ADDED: I question whether Mellencamp was talking about Biden. Something bothered him and made him vindictive against the whole crowd:Just In:
— Wall Street Silver (@WallStreetSilv) April 16, 2024
John Cougar Mellencamp ends show early in a rage because the audience didn’t want to hear him give a lecture about his support of Joe Biden.
🔊
pic.twitter.com/rqJMn6DYKP
April 16, 2024
The shocking realization that Jack and Diane voted for Trump.
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72 comments:
No surprise- just another celebrity who thinks you paid to hear his political views.
Actors play pretend for a living and musicians sing songs for a living. These are the types of people worshipped by people on the left side of the political spectrum. It still baffles the mind that these types of people - vilified and considered to be on the lowest rung of society just 300-400 years ago - are held to be paragons of wisdom, virtue, and didactic reasoning among liberals.
They are worshipped as minor gods by many. Not great philosophers or scientists or technologists or economic sages....fucking actors and fucking musicians.
The people that regard them as such and the actors and musicians they worship demand your respect. They demand it
I hope that the audience demanded their money back.
I don't know anything about the man; never cared to - nothing negative, just no real interest in him personally.
Comes across kinda like a douche here.
... long after the thrill ...
Is it really conceivable that David Frum believes that Trump attempted a "coup"? Or does it seem more likely that he is willing to affix his name to any lie the regime hands him? What do you suppose it feels like, to be a thing like David Frum? Does it feel good?
I don’t think his walking off stage had anything to to with Biden or Trump. Tag this BDS and TDS.
It was one guy, right?
One single guy said, "Just play some music." And Mellencamp took it badly, and it seems to have completely put him off his artistic game. Most of the audience seemed to be aligned with Mellencamp, but it wasn't enough.
It seems sad to me, that Mellencamp handled it so badly. But as a polling exercise, absolutely no one should conclude that a broad demographic of "Jacks and Dianes" support Trump and oppose Biden. Just judging by the audio, it seems to have been the opposite. I'm not even so sure that the lone guy who wanted "just music" carries with him some pro-Trump, anti-Biden sentiments. He might just be a guy who wants music and not the politics of the artist he paid to see.
If I were Mellencamp's manager, I would quickly schedule another concert. A Biden fundraiser; where all tickets to the videotaped show would be honored. Just bear in mind that it will be Mellencamp's show with Mellencamp's politics. And in true Trump fashion, Mellencamp would invite a bunch of big time artist friends to perform in addition. Healing and apology, with a big middle finger to Trump.
John is a miserable Progressive lefty who went off the deep end years ago. I used to love him, and saw him quite a few times, but the last couple of years have seen him turn into a monster. I hope any fan he has left, opens their eyes, and stops buying tickets to see a guy who openly hates them and their country. Hate does nasty things to ugly people.
Mellencamp is such an asshole and fraud.
Political stumps are free attendance.
Nice to see him head straight for the homophobic slur.
Good! I never liked Mellencamp. He always seemed to be Indiana's cut-rate Bruce Springsteen. Both of them loved to play at being the New Soviet Working Man before retiring back to their palatial estates.
Springsteen's the better songwriter, though.
Mellencamp's crazy liberalism is well known just like Bruce Springsteen's.
Both these assholes got rich and famous pretending to be the voice of the working man and the heartland. They're no better than the Neil Young Woodstock hippies that turned totalitarian in their old age over a dangerous, unethical "vaccine".
For $190 a ticket...the audience should demand their money back. What an arrogant asshole. Today's leftist Democrat.
Long live Kid Rock.
Tag: Get off my lawn
Elderly people should retire before they lose perspective, self-control, and PR discipline. That means Howard Stern and "Cut my pay in half, please" Neil Young on COVID, and now Johnny Cougar on politics.
I read that he walked off, but that he did return later to finish the performance.
From my understanding, they heckled him when he tried to talk about supporting Biden. I would think the audience would feel tricked - they paid for music, not for a lecture.
Chuck said...absolutely no one should conclude that a broad demographic of "Jacks and Dianes" support Trump and oppose Biden
Dude. You are such a moron.
"A little ditty, 'bout Jack and Dianne, two American kids growin' up in the heartland"
See Chuck, the heartland supports Trump. And Jack and Dianne are from the heartland, therefore odds of these fictional characters supporting Trump are high. Althouse was stating the obvious, to everyone...but you I guess.
I must admit Chuck, your lack of awareness and stupidity does have its charm. And it's highly consistent. You just can't bullshit this type of thing.
You're like Jim Carrey in "Dumb and Dumber". You're wearing and orange tuxedo right now, aren't you???
Blogger NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...
Springsteen's the better songwriter, though.
And arguably the bigger dickhead.
There is something extremely wrong with many Democrats that's partly groupthink insanity and partly moral degeneracy. Just who the fuck does John "Cougar" Mellencamp think he is, walking out on concertgoers who have spent on average $192 each to listen to this creep sing? A contract exists between the performer and the paying audience that Mellencamp, a doctrinaire socialist, thinks he can annul on a whim. He ought to be raked over the coals in court with a class action lawsuit demanding punitive damages.
Raised in the working class myself, I always found his proletarian pretensions to be transparently bogus, and songs like "Jack and Diane" to be cloying crap.
But he's famous and made a lot of money, so there's that.
I'm 68 years old and I can't understand why anyone would want to attend a concert performed by guys that are older than dirt. I get liking the music, so do I, but the music is great because it was performed by young guys ( and gals) and youth is in the recordings. Just like no one wants to go to a sporting event when the players who were top of the game in their prime are now on Medicare. They are never going to be as good as they were.
