Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 31, 1992 TAG: 9201310398
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RUSS DeVAULT COX NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: SAVANNAH, GA. LENGTH: Long
HE'S NOT MAD
From a distance, John Mellencamp appears to be the nasty young punk you don't want to meet in a dark alley. Curly dark hair tumbles down to the gold ring in his left ear. His compact body is tightly encased in jeans, T-shirt and a short leather jacket with a heavy silver buckle dangling at the waist. His fresh-faced grin is cocksure, his walk a swagger.It's an image that has served him well during a 16-year career as a blue-collar rock 'n' roller. But it only begins to define the man who is on his first concert tour since 1987.
"I've come out of my cocoon after three and a half years," Mellencamp says, sitting in a spartan dressing room before a weekend rehearsal at the Savannah Civic Center. "But I don't have anything to prove to anybody."
Indeed, Mellencamp, who laughs easily and seldom breaks eye contact while speaking, has found there's much more to life than rock 'n' roll. Now 40 and a grandfather - thanks to Michelle Peach, his 20-year-old daughter from his first marriage who has a daughter of her own - he has become a serious oil painter whose works command five-figure prices. He's also a fledgling actor-director whose first film, "Falling From Grace," is scheduled for national release Feb. 19.
A bit of a nomad, he divides his time between homes in Bloomington, Ind., and Hilton Head, S.C., where his second ex-wife lives with their two daughters, Teddi Jo, 10, and Justice, 6.
Perhaps most noticeable, Mellencamp is no longer an angry young man, despite a continuing concern for everyday people and a cynical view of politics.
"I'm not mad anymore," he says, pausing a beat. "Just disgusted."
Slight though it may be, the Mellencamp mellowing is perhaps best appreciated by longtime members of his band. "I think a lot of it is due to him finding another creative medium, which is painting," says guitarist Mike Wanchic, who has seen Mellencamp explode onstage and off during his 14 years with the group.
"John had always concentrated on music at the exclusion of everything else. The art gets him away from that," Wanchic says. "It's also been good for him to come to terms with his ex-wife and move to Hilton Head so he can be close to his children. He's really expanded his life."
With all these new interests, the question remains, why undertake another tour of arenas?
"It's the work ethic," he says, grinning, sipping decaffeinated coffee and chain-smoking Marlboros. "What good's a cabinetmaker who won't make cabinets?"
Current plans call for Mellencamp and his eight-person band to promote his new album (his 11th), "Whenever We Wanted," with about 150 concerts in the United States, Canada, Australia and Europe.
"[The record company and management] are talking about me being on the road for a year and a half, and I'm talking about being on the road just long enough to see how it goes," he says.
"If I had my druthers, I'd go back and make another record," he adds. "But now that all the pieces for touring are together, it's too involved to stop."
Only the logistics are complex. Mellencamp's show features no lasers, no elaborate pyrotechnics, no video screens. He'll perform on a simple reddish-brown stage with a backdrop consisting of three blowups of paintings by the German expressionist Max Beckmann.
Strong ticket sales in a few major markets have resulted in some multiple dates. But in Atlanta, sales for the only concert were low until upper-level seats were reduced from $22.50 to $12.96. "This is not about money," he says, taking note of the economy. "If I was going to sit around and wait for the right time to make money, I'd never tour."
His '92 tour includes a March 14 stop in Irving, Texas, for a Farm Aid performance; Mellencamp was an organizer of the benefit concerts.
Mellencamp aims to give fans what they want, and if that means calling up old hits such as "Hurts So Good" and "Jack And Diane" night after night, he'll do it.
"I understand what fans expect," he says. "You don't have to play the hits, but you do have to respect what people expect."
Except in the movies, that is. Although Mellencamp plays a country singer in "Falling From Grace," which co-stars Mariel Hemingway and was written by novelist Larry McMurtry, he doesn't sing on screen. In fact, his only contribution to the soundtrack, also set for release in February, is "Sweet Suzanne," a song recorded with a band called the Buzzin' Cousins, which includes Mellencamp, Dwight Yoakam, Joe Ely, John Prine and James McMurtry (the author's son).
"We'll never make an album or tour," Mellencamp says. "The soundtrack was kind of an afterthought."
"Falling From Grace" may also be a one-time venture. "I learned from making that movie that I really don't want an acting career," he says. "There were days I had a lot of fun, but there were a lot of days I just said, `What the [expletive] am I doing here? Why am I doing this?' "
Painting, it seems, comes easier, even more so than songwriting. "It took me a few albums before I knew what I wanted to do with songs," Mellencamp says, wincing when he recalls his 1976 debut album, "Chestnut Street Incident," and its critical trashing.
"The painting just seems to have evolved more rapidly than my songwriting did," he says. His first efforts about three years ago were basically portraits in the style of the Old Masters, but his current works are expressionist.
"His portrayals, in some cases, are rather stark, but he has a unique palette and concept. He's obviously a serious student," says Bill Crume, general manager of the Red Piano Bar Gallery at Hilton Head. "We had a well-received, 40-piece exhibit of his works here."
Painting seems almost an obsession for Mellencamp. "I get up early - about 7 a.m. - and paint every day," he says. "Two hours is nothing. I like to work at it for six to eight hours."
Concentrating on songwriting and painting has made it easier for him to deal with life, particularly the aftermath of his second divorce three years ago.
"Just being able to direct my energy into a positive outcome is much better than getting mad and tearing up stuff," he says. "Plus, I've got a nice girlfriend who's been living with me for two and a half years, and we've been getting along great."
He gives a resigned shrug when asked about the possibility of a third marriage. "I'm a no-good so-and-so when it comes to that. I ain't cut out for it."
He has little use for today's image-conscious music industry.
"The music business is really dead as far as I'm concerned. Celebrity is the art form that's desired right now. Look at M.C. Hammer - and I'm not putting him down because he's a nice guy - but he's a P.T. Barnum type, a salesman, and that's what it's all about. It's all dancers and big-budget videos.
"I don't care to be a part of that and if saying that makes me an old war horse, then so be it," he says.
"One of the reasons I'm out here now doing these shows and interviews is to say, `Look, I ain't like those people and I never have been and I never will be.' So if you're going to judge me by their standards, just don't bother. I don't need it."