John Mellencamp Quotes

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

Natalie from the Dixie Chicks could have said what she said before 9-11 and no one would have cared.

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

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

When you live in hysteria, people start thinking emotionally.

Most people in life, give up too early.

My voice has gotten better from smoking.

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.

I do things my way and I pay a high price.

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

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

I enjoy the pleasure of my own company.

What we do to each other are the worst things that we do.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

Now I do have a choice, and I'm not going to do anything I don't want to do.

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

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.

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

they say life goes on long after the thrill of living

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

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.

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

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

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

I know there's a balance, I see it when I swing past.

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.

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

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.

I think the Internet is the most dangerous thing invented since the atomic bomb.

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.

I couldn't have recorded this record 15 years ago. My voice didn't have the depth to pull these songs off.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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

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

To say that we're doomed is just an obvious remark.