01-12-03

Transcript: 3/5/00 Radio Broadcast of "Off The Record" on 92.5 FM WOFX Cincinnati, Ohio called "Off the Record" with John Mellencamp in his own words! 
 

Introduction:

"He joined his first band in the 5th grade and landed his first professional gig by the time he was fourteen as a member of the Great Soul.  When that band broke up a year later this singer, song writer, guitar player joined an already established band in the Seymour, Indiana home town called the "Snake Bit Bananna Barn" making $30 bucks a weekend playing frat parties. He still had his birth name John Mellencamp and this is your Uncle Joe Benson and John Mellencamp has come along ways since those early days.  He has released 15 full length albums that have gone on to sell over 25 million copies.  He helped organize the very first Farm Aid concert.  He has won awards for his music therapy work with childrens charities.  And despite his success he stills calls Indiana his home.  Why?  Well this is just one of the things we are going to find out today from John Mellencamp himself with 'Off the Record'".

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Song playing is "Small Town" now.

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JM:  "Seymour is a population of 14,000 people so that means every body knows everybody and everybody knows everybody else's business.  And when you're a kid you know and you think that is terrible but the older you get I think that it helped me.  Because you either become a great liar so you can lie through everything or you can learn to tell the truth because you are tired of getting caught in your lies.  So that is what the Small Town in Seymour has done for me.  It made me a great liar (John is laughing).  No that's not right. (Still laughting)  It made me more honest and open to people.  And that is what I think I learned from the town.  It's just like any other small town it's real chemically polluted.  There's a million stories about that town."

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Song playing is "Small Town" resumed now.

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JM:  "I was born with a tumor in the back of my neck.  It was as big as a man's fist.  It was the first sucessful operations of this kind.  It was in 1951 when some guy from Germany did the operation because my dad was in the service.  And a I don't know if they are right but they said 'That after the operation that it was a failure.   That they cut too deep and cut the spinal cord, but they might as well put me in a what they call a home for the retarded kids, but my parents kept me.'  And I guess my retarded was put up for grabs.  (John is laughing)  Well maybe not retarded in the traditional sense but retarded in other ways.  (John is still laughing)"

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Song playing is "The Walls Come Tumbling Down....." now.

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Uncle Joe Benson:  "John Mellencamp started studies at Vensuns (spelling ?) University in 1970 and it was during his first year of college that John also met and married his first wife Priscilla, but the couple had split up by the time he had earned his radio broadcasting degree in 1975."

JM:  "I had my own show when I was in college.  And I thought this is great because my old man use to always told me there is not.  He says all John want's to do is prop his feet up, smoke cigarettes, and sell records.  And I thought that was the only job I could be able to do for the rest of my life.  So, I found out that is not the case.  You know you guys have all kinds of productions you had to do.  You had to read all the news this kind of stuff.  I had to have my own show and the Vietnam war was going on.  I couldn't read any of these names I would pronounce.  People would call up and say John that is the funniest news I've ever heard in my life.  And I would think what is suppose to be funny Jack?  (John is laughing)  I just can't read you know.   So I decided that I by the time I got oh a few no's,  I started toying around with the first phone and all that crap."

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Song playing is "...We were young and we were improving, laughing and laughing with our friends.  Holding hands mean't something baby outside the Cherry Pop...." now.

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Uncle Joe Benson:  "What would you do with a degree in radio broadcasting?   Well its not going to help you get an on air job so you go to work for the telephone company especially if you are John Mellencamp.  But then what do you do when you get layed off by the telephone company and you find yourself with a year severance pay?  Well you head to New York City and to launch a music career!  And that's what John did.   Coming up next, John Mellencamp will tell us about that fateful New York trip and a subsequent name change "Off the Record".  Well John Mellencamp did not give up music when he went away to college.  Actually he formed a glitter rock group called "Crash" with a couple of his college buddies in his first year at Vensuns University.  But when his post college job with the telephone company did not work out, John packed up and headed to New York to pursue a career in music."

