MELLENCAMP

Sturdy biography of the uncompromising rocker, the Midwest’s answer to Bruce Springsteen.

You might be forgiven for thinking, if you’d seen him in about 1970, that John Mellencamp (b. 1951) was going to wind up dead or in prison. A kid from a cash-strapped family in small-town Indiana, he thought with his fists and fought with a constantly active mouth. Things changed when he managed to avoid the Vietnam draft and went to college, not so much to attend class as to play music day and night. British rock journalist Rees, the previous biographer of Robert Plant and former editor of both Q and Kerrang!magazines, turns five-plus years of diligent research into a snappy, well-considered biography that shows Mellencamp being swamped by a long wave of bad business decisions at first, including being saddled with a silly stage name. “There were a lot of guys trying to do the same thing I was, right around the same time,” Mellencamp told the author. “Having my name changed to Johnny Cougar was just another hurdle.” Indeed, it’s a mark of his growing power as a songwriter, recording artist, and live performer that he was able to break free of a name he hated to record under his own name. Rees makes clear that Mellencamp is a stern taskmaster who has never been afraid of criticizing or firing band mates—who, he makes clear, are just employees. Despite his drive and the fire of songs like “Rain on the Scarecrow” and “Pink Houses,” Mellencamp has no illusions about his history. “Here’s what they’re going to remember,” he says. “There was a band called The Beatles, a band called The Rolling Stones, and this guy called Bob Dylan. That’s it.” Yet Rees makes it clear that Mellencamp deserves to be remembered, as well, both for his music and his determination to do his own thing.

A fine, lively work of rock journalism that should kindle renewed interest in its subject’s body of work.