     this. And you're not going to get to heaven yourself 

     if you don't stop that cussing and smoking.'

     Then we locked eyes, and the strangest thing 

     happened. Her face turned into a 13-year-old girl,

     and her voice even changed. She looked at me with

     such love and affection, and she goes, 'You know

     Buddy, you're going to find out one day real soon that 

     life is short, even in its longest days.'"

 

Mellencamp wrote the song "If I Die Sudden" after several close friends died, including George Green, who co-wrote many of his songs, including "Hurts So Good" and "Rain On The Scarecrow".  Mellencamp told Mojo magazine in December of 2008:

  

    This song goes back 20 years to an uncle of mine

      who died of cancer at 58 from smoking." He added:

      "On his death bed he said, 'I'm an atheist. Do not 

      have a preacher come here and say what a great

      Christian life I've led. I didn't.' For me that was like, 

     Wow! You gotta be pretty damn sure of yourself or

     pretty damn stupid to say that. I couldn't figure out 

     which one it was."

 

Two years later, he released the album No Better Than This, another Top 10 album.  Mellencamp debuted "Save Some Time To Dream" at a fundraiser for U.S. President Barack Obama.  It is about individual freedom and controlling our own lives.

 

34 years after he debuted, John proved he could still record and release quality music such as the title song.

 Another Top Track* is "Coming Down The Road".

Mellencamp recorded much of the album at the famous Sun Studios in Memphis, Tennessee with bare bones studio equipment and recording techniques intentionally to produce a raw sound.

Later in the year, John released the box set On the Rural Route 7609, which consisted of album tracks and demos.  Mellencamp toured North America and Europe.

Mellencamp collaborated with author Stephen King for a music entitled Ghost Brothers of Darkland County, which premiered in 2012 and has been performed in 38 cities.

In 2014, John released his 22nd studio album, Plain Spoken, and performed 120 shows in North America to support it.  

In 2016, John received the Founders Award at the ASCAP Pop Music Awards.  "For the last four decades, John Mellencamp has captured the American experience in his songs," ASCAP President Paul Williams said. "His infectious melodies and compassionate lyrics, wrapped in workingman's rock, crystallize life's joys and struggles and illuminate the human condition. A national treasure, he's also one of the truly great music creators that can make us care, move, clap and sing along."  

Mellencamp has been working with Carlene Carter, his opening act on the tour, on a new album expected for release in 2017.

Mellencamp has displayed some of his aforementioned paintings at shows throughout the United States, including in New York City and Augusta, Georgia.

Johnny Cash called Mellencamp "one of the 10 best songwriters" in music.

John has 29 career hits to his credit, with 10 Top 10 songs and one #1, but has excelled on the Mainstream Rock chart, with 45 hits, 23 of which reached the Top 10 in that sub-genre and seven #1's.  

Mellencamp has been nominated for 14 Grammy Awards in his career, winning one.  He also won one American Music Award from two nominations and a Billboard Music Award and was nominated for an MTV Video Music Award.