1.
It's my responsibility as a singer-songwriter to report the news.
John Mellencamp
2.
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
3.
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
4.
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
5.
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
6.
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
7.
Growing up leads to growing old and then to dying And dying to me don't sound like all that much fun
John Mellencamp
8.
There is nothing more sad or glorious than generations changing hands.
John Mellencamp
9.
Natalie from the Dixie Chicks could have said what she said before 9-11 and no one would have cared.
John Mellencamp
10.
Ain't that America, home of the free? Little pink houses for you and me.
John Mellencamp
11.
An honest man's pillow is his peace of mind.
John Mellencamp
12.
When you live in hysteria, people start thinking emotionally.
John Mellencamp
13.
Most people in life, give up too early.
John Mellencamp
14.
My voice has gotten better from smoking.
John Mellencamp
15.
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
16.
I do things my way and I pay a high price.
John Mellencamp
17.
Be careful of those who kill in Jesus' name; he don't believe in killing at all.
John Mellencamp
18.
Grace, Mercy and Forgiveness will help a man walk tall. Walk tall!
John Mellencamp
19.
I enjoy the pleasure of my own company.
John Mellencamp
20.
What we do to each other are the worst things that we do.
John Mellencamp
21.
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
22.
I want you to dance naked, if you like, I'll join you.
John Mellencamp
23.
Music actually meant something when I started doing it. Too bad I wasn't mature enough to write anything that meant anything.
John Mellencamp
24.
I'm trying to write for people my age. And my inspiration over the years has changed dramatically.
John Mellencamp
25.
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
26.
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
27.
Now I do have a choice, and I'm not going to do anything I don't want to do.
John Mellencamp
28.
I don't want to be a politician. I don't like politics. It's petty; it fights dirty.
John Mellencamp
29.
My grandmother made sure that I went to church every Sunday. And shed 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
30.
I'm your average Joe guy. I don't really care for politicians.
John Mellencamp
31.
they say life goes on long after the thrill of living
John Mellencamp
32.
People in Indiana have known me for 25 years. They've known George Bush four.
John Mellencamp
33.
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
34.
Don't ever lose that innocent laughter, don't let time take that away
John Mellencamp
35.
When politicians use fear, they are playing into the enemy's hand.
John Mellencamp
36.
Sometimes love don't feel like it should, you make it hurt so good.
John Mellencamp
37.
I know there's a balance, I see it when I swing past.
John Mellencamp
38.
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
39.
This is not a rock opera. This is not Tommy. I can write songs that emote, and that's it.
John Mellencamp
40.
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
41.
I think the Internet is the most dangerous thing invented since the atomic bomb.
John Mellencamp
42.
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
43.
I couldn't have recorded this record 15 years ago. My voice didn't have the depth to pull these songs off.
John Mellencamp
44.
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
45.
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
46.
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
47.
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
48.
You know, it's cigarettes that killed Jerry Garcia. Everyone thinks it's heroin, but it wasn't. It was cigarettes.
John Mellencamp
49.
I thought I knew a lot about music. Then you start digging and the deeper you go, the more there is.
John Mellencamp
50.
To say that we're doomed is just an obvious remark.
John Mellencamp
