![]() ![]() The result is his most homegrown album ever, a dozen new originals that make up a song cycle about taking stock of one’s life as the end draws near, all narrated by the One-Eyed Jack, a stand-in character for Mellencamp. For Strictly a One-Eyed Jack, Burnett is gone, in favor of Mellencamp’s production and the backing of longtime members of his touring band. In “Authority Song”, he sang, “Growin’ up leads to growin’ old and then to dyin’ / And dyin’ to me don’t sound like all that much fun.” Hell, a 20-year-old kid, performing as John Cougar was already offering the advice to hold on to 16 as long as you can.īut now, at 70, Mellencamp puts the lyrical melancholy front and center and wraps it in a sad musical shroud to match. He was barely in his 30s when he was writing about someday being buried in his “Small Town”. To this day, packed crowds at football games joyfully sing along to “Oh, yeah, life goes on / Long after the thrill of living is gone.”īut an undercurrent of existential fear has always been part of the Mellencamp milieu. The juxtapositions between Mellencamp’s musical swagger and his downcast lyrics fooled everybody. His biggest hits-from “Jack & Diane” to “Pink Houses” to “Check It Out”-are freighted with life’s disappointments, albeit masked by what sounds like fist-pumping musical bravado. Then again, his songs were always filled with a certain bleakness. Time and a four-packs-a-day habit helped Mellencamp’s lived-in rasp get even raspier as the songwriter meditated on mortality, regrets, and the conflicts that we carry within us to the end. Producer T Bone Burnett helped Mellencamp roll things back to a leaner, sparer style on 2008’s Life Death Love and Freedom and even further into rough-hewn folkiness on 2010’s No Better Than Thisand 2014’s Plain Spoken. And as Mellencamp has gotten older, and the rollicking heartland anthems of his 1980s hit-making heyday have been consigned to oldies stations, Mellencamp has dropped the rock persona entirely and stripped his songs down to scratchier, scorched-earth, largely-acoustic music rooted in rustic folk and blues idioms. He never wanted to be a pop singer, never wanted to hang out after the show. ![]() He likes being alone-painting, writing somber music, brooding-and the solitary life complements the dusty folk-music fields Mellencamp has been plowing for the last couple of decades. He has won a Grammy Award, and was nominated a total of 13 times.Quarantine suits John Mellencamp fine. Mellencamp has sold more than 40 million albums worldwide. Over the course of his career Mellencamp has earned a net worth of $25 Million. This project provided a rare opportunity to build a uniquely palatial, yet warmly welcoming structure replete with finely crafted custom details. A pool, gazebo and patio were built for large scale entertaining. The estate overlooks a lake from a wooded hillside, and includes tennis and basketball courts. This 10,000 SF home includes 30-foot ceilings with hand-painted murals, enormous fire-places, a recording studio, antique heart pine plank flooring and decoratively carved roof trusses. Still listened to by millions today, this rocker has grown to the status of global icon. ![]() He is one of the most widely influential rock musicians of his generation, citing influences from Bob Dylan, James Brown, and Woody Guthrie. Mellencamp is one of America's most beloved songwriters, who has made their stamp on the rock genre. in the U.S.A.," "Paper in Fire,” and "Cherry Bomb." He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008. Mellencamp rose to fame in the 1980s, with his distinct vocal style, and ballad songwriting, and starting in 1982 he put out a string of Top 10 singles, including "Hurts So Good," "Jack & Diane," "Crumblin' Down," "Pink Houses," "Lonely Ol' Night," "Small Town," "R.O.C.K. Born in Indiana, it’s likely a nice way for the singer songwriter to stay close to family and connected to his roots. His other long time Indiana home is featured on this site, as well as his South Carolina vacation home. This is the Monroe Lake home of the rock singer-songwriter, John ‘Cougar’ Mellencamp. ![]()
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