The Joe Rogan ExperienceJoe Rogan Experience #2438 - John Mellencamp
EVERY SPOKEN WORD
115 min read · 23,041 words- 0:00 – 15:00
Joe Rogan Podcast, check it out!…
- JRJoe Rogan
Joe Rogan Podcast, check it out!
- JRJoe Rogan
The Joe Rogan Experience.
- JRJoe Rogan
Train by day, Joe Rogan Podcast by night, all day. [upbeat music] Okay, cool.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Mm-hmm.
- JRJoe Rogan
Why, why would I hate my tattoos?
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Because you get older, and they get all smudgy, and-
- JRJoe Rogan
Mine are getting kind of smudgy.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Yeah, well look at-
- JRJoe Rogan
I don't mind them.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Look at this one.
- JRJoe Rogan
It's pretty smudgy. [laughing] Pretty fucking smudgy.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
[laughing] I, I owned a tattoo parlor in, uh, I don't know what year it was, mid-'80s, and they were illegal in Indiana, but because it was me, they said, "Okay, leave him alone."
- JRJoe Rogan
Really?
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Mm-hmm.
- JRJoe Rogan
I remember when they were illegal in New York. I used to-- I went to Connecticut to get my first tattoo.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Yeah, I, uh, I didn't know it was illegal, but I met this guy in LA, and, uh, he worked at Sunset, you know, where the Hyatt House is, and there was a tattoo parlor right across the street. Anyway, he was there, and, uh, so I brought him to Bloomington 'cause he wanted to get out of LA, and guess why they closed me down?
- JRJoe Rogan
Why?
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Fucking guy was a heroin addict. [laughing]
- JRJoe Rogan
[laughing]
- JMJohn Mellencamp
I know, and he did this tattoo one time, and I went over-- I just went over to the shop. I said, "Hey, let's do this little..." And he was all fucked up, [chuckles] and it was just like, "What's wrong with him?" You know, 'cause I didn't know. I don't know anything about heroin addicts, so...
- JRJoe Rogan
There wasn't a lot of heroin addicts back then. That was a rare thing. Now, when you think about how many people are... Because of the Sackler family, think of how many people are hooked on opiates today. I mean, it's gotta be, uh-
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Lots.
- JRJoe Rogan
It's off the charts in comparison to what it was like in, you know, the 1980s. There's-- I mean, I knew one guy that, uh, had a friend who did heroin. That's it.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Well, I was at a... The first time I saw somebody do heroin was, uh, I was in college, and there was a place called Bull Island that tried to imitate Woodstock, and me, and my then wife, and my kid, my little girl, and, uh, and my roommate, who lived with us, we're just walking down, [chuckles] and we see this guy shooting up, so we just thought, "Well, we'll watch."
- JRJoe Rogan
[laughing]
- JMJohn Mellencamp
'Cause he was just sitting right there, and, uh, I mean, I-- there was, like, two hundred thousand people there. And he shot, and he went out. And I looked at the guy I was with and go, "Well, we won't be doing this." [laughing]
- JRJoe Rogan
[laughing]
- JMJohn Mellencamp
"We're not gonna do this."
- JRJoe Rogan
I had a friend who was a longshoreman, and he worked with this guy that every lunchtime, he would go and score, and sit in his truck, and shoot up, and that's what he did every lunch. He was a functional heroin addict, and he would show up for work every day, and he did his job. But, uh, during lunchtime, during his hour, he would do heroin and just fucking find his happy place and then an hour later, go back to work.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
And he, and, and the one shot would last all day?
- 15:00 – 30:00
What did they do during the operation?…
- JMJohn Mellencamp
my whole life has been full of luck. I mean, uh, I'm not supposed to be here.
- JRJoe Rogan
What did they do during the operation? What is the procedure?