JM:  "I ah was in New York and I went to Polygram which is a label now that I would not want anything to do with me.  But I went to Polygram and there was a girl there, who ah was named an art director who liked the demos I sent her.  And they were like $150 demos done in some little studio in Indiana.  But I think she just liked me because I talked to her on the phone and had good repore with her and that she felt more sorry for me than she liked the music.  So she says there is this guy I know who has produced "Lexus Corner" and these people.  I want you to go up and see him.  And I said okay.  And I was excited about it because she says he listens to the tape and he likes it.  So I go upstairs and he's in the Golf and Western building.  I am 21 or 22 years old, I can't remember how old and I go up there.  You know at that point in my life I'm from Inidana.   Great big nice building.  Great big nice office.  Here's a guy with golden records, platinum albums and I think, this must be the record business right?  This guy lays a wrap on me and I find out this is not even his office.  he is borrowing this office right.  And he's borrowing the phone because he's done work for this guy.  So I go in there and so he talks to me.  I really like it.  I don't like your songs very much, but I like your voice.  So he says I'll tell you what, you give me $2,000 and I'll put $2,000 with it, and I'll make it a nice demo tape with it and get you a deal.  So I go home and I tell my man listen I got to raise $2,000 bucks.  And don't forget I am married and have a daughter about 3 years old, right.   And ah my wife works, I don't work.  You know I'm on unemployment and so how am I going to raise $2,000 grand?   So I finally convinced my man to go in and sign a note for me because I never borrowed any money from any where.   So he said, he said, you are ignorant but I'll go ahead and do it."

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Song playing is "I need a lover that won't drive me crazy... so I hit the highway"  now.

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Uncle Joe Benson:  John Mellencamp did not give up after the first disastrous demo experience.  Instead he took the matters into his own hands.  He put in a call to Ming Man (spelling ?) Management in New York and convinced David Bowes manager Tony Defries to take on a new client.  Tony Defry agreed.  And not only landed his new client a record deal but he also gave him a new name "Johnny Cougar".

JM:  "He just couldn't sell a guy named John Mellencamp.  He just couldn't make it happen.  He says there was about a half dozen people in the United States with the name Mellencamp, and he just didn't think it was unique enough, so (John laughing) he came up with a little one like Cougar.  So it was embarassing for me and still is sometimes when I really think about it.  But then there are times now I think it was just stupid, its just a name.  It does not mean anything.  So I just ah did a record for him and he did a record for him and he got a deal on MCA.  And I went in there and saw what the people at MCA and he did.  And I sat there and shook my head right along with him because right he knows what I he is talking about.  He made David Bowe and Lou Reed to a hit, that's his story.  And ah so I'm right along side of him and I think it was about six weeks later they dropped us (John is laughing),"

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Song playing is "I'd like to get you into a compromising position...." now.

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JM:  "You really have to realize.  I mean that this may sound stupid but there are really two different people here.  John Mellencamp is John Cougar.  And John Cougar is the bad boy image.  I know John Mellencamp is some guy that if I had been lucky and known his sister you would have gone out with me.  That is the deal.    So John Mellencamp is just some guy."

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Song playing is "...coming out grinning..." wrapping up the song now.

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JM:  "People pigeon holed me right away from you know these guys like Bruce Springsteen.  And these guys like Rod Stewart This guy.  You know, they do that to everybody's particularly if you are a male.  I pick up stuff now and I read about other guys and they use my name in an article and I feel mad about it.  And I mean don't do that to that kid.  You don't need my name and what ever I represent hanging over him you know, because he is going to hate me.  (John is laughing)  He's not going to take it.  He is going to hold it against me because I know the people that can pin you with it for a long time.  I hated him.  It was like I didn't listen to records.  I didn't want to know about it."

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Song playing is "Jack and Diane" now.

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Uncle Joe Benson:  "John Cougar's popularity grew marginally with each album release.  Finally, he took complete control of his music and rather than continue recording with a big rock band sound like Journey and Foreigner, he cut his music and band back to a minimum, guitars and bass and drums, and the result was a sound so sparse, his record company did not want to release the album, but John kept pushing.  In 1982s,   "American Fool" became his first number one album.  In fact, he made music history in September that year when he became the first and only rock artist to hold two top ten singles:  "Jack and Diane"  and "Hurt So Good" and the number one album "Ameridcan Fool" at the same time!   Next, we will hear about John Cougar's post "American Fool" recording experience "Uh-huh".  John Cougar's "American Fool" record was the singer guitarists first platinum selling album.  His second came barely a year later when "Uh-huh" hit the shelves.  In 1983 album also featured a name change "John Cougar Mellencamp".  Now John recorded the "Uh-huh" album in a world wind 16 days session in a Indiana studio called "The Shack".

JM:  "I had about maybe 15 songs that were in some kind of state of being written you know, either in verse and chords, or in an entire song, or just an idea you know.  And when I went in I told the guys there at the record company said we should try and get the record out to get these people off my back.  And we'll go in and do it real fast just like we were doing demos.  If it turns out real cool we'll put it out and if it don't we'll come back after the first of the year and we'll put it out in the spring.  That's your options.   I'm not going to get in here now and work here now until next summer on this album.  We all agreed.  And we had a plan.  So now we all had to still make a plan and follow it, so that is what we did.  And I knew it at the time that some of the lyrics were not that great you know, I didn't really get to say what I wanted to say, because I did not want to begin changing stuff, so alot of the lyrics were made up as we were making the record.  I would stand there at the tracker and blah, blah, blah, blah, and I would say okay I like it, so next part you know. "

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Song playing is "Pink Houses" now.

