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Home
Authors
John Mellencamp
American
Musician
About the author
I'm the guy who wrote The Authority Song. Did they think I was kidding? Did they think it was only a song to entertain?
John Mellencamp,
American
Musician
#Authority
#Song
You cannot expect the guy who drove the car into the ditch to navigate it out of the ditch. You have to put a new driver in the seat. I'm not saying the new driver is going to be any better, but we need a new driver. Kerry is the only choice.
John Mellencamp,
American
Musician
#Saying
#Car
#Choice
I'm wide open and will entertain anything anybody has to say, but if it's MTV and radio, well, they're great things, but can't be the only thing. I don't know that it would work even for the Beatles.
John Mellencamp,
American
Musician
#Work
#Will
#Open
I've just been fortunate to havehad a lot of hit records, though Human Wheels doesn't qualify as a hit record-but it's really the best single I've ever had.
John Mellencamp,
American
Musician
I couldn't have recorded this record 15 years ago. My voice didn't have the depth to pull these songs off.
John Mellencamp,
American
Musician
#Songs
#Years
#Voice
What's the difference? One guy's the same as the other.
John Mellencamp,
American
Musician
#Difference
This is not a rock opera. This is not Tommy. I can write songs that emote, and that's it.
John Mellencamp,
American
Musician
#Songs
#Opera
My thought was I should try to stick with names that people may recognize like Robert Johnson, Son House, and Hoagy Carmichael, so if somebody cared to research, they would find a wealth of material.
John Mellencamp,
American
Musician
#People
#Thought
#May
#Research
#Son
#Wealth
#Names
Natalie from the Dixie Chicks could have said what she said before 9-11 and no one would have cared.
John Mellencamp,
American
Musician
People have the right to say what they want to.
John Mellencamp,
American
Musician
#Want
#Right
#People
People in Indiana have known me for 25 years. They've known George Bush four.
John Mellencamp,
American
Musician
#People
#Years
This is about black people selling out other black people.
John Mellencamp,
American
Musician
#People
#Selling
It's my responsibility as a singer-songwriter to report the news.
John Mellencamp,
American
Musician
#Responsibility
#News
Unemployment is sky-rocketing; deflation is in our future for the first time since the Great Depression. I don't care whose fault it is, it's the truth.
John Mellencamp,
American
Musician
#Time
#First
#Truth
#Future
#Care
#Fault
#Sky
#Depression
#Unemployment
Wait a minute, guys, I have always been on your side. I have always spoken for you, always tried to put on a good face for the state of Indiana. All of a sudden, some of you people think I'm a bad guy?
John Mellencamp,
American
Musician
#People
#State
In so many musicals today, the story is moved forward by a song. I don't think we're gonna try to do that.
John Mellencamp,
American
Musician
#Today
#Song
What is there to be afraid of? The worst thing that can happen is you fail. So what? I failed at a lot of things. My first record was horrible.
John Mellencamp,
American
Musician
#First
I'm using my art to comment on what I see. You don't have to agree with it.
John Mellencamp,
American
Musician
#Art
When people are afraid, they make emotional decisions.
John Mellencamp,
American
Musician
#People
#Decisions
When politicians use fear, they are playing into the enemy's hand.
John Mellencamp,
American
Musician
#Enemy
#Fear
#Politicians
When you live in hysteria, people start thinking emotionally.
John Mellencamp,
American
Musician
#People
#Thinking
We could walk 3 minutes and be on the beach. I think the music kind of suffered because of it. It kind of smelled like Jimmy Buffett, which is a bad thing.
John Mellencamp,
American
Musician
#Music
#Beach
I don't want to be a politician. I don't like politics. It's petty; it fights dirty.
John Mellencamp,
American
Musician
#Want
#Politics
A lot of record company people, even though they're our age, want to be perceived as young hip guys, and they're hurting the business.
John Mellencamp,
American
Musician
#Want
#People
#Age
#Business
#Company
A lot of Woody Guthrie's songs were taken from other songs. He would rework the melody and lyrics, and all of a sudden it was a Woody Guthrie song.
John Mellencamp,
American
Musician
#Songs
#Song
Bob Dylan's first couple of records in the 60's weren't considered cover records, but he only wrote one or two original songs on each album.
John Mellencamp,
American
Musician
#Songs
#First
Do I think it's OK to fight authority as long as you're only talking about the high school teacher? No.
John Mellencamp,
American
Musician
#Authority
#Fight
#School
#Talking
I'm your average Joe guy. I don't really care for politicians.
John Mellencamp,
American
Musician
#Care
#Politicians
I don't have to worry about any pop sensibility. I can write adult songs, and I don't have to worry about choruses and hook lines.
John Mellencamp,
American
Musician
#Songs
#Worry
#Sensibility
If fans are going to turn on me because of this, they weren't my fans anyway. I couldn't betray a whole 25 years of record making and not do this. I had to.
John Mellencamp,
American
Musician
#Fans
#Years
I think it's ridiculous to try to sell records to teenagers, because teenagers don't buy my records. And there ain't that many teenagers out there in the marketplace.
John Mellencamp,
American
Musician
#Teenagers
I thought I knew a lot about music. Then you start digging and the deeper you go, the more there is.
John Mellencamp,
American
Musician
#Thought
#Music
I want to sell to people my own age, because that's the way I write songs.
John Mellencamp,
American
Musician
#Want
#Songs
#People
#Age
I would never say John Kerry would be a great president. I will say that George Bush has divided us; he has filled this country with hatred.
John Mellencamp,
American
Musician
#Will
#President
#Country
#Hatred