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Well, they have to cut your head off, [chuckles] for starters. You know, they had, they had to cut my head and lay it open-
- JRJoe Rogan
Oof
- JMJohn Mellencamp
... to get to my spine, and then they would push each individual nerve ending back down into my spine, dr- drain the fluid off, uh, sew it back up, and make sure that everything was working. And, uh, they told my parents, "You know, look, uh, here he is. He's probably going to die becau- get encephalitis, and his head's gonna fill up with water. We, we don't anticipate him living much more than six or seven months." And I was, fuck, I think I was in fifth grade. I didn't even know I'd had the operation, and some kid in my class said, "Hey, Mellencamp, what's that big scar on the back of your neck?" Don't forget, now we're talking, you know, 1957, '58, '60, maybe. I didn't even know there was a scar back there, you know? [chuckles]
- JRJoe Rogan
Wow!
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Went like I was going, and my parents never told me. So [clears throat] I came home, and I asked my old man, I said, "Dad, what, what's with the scar on the back of my neck?" And he goes, "Oh, don't worry about it. You had an operation when you were born." So I did it. I played football. I ran track. I fought. You know, I did everything that every other kid did without a thought of that. Not until I got older and I ha- started having panic disorder, that I thought, I thought maybe the, the panic disorder was from, uh, from that operation.
- JRJoe Rogan
How old were you when you started having panic disorder?
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Uh, I was just out of college. I couldn't leave the house. I became what they call, uh, what's that called? Agoraphobia.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Yeah. So I had agoraphobia for about a year and a half, and then I got a record deal, and I had to leave the house. I mean, I was married in high school. I got married in high school, and the girl I was married to was five years older than me, you know.
- JRJoe Rogan
How old were you?
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Eighteen.
- JRJoe Rogan
Eighteen?
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Yeah. [chuckles]
- JRJoe Rogan
You had a kid, right? You had a kid real young.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Yeah, she's, uh, 50-something now.
- JRJoe Rogan
Wow.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
I, I have three girls and two boys.
- JRJoe Rogan
Weren't you a grandfather when you were in your 30s?
- JMJohn Mellencamp
[scoffs] Maybe. [laughing]
- JRJoe Rogan
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- JMJohn Mellencamp
'Cause that oldest daughter of mine got married when she was, like, 19.
- JRJoe Rogan
Wow!
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Not much to do in a small town, man.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah. [chuckles]
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Uh, not much to do.
- JRJoe Rogan
[laughing]
- JMJohn Mellencamp
So that's the spina bifida.
- 30:00 – 45:00
Good for you.…
- JMJohn Mellencamp
to listen to much politics.
- JRJoe Rogan
Good for you.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
You know why?
- JRJoe Rogan
That's another good way to not have a heart attack. [chuckles]
- JMJohn Mellencamp
... Well, you know why? 'Cause it, it's all, you know, I was a hippie.
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm-hmm.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
And I grew up thinking, [clears throat] you know, that anybody over 30 was the enemy.
- JRJoe Rogan
Right.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
And, you know, it's kinda like, [chuckles] my- I remember when Kennedy was shot, I asked my dad, I go, "Do you..." And I was like a kid. I go, "Do you really think o- one guy did it?" And he just looked at me and went, "What do you think?" And that was the whole, his whole answer.
- JRJoe Rogan
Wow. Well, he knew it back then. That's interesting, 'cause it took a long- it took until, uh, Dick, Dick Gregory brought the Zapruder film on the Geraldo Rivera show, which was, I think it was 12 years after Kennedy's assassination, that people realized that he probably had gotten shot from the front.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
'Cause his head went back and to the left.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Yeah, and, a- a- and I've seen that, and, uh, I remem- my dad was a Young Democrat, you know, and, and, uh, so he, he was involved a, a lot with the Democratic Party back then. And, uh, uh, I'd ask him questions, and he never would really give me answers. He would just give me looks. [laughing]
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh. [laughing]
- JMJohn Mellencamp
It was kinda like... And he knew the look! It was just like, "Uh, what do you think, John? You really think somebody did that? You, you know, figure it out for yourself."
