Mellencamp: The Biography

The man they call Little Bastard, up close and personal.

Midway through a tour in support of his 1994 album Dance Naked, John Mellencamp began to suffer a pain in his arm. It turned out that the 43-year-old, 80-cigs-a-day singer was having a heart attack. “When I found out, man, was I pissed off,” he recalls in this impressive biography. “Oh, I cussed that doctor one side down the other.”

Mellencamp always was the ornery face of US heartland rock, even in the face of serious medical emergencies. But in this book author Paul Rees digs deep to uncover the man behind the scowl, charting not only his journey from hayseed rock’n’roller from the backwaters of Indiana to one of the defining voices of American music in the 80s and beyond.

Mellencamp came to stardom late, after years of struggle – he was in his early thirties when Jack And Diane broke big. He was still called John Cougar at that point, the name bestowed on him in the 70s by original manager Tony Defries, and one the singer hated. That would be the last time he listened to anyone.

Mellencamp’s life reads like one long fight: with his father, his management his record labels, his bandmates, his previous and current families. At one point he’s described as someone “who has to win at all costs”. It makes for a hugely entertaining tale, even if the impression is of a man who could frequently be an asshole for being an asshole’s sake.

There are moments of droll comedy. When Billy Joel is asked to induct Mellencamp into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, the piano man calls his current and former bandmates to get a measure of the man, and the feedback isn’t wholly positive. Elsewhere, Mellencamp corners then-president Barack Obama and informs him that he’s just too damn conservative (Mellencamp is a bleeding-knuckle liberal who supports the Black Lives Matter movement, to the disgust of a chunk of his constituent audience). The book digs deep too, into the genetically handed-down strengths and flaws that have moulded him, and the lifelong struggles with anxiety and panic attacks that have shaped his behaviour (tellingly, details of the latter come from other people rather than from Mellencamp himself).

It’s authorised in so much as Mellencamp, his family and his friends are all involved (at least people he hasn’t pissed off beyond redemption). And while Rees writes with the admiration of a long-time fan, nothing is held back: Mellencamp’s triumphs are celebrated, but his failures and failings remain unvarnished, much like the man himself. ■■■■■■■■■■