JOHN MELLENCAMP SANG it himself: “Oh, yeah, life goes on.” In the lyrics of “Jack and Diane,” Mellencamp describes a letdown that follows the excitement of young love. In the context of his career, Mellencamp knew his era as an MTV sensation wouldn’t last forever. After racking up nine Top 10 singles in the 1980s, he last visited Billboard’s Top 40 in 1996. To his credit, Mellencamp didn’t spend the following decades on predictable “greatest hits” tours. Instead, he pursued his passions. Here’s a look at his creative work since his days as a pop star.
The Good Samaritan Tour 2000.Photo courtesy Republic Records
2000: Treating fans and onlookers to free music, Mellencamp played street corners and public parks in a series of midday pop-up shows. A film documenting the 10-city Good Samaritan Tour arrived in late-August, with Matthew McConaughey as the narrator.
2001: Mellencamp added hip-hop royalty to his discography when Chuck D of Public Enemy made a guest appearance on studio album Cuttin’ Heads.
2003: Songs written by Robert Johnson, Willie Dixon, and Son House highlighted Trouble No More, Mellencamp’s album of blues and folk covers.
2008: Releasing the first of two albums overseen by O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack producer T Bone Burnett, Mellencamp went folk with his own material. Bob Dylan described “Longest Days,” the opening tune on Mellencamp’s Life, Death, Love and Freedom album, as “one of the better songs of the last few years.”
2010: For the album No Better Than This, Burnett and Mellencamp hit the road to record at the Gunter Hotel in San Antonio—where Robert Johnson recorded 16 songs in 1936—and at the iconic Sun Studio in Memphis. Mellencamp also overhauled his live show, dividing it into segments devoted to rockabilly/blues arrangements, solo acoustic storytelling, and hit songs performed with his full band.
2012: Ghost Brothers of Darkland County, Mellencamp’s “play with music” collaboration with author Stephen King, debuted onstage as a tale of “fraternal love, lust, jealousy, and revenge.”
2018: Mellencamp took a knee and raised a fist on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to express his opposition to racism. The gesture arrived at the end of his performance of the bleakly sarcastic song “Easy Target,” in which he sang about people of color being “created equal, equally beneath me and you.”
2021: Last spring, social media buzzed with reports of Bruce Springsteen and Mellencamp being spotted together at a Bloomington restaurant. The musicians later confirmed that Springsteen sings and plays guitar on Mellencamp’s upcoming album.
In addition to recording together in Bloomington this past spring, Mellencamp and Bruce Springsteen played at Sting’s Rainforest Fund benefit in New York.Photo by Kevin Mazur, courtesy Getty Images for the Rainforest Fund
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