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah, not much has changed.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
A- and that's why I don't watch... I don't, you know, I used to be very politically minded and, and cared about what politicians said. I don't give a fuck what they say. I don't trust any of 'em. I don't like any of 'em. Not that I don't like 'em-
- JRJoe Rogan
Right.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
It's just that I don't, I, I... You know, it's just hard to believe anything that anybody says because everybody's spinning everything in such a way that it's just, like, for their purposes, you know, so, you know.
- JRJoe Rogan
And unfortunately, we're more aware of it now than ever before. There's less trust in politics now than there's ever been, and then there's more people talking about politics than there's ever been. There's more polarization. I mean, I don't know what it was like when, uh, you were a kid, but wh- when I was a kid, there, there wasn't this polarization between people that were conservative and people that were liberal. Like, you could hang out and talk to each other. You didn't-- they didn't hate each other. They just thought the other person was a fool for having a different opinion than them, but there wasn't hate like there is today.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Well, here's the way you gotta look at it, [chuckles] this is that when you used to vote, you would go inside a place, and they would shut the curtains-
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm-hmm
- JMJohn Mellencamp
... and you would vote, and that was your fucking business.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yep.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
It's nobody else's business. [cup clanks] So, like, you know, it's like, uh, you know, uh, I'm for anybody that's doing good. If you're doing good and you're not hurting somebody, go, man. But, uh, you know, I, I'm not for cheating, and, you know, how about a little morality and-
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah
- JMJohn Mellencamp
... integrity in what you're saying and doing? It's-
- JRJoe Rogan
That would be nice. It would be nice.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Well, it's, it's never been that way.
- JRJoe Rogan
No, never.
- 45:00 – 1:00:00
Wow.…
- JMJohn Mellencamp
"Pull strings and I'll kiss your lips. I'm your puppet. I'm your puppet." And we had, you know, Nehru jackets on, and I was cute back then. And, and so, you know, it was great for me. I would've done it for free because I was 14 years old, making out with 18 and 19-year-old girls.
- JRJoe Rogan
Wow.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
I know, it was great. Are you kidding me? And then, uh, we played at every fraternity, every sorority, and I came home with maybe, you know, over the weekend, I might make 60 bucks. I was the best-dressed kid in school.
- JRJoe Rogan
Wow.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
"That Mellencamp kid is just a dressed-up hood. That's all he is." [laughing]
- JRJoe Rogan
So did you know back then that you were gonna be a professional musician, or were you doing it for fun? Did you think it was gonna be a career?
- JMJohn Mellencamp
I thought-- here's what I thought: I'm either gonna be a professional football player, a professional boxer, or a singer. That was my choices.
- JRJoe Rogan
You boxed?
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah?
- JMJohn Mellencamp
I'll whip your ass right now. [laughing]
- JRJoe Rogan
[laughing]
- JMJohn Mellencamp
At 74!
- JRJoe Rogan
Is that why you were getting in so many fights, 'cause-
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Yeah, I liked it.
- JRJoe Rogan
Wow.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
I liked it. I, I liked the contact. Didn't like getting whipped every goddamn night, but, [chuckles] you know, it happens.
- JRJoe Rogan
Did you have any, any professional boxing matches?
- JMJohn Mellencamp
No, but my son, I'm gonna brag on my son, uh, was National Golden Gloves champ twice.
- JRJoe Rogan
Wow!
- JMJohn Mellencamp
And, uh, then he played football for Duke, and, uh, he was... You don't wanna mess with Hud. Don't wanna mess with Hud.
- JRJoe Rogan
And so-
- JMJohn Mellencamp
He's 31 now
- JRJoe Rogan
... when did the music thing really start taking off for you?
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Well, I went to college, and I got a degree in, uh, broadcasting technology, which, at that time, was pretty... And, uh, I would-- they would have dances at college and bands playing, and I would sit there in the audience and go, "I can do this better than that. I know I can." And so as soon as I got out of college, I got into a band called The Mason Brothers, which I have, I have so many funny stories. Uh, like I said, I'm so lucky. I got into a band called The Mason Brothers, and we played every weekend, and, uh, I was a barroom singer. You know, I never wrote any songs or anything like that. Uh, you wanna hear a funny story about The Mason Brothers, how The Mason Brothers ended?
