John Mellencamp Quotes
"This is not a rock opera. This is not Tommy. I can write songs that emote, and that's it."
- John Mellencamp
(Related: Opera, Songs)
"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
(Related: Son, Thought, People, Wealth, May, Names, Research)
"Natalie from the Dixie Chicks could have said what she said before 9-11 and no one would have cared."
- John Mellencamp
"People have the right to say what they want to."
- John Mellencamp
(Related: People, Right, Want)
"People in Indiana have known me for 25 years. They've known George Bush four."
- John Mellencamp
(Related: People, Years)
"This is about black people selling out other black people."
- John Mellencamp
(Related: People, Selling)
"It's my responsibility as a singer-songwriter to report the news."
- John Mellencamp
(Related: News, Responsibility)
"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
(Related: Time, Truth, Care, Depression, Fault, First, Future, Sky, 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
(Related: 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
(Related: Song, Today)
"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
(Related: First)
"I'm using my art to comment on what I see. You don't have to agree with it."
- John Mellencamp
(Related: Art)
"When people are afraid, they make emotional decisions."
- John Mellencamp
(Related: People, Decisions)
"When politicians use fear, they are playing into the enemy's hand."
- John Mellencamp
(Related: Fear, Enemy, Politicians)
"When you live in hysteria, people start thinking emotionally."
- John Mellencamp
(Related: 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
(Related: Music, Beach)
"I don't want to be a politician. I don't like politics. It's petty; it fights dirty."
- John Mellencamp
(Related: Politics, Want)
"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
(Related: Business, Age, People, Company, Want)
"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
(Related: Song, Songs)
"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
(Related: First, Songs)
"Do I think it's OK to fight authority as long as you're only talking about the high school teacher? No."
- John Mellencamp
(Related: Authority, Fight, School, Talking)
"I'm your average Joe guy. I don't really care for politicians."
- John Mellencamp
(Related: 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
(Related: Sensibility, Songs, Worry)
"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
(Related: 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
(Related: Teenagers)
"I thought I knew a lot about music. Then you start digging and the deeper you go, the more there is."
- John Mellencamp
(Related: Music, Thought)
"I want to sell to people my own age, because that's the way I write songs."
- John Mellencamp
(Related: Age, People, Songs, Want)
"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
(Related: Country, Hatred, President, Will)
"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
(Related: 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
(Related: Car, Choice, Saying)
"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
(Related: Work, Open, Will)
"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
"I couldn't have recorded this record 15 years ago. My voice didn't have the depth to pull these songs off."
- John Mellencamp
(Related: Songs, Voice, Years)