John Mellencamp Quotes & Sayings

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

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

I've never had anybody produce my records. I've always produced my own records. I've worked with a guy for a while who was an engineer who helped me produce records, but I've always made my own records. I'm a control fanatic. I've got to control everything. — John Mellencamp

I just think if the song's good, sing it. I don't care who's doing it. I don't care if it's a country act. I don't care if it's a rock act. If the song's good, sing it. — John Mellencamp

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

As I've matured as a songwriter, I realize that if it's out there, it's mine. — John Mellencamp

This is about black people selling out other black people. — John Mellencamp

I fight authority and authority always wins. — John Mellencamp

The simple man, baby, pays for the thrills, the bills, and the pills that kill. — John Mellencamp

Hanging out is a waste of time. The only time I would hang out was when I was a kid, I would hang out in the streets. But once I started making records, I stopped hanging out. — John Mellencamp

I thought I knew a lot about music. Then you start digging and the deeper you go, the more there is. — John Mellencamp

An honest man's pillow is his peace of mind. — John Mellencamp

All I'm doing is painting. It's my hobby. And that's that. — John Mellencamp

Oh, I think country has changed tremendously. I think country has totally changed. Country music when I was a kid was Hank Williams. If you put Hank and Elvis together, there wasn't that musical difference. But as the Beatles showed up and the English invasion, I think country music got pretty far away from rock n' roll. — John Mellencamp

If I'm painting, I paint every day. I'll be up in the studio from 8:00 in the morning to 8:00 at night. — John Mellencamp

This is serious business, sex, violence, and rock and roll. — John Mellencamp

Do I think it's OK to fight authority as long as you're only talking about the high school teacher? No. — John Mellencamp

They say life goes on long after the thrill of living — John Mellencamp

I'm looking for trouble. A lot of people get to be a certain age and they just kind of lose interest or they give up. But I'm looking for trouble. — John Mellencamp

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

My voice has gotten better from smoking. — John Mellencamp

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

Check it out, forgot to say hello to my neighbors. Check it out, sometimes I question my own behavior. — John Mellencamp

You know, it's cigarettes that killed Jerry Garcia. Everyone thinks it's heroin, but it wasn't. It was cigarettes. — John Mellencamp

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

I need a lover that won't drive me crazy, someone that knows the meaning of hey, hit the highway. — John Mellencamp

Music actually meant something when I started doing it. Too bad I wasn't mature enough to write anything that meant anything. — John Mellencamp

Sometimes love don't feel like it should, you make it hurt so good. — John Mellencamp

Dear Mr. President, can I ask you a question, when the bombs fall down will they hurt everyone in my family? — John Mellencamp

This is not a rock opera. This is not Tommy. I can write songs that emote, and that's it. — John Mellencamp

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

I want to sell to people my own age, because that's the way I write songs. — John Mellencamp

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

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

I'm your average Joe guy. I don't really care for politicians. — John Mellencamp

It's my responsibility as a singer-songwriter to report the news. — John Mellencamp

I was one of those guys, you know, playing and singing, and there was no reason for me to write a song, because there were so many beautiful songs out. And Bob Dylan was always the ultimate songwriter, and nobody could ever write a song as good as him, and nobody ever has written a song as good as him. — John Mellencamp

If you hide information from people, don't want people to see the Ten Commandments or don't want people to hear about Darwin, aren't we hiding things that we know from our future generations? I just think that that's incorrect. — John Mellencamp

His frustration running very high, he takes it out on the ones he loves because it's safe. — John Mellencamp

She said she wasn't afraid of Satan, in fact, she thought he was a joke. She said she'd tear his tail off and run her fist down his throat. — John Mellencamp

All I can do is repeat what I think is the best information that anybody ever gave me. — John Mellencamp

Now more than ever the world needs love, not just a slogan. — John Mellencamp

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

There's a young man in a T-shirt listening to a rock and roll station. He's got greasy hair, greasy smile, he says, Lord this must be my destination. — John Mellencamp

I'm using my art to comment on what I see. You don't have to agree with it. — John Mellencamp

Most people in life, give up too early. — John Mellencamp

People in Indiana have known me for 25 years. They've known George Bush four. — John Mellencamp

When you live in hysteria, people start thinking emotionally. — John Mellencamp

I know there's a balance/I see it when I swing past. — John Mellencamp

I think the Internet is the most dangerous thing invented since the atomic bomb, — John Mellencamp

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

Rock'n'roll starts between the legs and goes through the heart, then to the head. As long as it does those three things, it's a great rock song. — John Mellencamp

Hold on to 16 as long as you can. changes coming round real soon, make us women and men. — John Mellencamp

Hold on to 16 as long as you can, — John Mellencamp

I have a bunch of information in my head that I'm not afraid to put in song or onto a canvas. Into any conversation. — John Mellencamp