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah. [laughing]
- JMJohn Mellencamp
[laughing] This is good. The guy that ran the band-- I was just a singer, and the guy that ran the band was a guy named Dave. And Dave [clears throat] talked to the booker, and we had a gig on a riverboat, up and down the Ohio River. Uh, and it was a fraternity show. And we had an old Plymouth and a U-Haul on the back.... and we get there, and the guys in the fraternity, Joe, are so fucking mad at us. Dave failed to realize that there was a time change between Seymour and Cincinnati, which is on the Ohio River. So they c- all these fraternity guys are going: "Where the hell have you guys been? You're an hour late!" blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So it really pissed me off. I go, "Dave, goddamn it, if you're gonna run the band, you gotta, like, keep track of this shit." He said, "Oh, don't worry about it." And as time went on-- and, and, [chuckles] uh, so as- And you had to do four sets back then, you know, four 45-minute sets, which was plenty of time for Dave to get drunk. And he would drink, and he was the bass player. And the fraternity guys already hated us, you know, 'cause we w- we weren't really any good anyway. [chuckles] So Dave's playing, and he's going along really good, and he was putting on a show, and he leaned back and, "Man overboard!" [laughing] He fucking fell off the ship, and they had to stop and fish him out. [laughing]
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh, my God.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
So I got so fucking mad at him that he said, uh... I said, "Dave, I'm gonna quit. This is, this is it for me. I'm, I'm done with, with this crap." Uh, and then Dave said, "No, John, give us one more chance." And then the drummer quit 'cause he went to, uh, he went to medical school, and then the guitar player was still in high school. [laughing]
- JRJoe Rogan
Wow!
- 1:00:00 – 1:15:00
Mm-hmm…
- JMJohn Mellencamp
good, but he just, you know... Da- uh, you know, Dave, and we were 20 years old-
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm-hmm
- JMJohn Mellencamp
... 22 years old. You know, what the fuck did we know about anything?
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Nothing. Nothing.
- JRJoe Rogan
So when you left Dave and you left that band, what, what happened next? What was, like, the big break for you?
- JMJohn Mellencamp
I never really had a big break. [laughing]
- JRJoe Rogan
Well, something must have happened.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
It was a slow climb. [laughing]
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah?
- JMJohn Mellencamp
It was a very slow climb. Yeah, I, uh, I got a record deal-
- JMJohn Mellencamp
... and of course, being me at that age, at 22, uh, I went out to California and I met with a guy named Mike Maitland, who hated my new record, but said I had great possibilities. And I told [laughing] I just stood up and I said, "Motherfucker, you're an old man. What do you know about rock music?" He must have been 40. [laughing] And of course, I got dropped immediately. I was on MCA, and I got dropped immediately. But there were a couple people at MCA who believed in what I was doing, and so they helped me along. And then I got introduced to, uh, Rod Stewart's manager, and I moved to England for two years. Made a record and, and, you know, lived with the whole band on Chelsea, in Chelsea. And, uh, [clears throat] punk was just starting. And just starting, I mean, you know, The Clash and, and the Sex Pistols, I mean-
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm
- JMJohn Mellencamp
... these, they were brand-new bands.
- JRJoe Rogan
Wow!
- JMJohn Mellencamp
And there I am with an acoustic guitar going, "I need a lover that won't..." I'm just like- [laughing] However, that song became number one in Australia. And, uh, so Australia was ahead of us with televising rock bands, and they had a whole bunch of rock shows. And I had the number one record album and single in Australia, a- and couldn't fill up a bar in Bloomington.
- JRJoe Rogan
Wow!
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Couldn't... Nobody'd come to see me. So anyway, I went to Australia, and then, uh, a girl covered I Need a Lover, and she had a big hit with it. I mean, my mine was like, went to, like, 30 or something like that, but hers went to, like, two, um, of that song. And that's how it all started for me. That was the very first thing-
- JRJoe Rogan
Wow
- JMJohn Mellencamp
... was some girl covering one of my songs.