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JM:  "The post card is always better than the real thing (John is laughing).  And so when you look at the post card you say let's go, but when you get there its not that great you know.  I think the American dream is something that is good because it gives people a dream.  When you lose your dream its all over.  But there is a point in your life when you realize that this is the real thing.  This is not a dream any more.  I made a comment one time that I got a lot of grief from that ideas are for teenagers.  And they are.  But I still have ideals and I have things that I look forward to, but I also have a very realistic view of what the possiblities of these things are and I know what you have to do to either achieve these things or to forget about these things."

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Song playing is "...There's people and more people.. and that America, something to see baby, home of the free, little pink houses for you and me!  Ain't that America, home of the free, yeah, yeah, yeah, for you and me!"  from the  song "Pink Houses".

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Uncle Joe Benson:  "After the release of  'Uh-huh'  John Mellencamp decided not to head back into the recording studio.  Instead, he co-wrote a screen play with author Larry McMurtree (spelling ?).  He produced Mitch Reider's 1984 come back album "Never Kick A Sleeping Dog".  And he helped Willie Nelson and Neil Young organize the very first Farm Aid concert which took place in September 1985."

JM:  "Performers get a real distorted view of what their doing.  And I don't know how many times and I know you are sick of it, and I know the people that listen to this radio station are sick of it, I hate these guys.  That  is a strong word.  I dislike going to concerts and hear 'Hey Bloomington, how you doing?'  I don't know.  You know, what is that?  It's some cute thing to get applause."

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Song playing is "R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A." now.

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Uncle Joe Benson:  "John Mellencamp started working 'Scarecrow' album at the end of '85.  Inspired by the plight of his neighbors, John wrote his most personal songs to date.  Songs that addressed the financial ruin of the farmers under the Reagan Administration and the toll that situation took on their families and communities.  The death of his grandfather involved more soul searching.  And one of the greatest albums of the '80s resulted.  He immediately hit the road.  Including a 1986 performance at Farm Aid II.   Then in 1987 John Mellencamp started working on what would become the 'Lonesome Jubilee' record."

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Song playing is "R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A." resumed now.

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JM:  "Touring is fun and I enjoy it to a point.  Then when you cross that point its murder and its not fun any more.  When you get to the point where their having to take down what town your in right, so you don't mix the towns and you know where your at, right, and ah.  I use to make reference to a town by saying something locally about a local band or something like that.  But it got to the point where I didn't know what state I was in.  That's not fun."

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Song playing is "Scarecrow" now.

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Uncle Joe Benson:  "Through 1987s 'Lonesome Jubiliee' and 1988s "Big Daddy" album, John Mellencamp directed a video for Bob Dylan.  He became a grandfather at the age of 37 when his first daughter from his first wife had a baby.  He divorced his second wife Victoria and took up painting.  The 1990s have definately been good to John Mellencamp as "Off the Record" continues.  John has enjoyed quite a few career firsts in the 1990s.  He made his first screen debut in 1990 in the movie "Souvenirs".  He show cased his paintings in his first art exhibition in Hilton Head, South Carolina in 1991.  And he released a book of his work in painting and reflections just last fall.  The singer also met and married his current wife Elaine Irwin.  Most importantly John Mellencamp continued to make records."

JM:  "Now don't get me wrong.  I think the most important thing I do when I write songs is to entertain people.  And if you have a message say something, but don't preach at people.  You can't preach at people."

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Song playing is "Lonely Ol' Night" now.

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JM:  "I still think its a great opportunity and I'm very happy to be able to still be able to make records.  And I like the idea that I can continue to make records until I you know feel like I've achieved what I wanted to achieve as a song writer."

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Song playing is "Lonely Ol' Night" resumed now.

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JM:  "Listen if you really want to be happy, then you better turn everything inside and learn about yourself.  That to me is the nicest thing about making records is that it gives me the opportunity to look at myself and figure out who I am.  But you know most people in the Unites States go to their job.  They hate their job, so their escaping from that.  Right?  So they go home and they hate your family, so they escape from that.  But my job enables me to look at myself, look at my surroundings, and deal with it.  So its not so much like playing a guitar, but do what is really going to mean something to you later on."

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Song playing is "Hurt So Good" now.

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