People have the right to say what they want to. — John Mellencamp

You shouldn't even be in a band if you can't play Buddy Holly's Not Fade Away. — John Mellencamp

The CD, it should be noted, was born out of greed. It was devised to prop up record sales on the expectation of people replenishing their record collections with CDs of albums they had already purchased. — John Mellencamp

Sound quality was supposed to be one of the big selling points for CDs but, as we know, it wasn't very good at all. It was just another con, a get-rich-quick scheme, a monumental hoax perpetrated on the music consuming public. — John Mellencamp

Immersing yourself in the environment of a real record store where music is celebrated and cherished adds real value to the experience of buying music. In some ways, that retail experience is as important as the music. — John Mellencamp

I enjoy the pleasure of my own company. — John Mellencamp

Mama, why do I always fall for the crazy ones? — John Mellencamp

The dust to which this flesh shall return, it is the ancient dreaming dust of God. — John Mellencamp

Be careful of those who kill in Jesus' name; he don't believe in killing at all. — John Mellencamp

I went to New York in 1974, to either try to get a record deal, get into the New York Art Student League, or be a dancer. So that was my plan. Some plan. And I had no money. — John Mellencamp

With no bottom line, it's hard to know wrong from right. But I ain't ever satisfied. — John Mellencamp

You can't tell your best buddy that you love him. — John Mellencamp

Everything I see and hear ... I will take ideas from anyplace, anywhere, anytime, and life has become a song to me. I'm always looking for a song. — John Mellencamp

When politicians use fear, they are playing into the enemy's hand. — John Mellencamp

Want me to spend the night? Hey lover boy, you know I will, and my best girlfriend lives down the road, together we will thrill you. — John Mellencamp

Grace, Mercy and Forgiveness will help a man walk tall. Walk tall! — John Mellencamp

Don't ever lose that innocent laughter, don't let time take that away — John Mellencamp

For me or a Bruce Springsteen to sit up in our ivory towers and make comments about racism, well, were not really in it, are we? — John Mellencamp

All my friends are so small town. — John Mellencamp

Go to work and be a Hollywood stud, drive your four wheel drive right into the mud. — John Mellencamp

I know a lot of funny people in a lot of funny places. — John Mellencamp

We have been lied to and terrorized by our own government, and it is time to take action. — John Mellencamp

If we have any hope for survival of the music that we all love, compassion must replace name-calling, fairness must replace greed, and we need to come together as a musical community and try to understand each other's problems. — John Mellencamp

I do things my way and I pay a high price. — John Mellencamp

Give me someone I can look up to, show me someone I can love. — John Mellencamp

There is nothing more sad or glorious than generations changing hands. — John Mellencamp

My grandmother made sure that I went to church every Sunday. And she'd come over and pick us boys up, and we would go to the Nazarene church. And back then, that was about as close to heaven as I ever got, because just the time to be able to spend with her, and she was very, very religious. — John Mellencamp

Ain't that America, home of the free? Little pink houses for you and me. — John Mellencamp

What's the difference? One guy's the same as the other. — John Mellencamp

Some people say I'm obnoxious and lazy, that I'm uneducated, that my opinion means nothing, but I know I'm a real good dancer. — John Mellencamp

When people are afraid, they make emotional decisions. — John Mellencamp

It sounds funny, but I always try to keep an open mind about what I'm writing about. Sometimes I squeak my opinions in there, but generally I don't. I try to be objective about things that I'm writing about. — John Mellencamp

If Woody Guthrie set the bar for American songwriters, Bob Dylan jumped right over it. No one I know will ever come close to possessing the beauty of melody and the use of language that Dylan shares with us, with ease. — John Mellencamp

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

Growing up leads to growing old and then to dying And dying to me don't sound like all that much fun — John Mellencamp

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

It's what you do and not what you say. If you're not part of the future, then get out of the way! — John Mellencamp

We had an exercise in speech class in school, impromptu speaking, that I was always real good at. — John Mellencamp

I don't want to be a politician. I don't like politics. It's petty; it fights dirty. — John Mellencamp

I want you to dance naked, if you like, I'll join you. — John Mellencamp

Take 'Jack and Diane.' I was so disgusted with people thinking the line 'Hold on to sixteen as long as you can' meant to stay a teenager forever. What I meant was keep doing whatever makes you feel alive. — John Mellencamp

I'm trying to write for people my age. And my inspiration over the years has changed dramatically. — John Mellencamp

Grandma's on the front porch with a Bible in her hand, sometimes I hear her singing take me to the promised land. — John Mellencamp

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

I've never fit in in any music world. I've always been an outsider. I mean, the fact that I live in Indiana - I live in a fly-over state. I'm not running away from anything, that's the problem. Most people go to cities because they don't like where they come from. — John Mellencamp