{"id":848,"date":"2018-04-27T02:06:00","date_gmt":"2018-04-27T02:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/?p=848"},"modified":"2026-06-27T02:08:06","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T02:08:06","slug":"john-cougar-mellencamp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/?p=848","title":{"rendered":"John Cougar Mellencamp"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

February 1986, Hollywood Sportatorium, <\/strong>Hollywood, Fla.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the evolving stages of John Mellencamp, I was a live witness to the artist in midst when the Cougar was not quite jettisoned from the name, but was on the way out. He had helped create Farm Aid the year before, and the youthful, rebellious John Cougar was not in the building anymore. I guess we all grow up sometime.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s one of those artists you don\u2019t realize has as many hit songs as he does until you sit down and really take a look. The man has more than 50 songs that charted, including 16 in the top 10 and six that reached No. 1 \u2014 if you listen to the radio at any point during a week (I know, why would you, but still) you will hear a John Mellencamp song (this happens with Tom Petty too). He established himself somewhat before MTV and took off when the station exploded.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a big fan of Uh-Huh<\/em>, the 1983 album with \u201cCrumblin\u2019 Down,\u201d \u201cPink Houses\u201d and \u201cAuthority Song\u201d \u2014 I hear one of those songs and I\u2019m a singing fool (and anyone who has heard me sing knows that\u2019s a bad thing). In 1986 he was touring on the strength of Scarecrow<\/em> which produced eight charting singles including the No. 1 \u201cLonely Ol\u2019 Night,\u201d as well as \u201cSmall Town,\u201d \u201cR.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.\u201d and \u201cRumbleseat,\u201d one of my favorites.<\/p>\n

It was a good tour to see him.<\/p>\n

I went with my friend Ellen (if you\u2019re out there, hello) for a trek to the Sportatorium, and thankfully this time my car did not break down (but then again, this wasn\u2019t really a date). I don\u2019t remember if there was an opener, and if there was it wasn\u2019t a memorable one.<\/p>\n

But Mellencamp\u2019s performance was.<\/p>\n

He played just about everything you wanted to hear \u2014 \u201cJack and Diane,\u201d \u201cHurts So Good,\u201d \u201cHand to Hold on To,\u201d \u201cI Need a Lover,\u201d as well as the aforementioned songs \u2014 looking sprite and playing well with a tight band that at this point had been on tour for a while. He was personable and fun, and told a story that has always stayed on my mind.<\/p>\n

At the point of the story he had an album under his belt and was finding a little success. He ran into a woman he had a crush on in high school \u2014 she didn\u2019t share the same feelings \u2014 and told her he wrote a new song he wanted her to hear, but didn\u2019t say it was about her. They go back to his car and he plays her the song \u2014 except the entire time she\u2019s talking and not really paying attention to the song at all. Sometimes those moments you build up in your mind never happen the way you dream them to.<\/p>\n

He then played the song, \u201cAin\u2019t Even Done with the Night,\u201d which was a moderate hit on his second album Nothin\u2019 Matters and What If It Did<\/em>, and anytime I hear it I remember that story.<\/p>\n

For an encore he did a series of covers, which was fine since the main set was essentially 20 songs of greatest hits, playing \u201cMony Mony,\u201d \u201cProud Mary\u201d and ending with \u201cUnder the Boardwalk,\u201d a Drifters song he recorded which became a top-20 hit.<\/p>\n

Mellencamp would go on to further success, and later in life I would bump into him at the Indiana University press box during a football game between Indiana and Penn State. He\u2019s given tons of money to IU and has a personal box at the stadium, and at this moment was getting food during halftime. I looked up and saw him, giving that startled look I\u2019m sure he\u2019s seen tons of times. \u201cHave the barbecue, it\u2019s good,\u201d he said, then went back to his box.<\/p>\n

I did have the barbecue, and he was right. Rock stars know everything.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

February 1986, Hollywood Sportatorium, Hollywood, Fla. In the evolving stages of John Mellencamp, I was a live witness to the artist in midst when the Cougar was not quite jettisoned from the name, but was on the way out. He had helped create Farm Aid the year before, and the youthful, rebellious John Cougar was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":849,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-concerts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=848"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":850,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848\/revisions\/850"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}