- JRJoe Rogan
And you were living in England back then, as well?
- JMJohn Mellencamp
I lived in England for, uh, [clears throat] two years. And, uh, and they had the National Front there at the time. I don't know if you know what that is. The National Front was, "If you're not English, get out of our country."
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
And a couple of my-- couple guys in my band got beat up because they heard... You know, some of the National Front guys heard, uh, their accent, and it wasn't English. So it was, like, dangerous to even go to the movies.
- JRJoe Rogan
Really?
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Keep your fu- keep your fucking mouth shut and your head down.
- JRJoe Rogan
What year was this around? '70s?
- JMJohn Mellencamp
'77, '76, '77.
- JRJoe Rogan
Wow!
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Yeah. Yeah, the National Front was... You know, they were like all a bunch of skinhead guys, and violent, and didn't, did not want any foreigners in their country at all, and even Americans, you know? So yeah, you had to keep your eye- you know, I learned real quick to keep your head down and your mouth shut.
- 1:15:00 – 1:30:00
I am-…
- JRJoe Rogan
but-
- JMJohn Mellencamp
I am-
- JRJoe Rogan
And?
- JMJohn Mellencamp
I, I am soft-spoken.
- JRJoe Rogan
[chuckles] Yeah, a little bit. Yeah.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
You know why?
- JRJoe Rogan
Why?
- JMJohn Mellencamp
'Cause I'm deaf. [chuckles]
- JRJoe Rogan
Are you really? Oh, from all the singing-
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
-all the music?
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh, every rock star is deaf. Yeah.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
I'm, I'm deaf.
- JRJoe Rogan
No one knew shit about hearing protection back then.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
No, I'm deaf. I can't hear. [chuckles]
- JRJoe Rogan
All my friends in bands and all my friends that are hunters, deaf.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Can't hear.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah. Guns and loud music.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Yeah, uh, my kids would love it because they could walk up and say shit behind my back. [laughing] I'm like: "I heard that!" I got three girls and two boys, and what-- how many kids you got?
- JRJoe Rogan
Uh, three. Three girls.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Uh, girls are... At, at about 12, you lose them, and then about 21, they come back.
- JRJoe Rogan
I haven't lost them-
- JMJohn Mellencamp
You haven't?
- JRJoe Rogan
- fortunately. No, no, I'm real close. Yeah.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Yeah, I k- I kinda-
- JRJoe Rogan
I have, uh, 17 or 28
- JMJohn Mellencamp
... I kinda, I kinda lost mine, you know, it was like, uh, but now it's kinda like... But I do have a daughter that's really sick, which is not fucking fine.
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh, that sucks. I'm sorry to hear that.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
She's got, uh, she's got cancer in the brain.
- 1:30:00 – 1:45:00
Right.…
- JMJohn Mellencamp
covering up your mistake.
- JRJoe Rogan
Right.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
So [laughing] I called up Mick Ronson. He was the guitar player for David Bowie. You remember Mick?
- JRJoe Rogan
No, I don't.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Joe!
- JRJoe Rogan
I don't-
- JMJohn Mellencamp
God damn it.
- JRJoe Rogan
Sorry.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Uh, anyway, Mick was a great guy, and he, he, he was, he was Bowie's guitar player when Bowie was great, when he had Ziggy Stardust and all that stuff. And Ronson was an English guy, and he'd call me Johnny all the time, and, you know. And, uh, he said, "Johnny, maybe you should put those baby rattles on there." And I go, "What?" He goes, "You know, that drum machine thing that makes that noise, just to keep time." And I said, "Okay, we'll try it." So we put on this doom, doom, do, do, doom [mimicking drum machine] and it was perfect timing. Perfect.... so the odd, uh, the idea was, is that we'll take that drum machine out when we get everything. We'll take it out. And now the drummer had to play in time because that machine did not budge. That machine was perfect, and it was, it was a prototype of a drum machine. That's how new it was. It was a prototype, and it was the only one they gave the Bee Gees to try it out to see how they liked it. And, uh, so we d- we got it all together, and we took the drum machine out. Sounded like shit! [laughing] But it sounded great with the drum machine. So I said, "Fuck it, we'll just leave the drum machine in." And it worked because nobody'd ever heard that sound.
