J
ohnmellencampspendsan
awful lot of time alone, paint-
ing.Notlongago,hewent35days
without leaving his Indiana com-
pound,astretchsolengthythathis
85-year-old dad told him he was wor-
ried. But whether he wants them or
not,songsstillcometohim,ashis
strong, country-inflected new album,
SadClownsandHillbillies(madein
collaborationwithCarleneCarter),
makesclear.“Avoiceinmyheadwill
go,‘OK,putyourbrushdownand
write these words down’,” he says. “And
I’llbelike,‘No,Idon’twanttofucking
writeasong.’Thenthevoicewillgo,
‘You better write this down, you idiot.’
ThenIforgetaboutit,andIfinditand
go,‘WhendidIwritethis?’It’sawon-
derfulwayofwritingsongs.”How would you define your relationship
with the country-music world?
Hold it – how do the country peo-
pledefinetheirrelationshipwithme?
Iwasdoingthislongbeforetheywere
doingit–Scarecrow,BigDaddy,Lone-
someJubilee.SoIdidn’tgotocoun-
try.Theycaughtupwithme.Ihate
tosoundlikeLittleRichard,whenhe
kept going, “I invented rock & roll!”
ButifyouaskKeithUrbanorKenny
Chesneywhatinspiredthem,they’ll
tell you me.
You seemed to enjoy your recent CMT
Crossroads show with Darius Rucker.
He was so excited. When someone is
thatingratiating,it’shardtobeacur-
mudgeon, though I tried. He made it
easy.AndI’mhardtoworkwith.
Why are you hard to work with?
Myopinionishardtodealwith.Ire-
memberarguing–notarguing,joking
–withArloGuthrieabouthowtoplay
“ThisLandIsYourLand”ataWoody
event. He kept putting in these pass-
ingchords.Isaid,“Guthrie,yourold
mandidnotputthosefuckingchords
inthere.”Hegoes,“That’sthewayI
playeditforever.”Igo,“Idon’tcare.”
Weendedupplayingitmyway.
You recently said that Woody Guthrie
wouldn’t get any attention today.
Well, yeah. He’d just be playing
songs for friends. You think he would
gosomewhere?Ijustwroteabeauti-
ful fucking [protest] song called “Easy
Target”.Andnobodygaveafuck.
In that song you mention “Sucker
Town”. Are Trump voters suckers?
I don’t know if it’s just this guy. It’s
beendiscussedforyears–acertainel-
ementofourcountry...
Who vote against their interests?
They voted for Reagan, and in the
townIlivein,therewouldbeBush
signsupinpeople’syards.Iknewtheycouldn’t afford to, you know, take him
to dinner.
Some think that’s racism at work.
Well,IwasinNewYork,andIwent
onadatewithagirl.Wewenttoa
movie called – you should go to this
movie–GetOut.Wewalkedoutand
we went, “How come black people hate
us? They fuckin’ hate our guts.” And
then we both agreed that, you know,
they’ve got good reason! But it’s real-
lyfuntogotothemoviesandbeme.I
sat down and the guy next to me goes,
“Hey, John, you want some popcorn?”
“Sure.”
Speaking of dating, your new song “Sad
Clowns” basically warns women to stay
away from you.
As soon as I wrote that, I looked
upandsaid,“Thanks,Ray.”BecauseI
know it’s a Ray Davies song, like “Sunny
Afternoon” – a self-deprecating song. I
did130showsopeningfortheKinks
inthelateSeventies,andIlearneda
lot. Though at the time, I said, “This
is fucking horrible.” Ray was rough on
everybody. Him and his brother spit-
ting on each other. Like, “Are you kid-
ding me?” And then Ray wouldn’t let us
eat catering. We always had to go out to
McDonald’s or something.
You worked extensively with Stephen
King on the musical Ghost Brothers of
Darkland County. What did you guys
have in common?
I’m a hypochondriac. Steve’s a hy-
pochondriac. “Steve, I can’t possibly
have sickle cell anemia. But I think I
do.”Andhe’salwaysgotsomekindof
ankle disease or some shit. But he ex-
plainedittome.Hesaid,“Here’sthe
thing, John. You and I make shit up
foraliving.Whenwehaveidletime
onourhands,weturnitonourselves
andmakeshitup.Youdon’thavesick-
le cell!”
Your friend Bob Dylan shouted you out
in his MusiCares speech a couple of
years back. What did that mean to you?
That wink and a nod was worth
morethan50Grammys.Thatcame
from Bob, that came from his heart.
He didn’t have to fucking say that. The
girl I was with started crying. Bob
doesn’tlikeverymanypeople.
What do you make of his standards
albums?
They’regreat.Bobisalwayssofar
aheadofus.He’sgivenmealotofad-
vice:“Gowherethey’renot.”
Are you ever going to quit smoking?
I’m smoking right now. It’s been
great for my voice. My engineer said,
“Yousoundlikesomebody.”Itturned
out to be Louis Armstrong. We A-B’d
his voice against mine. And I was like,
“Fuck, what’s wrong with that?”R&R
20 | Rolling Stone | RollingStoneAus.com July, 2017
John
Mellencamp
The singer-songwriter
explains how he invented
modern country music and
why he’ll never stop smokingBY BRIAN HIATTBRAD BARKET