- JRJoe Rogan
And the record company didn't like that?
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Oh, they hated it! They hated, they hated that fucking sound.
- JRJoe Rogan
But that song was so good.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Uh, well, uh, you know, and i- it's surprising to me that to this day, how m- how many people still love that song.
- JRJoe Rogan
It's a fucking great song.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
You know, and ev- every time-
- JRJoe Rogan
What year was that?
- JMJohn Mellencamp
1981.
- JRJoe Rogan
Wow! I was 14.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
So, so how, so how old were you in 1981?
- JRJoe Rogan
14.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
So you were-
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah, high school.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Yeah, you were there.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
That's great. See, that's great, and I, I, I love hearing, you know, guys your age talk about it because it's just like, I didn't know what the fuck I was doing. And the fact that th- that song today... I had somebody tell me, one of the nicest things anybody said to me was, is that, "John, there was Romeo and Juliet, there was Frankie and Johnny, and now there's Jack and Diane."
- JRJoe Rogan
Ah.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
"And you've joined-- those two kids have joined those people of importance in American culture."
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Now, think about it. Now, who would've fucking thought that some dumbass like me would write a fucking song as a child, when I first started writing songs, and create those two characters that made such an impression on everybody?
- JRJoe Rogan
The only other one I think about is Brenda and Eddie from Billy Joel, Scenes from an Italian Restaurant.
- 1:45:00 – 2:00:00
Why were they dropping MTV?…
- JMJohn Mellencamp
about it. Sykes, me, Don Henley, and somebody else went and did-- They were gonna drop MTV off a whole bunch of stations, and we got on a plane and went there, went to all these different stations that were gonna drop MTV and talk to them why they couldn't do it, and it worked.
- JRJoe Rogan
Why were they dropping MTV?
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Uh, too lewd, too- [laughing] I wanna tell you something else, young man. I wanna tell you something else. I showed that, by accident, in a video, and MTV wasn't gonna play, wasn't gonna play the, the video because-
- JRJoe Rogan
Because you had a tattoo?
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
That's hilarious.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Yeah, because I, you know, I had a tattoo. Anyway-
- JRJoe Rogan
That's hilarious!
- JMJohn Mellencamp
[laughing] I know.
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh, my God. It's so funny when you think about what music is like now, and then especially, like, in the late '80s, when hip-hop really took off, and then gangsta rap took off. It's-
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Well, and, and, and now you know why, because, uh, you know, what we ta-
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm-hmm
- JMJohn Mellencamp
... we're talking about, about SoundScan and stuff.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
That's how, that's how all that happened. And my deceased friend, Tim White, who I loved dearly, told me it was going to happen. So, and, and I just sat back and went, "I can't, I can't believe that this is right."
- JRJoe Rogan
Wow.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
"I can't believe that that can happen." We're-- you know, rock is too, too important to the culture, too important, you know... And there's a lot better songwriters than me, and we all got eighty-sixed. I mean, like, the fucking Rolling Stones just put out a new album, and I never heard it. You never heard it.
- JRJoe Rogan
No. I saw them live a, a couple of years ago here.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
How was it?
- JRJoe Rogan
They played at the Circuit of the Americas. It was fucking incredible. It was like having an out-of-body experience. It's like you couldn't believe they were really there.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
I remember watching Mick Jagger on stage, and my friend was talking to me, and I was watching him, and a- he's like: "Isn't this fucking incredible?" I was like: "I can't, I can't believe it's really him." It's like they are so iconic, and here he is in his fucking 80s, just jamming. The guy brings two trailers, two whole trailers, that are just gym equipment-
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Yeah
- JRJoe Rogan
... everywhere he goes. Works out every day.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Every year, uh, uh, we, we, we, we started Farm Aid in 1985, and every year, 'cause w- you have a-- at Farm Aid, you have a, uh, press conference in the beginning, and then I don't go on until, like, 9 o'clock, so I got all day. You know what I do half the day? "Neil, can I use your [laughing] fucking gym equipment?" 'Cause he's got a, a, a trailer like, you know, you would haul groceries and couches and shit.
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm-hmm.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
And it's full of gym equipment.
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
"Can I use your..." So I, I use his, his, not his weights so much, but, uh, but his, uh, you know, his, what do you call it? I call it the lazy machine, where you can be lazy.
- JRJoe Rogan
Elliptical?
- 2:00:00 – 2:15:00
What is it that you love about…
- JMJohn Mellencamp
on one hand, just said, "Well, fuck it. If you can't beat them, join them," so she started smoking. But Kristen hates cigarettes, and I, I don't know what to tell her, 'cause, you know, the-- I don't do much good, but I'm really a good smoker. [laughing] Really good at it.
- JRJoe Rogan
What is it that you love about cigarettes so much?
- JMJohn Mellencamp
They're part of me. Uh, I don't know how to put it. I mean, I smoked my first cigarette at 10.
- JRJoe Rogan
Wow!
- JMJohn Mellencamp
At 10.
- JRJoe Rogan
64 years of smoking.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
That's crazy.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
I was-
- JRJoe Rogan
And you're okay.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
I was addicted in high school.
- JRJoe Rogan
Wow!
- JMJohn Mellencamp
I used to wake up in the morning, and my parents had a great big house, and I would go down in the basement, go into the fucking storm cellar, and smoke, not knowing that I came out of that little area smelling like a cigarette ashtray. [chuckles]
- JRJoe Rogan
Right. [chuckles]
- JMJohn Mellencamp
And my parents, you know, was like, "Have you been smoking downstairs?" "Yeah." But they never said anything.
- JRJoe Rogan
Well, maybe it's better than having the stress of not smoking. One of the things about smoking, and I'm not an advocate, I'm not telling people they should smoke, but maybe one of the things about it is that at least it relaxes you. I think one of the worst things for people is just stress.... I was talking about a friend of mine who's going through something pretty heavy right now, and, uh, he's had a couple of heart attacks, and there's nothing wrong with him. He's had heart attacks just from stress, where his fucking arteries just lock up, his whole body's just locked up just from anxiety and stress, and he's had heart attacks because of that. Doesn't smoke, doesn't drink, takes care of himself, and just the l- the problems in his life are so overwhelming. There's gotta be-- there's a benefit, there's gotta be a benefit to just relaxing, just enjoying something and relaxing, and not having that overwhelming stress.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Well, it's amazing how much cigarettes take you away from-- 'cause you've gotta, you know, nowadays, if you're a cigarette smoker, you, you know-- I'm lucky to be here with you, that I can smoke in your area, but most people would go, "Yeah, "
- JRJoe Rogan
Go outside.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Go outside.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah. Wow.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
But I'll tell you a funny story about Johnny Cash and me. [clears throat] John, uh, John, I-- John and I knew each other, and I would go down and, and I would see him in Jamaica, and then he got really sick. But John quit smoking, and John and I did, um, did something for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and i- this is another funny story. Um, we were standing around doing-- getting ready to do soundcheck, and there was a whole bunch of people playing, a whole bunch of people. And the Eagles were on sound checking, and they were taking, uh, taking forever because Don Henley is a, a perfectionist: everything's gotta be just right. And I was standing with John and June, and John was getting irritated 'cause we were like 40 minutes-- you know, we'd been standing there ready to sound check for 40 minutes. So while we're standing there, I was smoking, and John goes, "You're going to have to quit that smoking, John. It's gonna catch up with you someday." I said, "Well, you fucking smoke." And he goes, "Well, I used to, but I saw this guy from London, and he, he got me to quit smoking." I go, "Maybe I should see that guy." He goes, "Okay, yeah, I, I will." "Uh, you will." Anyway, [chuckles] so, so anyway, we finally get on the, to sound check, and John sound checked without me, uh, 'cause I just sang one song with him. I-- and then when it came time to sound check, I went, "You know, John..." You know, 'cause like, he was irritated. Yeah, yeah. I don't know if you knew Johnny Cash or not-
- JRJoe Rogan
No.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
... he had a fucking temper. You know, you didn't fuck with John Cash. You just didn't. Anyway, I says, "You know, John, uh, you know, I got this song." And we were doing 'Ring of Fire.' I said, "I know that song. It's easy." He said, "You sure?" And I said, "Yeah. Yeah, I got it. I got it." He goes, "Okay, well, thanks, 'cause, you know, I'm sick of fucking being here." So [chuckles] the next night, we get up there, and John come, and he introduces me, "My friend, John Mellencamp," and he starts the song. [singing] I fell into... I didn't realize that he had changed the fucking key from him smoking to a lower key, so I couldn't hit the note, 'cause it was, [singing] I fell into, to I fell-- I couldn't find the fucking note because it was not the note the song was written in.
- JRJoe Rogan
[chuckles]
- JMJohn Mellencamp
I was singing right along with the song. And I look over there, and there's Chuck Berry going... [laughing] And I look over there, and there's Springsteen going... And all these people on the side of the stage, right? And they're, they're all giving me a look like, "You're fucking up, man." It was like, "Yeah, I know it." And so anyway, as soon as the song was over, I ran offstage. I was totally humiliated, right? So I ran offstage and got to my trailer. I j- I just get back there, and all of a sudden, [knocking] knock on the door, and I answer it, and it's John. And he said, "Can I come in?" And I go, "I don't know why you'd want to, but yeah, come on in." He goes, "I told you we should have sound checked." [laughing]
- JRJoe Rogan
[laughing]
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Anyway, so that conversation led on to, "I know this guy who will get you to quit smoking," and so he gives me all the information. And me and two other guys fly this guy over from London, and, um, Joe, here was his solution for not smoking: He gave me a good talking to.
- JRJoe Rogan
That's it?
- 2:15:00 – 2:21:58
Yeah, I've se- I've seen it on…
- JRJoe Rogan
y- Instagram, and definitely Netflix, 'cause there's just more comedy to see. There's more comedy to, to go watch. There's more comics right now who are selling out arenas than ever in the history of stand-up comedy.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Yeah, I've se- I've seen it on television.
- JRJoe Rogan
You just can't worry about what the haters think. You can't worry about that. You just gotta just d- do what you think is funny and what you think the audience is gonna think is funny, and work real hard at it. That's all you have to do, and just don't pay attention to the criticism. If you do, it'll kill you.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
The best stand-up comedian movie I ever saw was the first Richard Pryor.
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh, Live on the Sunset Strip changed my life.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Well, that-
- JRJoe Rogan
Changed my life.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
That was the third one.
- JRJoe Rogan
Was it?
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Yeah, yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
So Wanted was before that, right?
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Y- yeah, and that took place in New Orleans.
- JRJoe Rogan
Okay, there was one he filmed in Long Beach.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
That is-
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah
- JMJohn Mellencamp
... the one I'm talking about.
- JRJoe Rogan
Phenomenal. Phenomenal.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Un- unbelievable.
- JRJoe Rogan
Phenomenal.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Uh, uh, unbelievable.
- JRJoe Rogan
And while he's getting on stage, people are still coming in and sitting down.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
I know!
- JRJoe Rogan
He's fucking with people as they're coming in and sitting down. [chuckles] I don't think he had an opening act. I think he just came right out.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
No, he did.
- JRJoe Rogan
He did?
- JMJohn Mellencamp
He had a... Yeah, he had, uh... What, what's the woman's name, the singer? Uh-
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh, he had a musical opening act?
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
Interesting.
- JMJohn Mellencamp
Um, I can't remember who it was, but he thanked them. He thanked her.
Episode duration: 2:21:58
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