Mellencamp was a huge Farm-Aid proponent and would play at all the shows. 30 years ago he understood the struggle of the American Farmer. But wealth, fame, and arrogance has erased his once youthful compassion and understanding. These people are now Trump voters.
Mellencamp has become the rain on the scarecrow and the blood on the plow.
John Cougar would never be called an asshole.
But John Mellencamp would.
"
If I were Mellencamp's manager..."
Chuck, if you were his manager his career would have swirled around the toilet bowl and exited to the septic tank long ago. Much as your own has.
Two of the worst concerts I've been to were REM and David Byrne.
Both Byrne and REM singer Michael Stipe stopped their bands' performances in the middle of the show to rant about George W. Bush.
Total buzzkill.
Even more preposterous was Mick Jagger/Stones antiwar single against Bush.
Saw bluesman Keb Mo a few weeks ago who went out of his way to put down the South, as if today were 1865.
Such bozos.
I didn't know John had 10 hits to play.
Do people still want to pay to hear him sing 'Jack & Diane'?
Free speech from a celebrity we don't like
"Mellencamp has become the rain on the scarecrow and the blood on the plow."
From the song:
The crops we grew last summer
Weren`t enough to pay the loans
Couldn`t buy the seed to plant this spring
And the Farmers' Bank foreclosed
Called my old friend Schepman
Up to auction off the land
He said:
"John, it`s just my job
And I hope you understand."
Hey, calling it your job, ole hoss
Sure don`t make it right
But if you want me to
I`ll say a prayer for your soul tonight
Sounds like Mr. Cougar was in favor of student loan forgiveness before there were student loans.
Does anyone else think he looks like Paulie Walnuts of the Sopranos in that clip?
I've always liked his music a lot. It never mattered to me that he is an asshole.
The little bit of music in that clip looks like he's past it and just running on fumes.
John Henry
Gusty,
But Dick is from the heartland, Lansing, I believe (for those who can't afford the glamor and class of Detroit) He understands Jack and Diane in way's that I (from the really deep south) and perhaps you can never understand. He knows what is best for them. Why, he's a lifelong republican!
John Henry
@RideSpaceMountain:
Ight ther
Actors Job Description - Able to right there memorize and repeat words that others wrote. Also must have the ability to fake emotions while declaiming.
There's your societal genius...
John Cougar Mellencamp would seem to owe the concert-goers a refund.
Back when he was still going by the moniker "John Cougar", he was the opening act for The Who at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe. It was Halloween evening, 1982, and billed as "Who-loween". The stadium was full, with an audience of some 75,000 people. The tickets were only $17, and I was with the lovely and shapely Lois, who made the evening extra memorable after the show, but that's a story for another day.
The crowd was pretty drunk and unruly, and a few songs into Cougar's set, they started booing him and demanding he get off the stage to make way for The Who. An empty Jack Daniel's bottle sailed out of the crowd and beaned him squarely on the head, drawing blood and stopping the show for five or ten minutes. He came back out with his head bandaged and launched into "Hurts So Good" without saying anything else. I thought that showed a respectable amount of grit and panache, and for the next twenty years or so I had a good opinion of him and caught him on tour a couple more times.
He went off the rails after George Bush the younger was elected, and especially after he was re-elected. I'm willing to tolerate a considerable amount of idiotic political prattle from entertainers, but his became so venomous and disagreeable that it killed my interest in his act altogether. He made it perfectly clear he didn't want me in his audience and I was perfectly happy to comply. For at least the past fifteen years I honestly didn't know if he was alive or dead, until this story came up.
It's a pity that the guy who soldiered on after the 1982 incident is such an insufferable windbag and crybaby nowadays. I won't be wasting any time or money on his nostalgia tour.
My son now has the vintage long-sleeve baseball T-shirt I bought at that concert, and I'm glad it was a Who shirt rather than one of this shitbird's. I'm told it is worth some $250 on Ebay these days.
Gusty Winds said...
And arguably the bigger dickhead.
True, but he never wrote a song about somebody sucking on something behind a Tastee Freeze either.
Ooohhh… Johnny Cougar!
GTFO.
Little Feat foresaw it all in 1978:
"Off our rockers, actin' crazy
With the right medication we won't be lazy
Doin' the old folks boogie
Down on the farm...
Gives us jus' one more chance
To spin one more yarn"
I see Rich ruined another keyboard while entering a comment.
I think it's funny that he wore a onesie to have his little political temper tantrum.
Quaestor: "There is something extremely wrong with many Democrats that's partly groupthink insanity and partly moral degeneracy."
What a perfect encapsulation of LLR-democratical And Violent Homosexual Rage Rape Fantasist Chuck's "contributions" to Althouse blog for the last decade.
When I was a student at IU Bloomington 45+ years ago, Mellencamp would fill the Kirkwood bars on Thursday nights. However, even at that early stage of his career he was criticized as a poser.
John Mellencamp? Imagine how the Radical Queers for Palestine© are going to feel if (or when) Hamas and their ilk finally prevail and they're bound and thrown off the roofs of buildings? There are many, many self-absorbed peeps that are in for some shocking revelations soon.
A little ditty 'bout Jack & Diane
Two American voters livin' up in the heart land.
Jack thinks his wife is still as pretty as any YouTube star,
Diane remembers Jack delivering Darla in the back of Jacky's car.
Suckin' on chilli dog outside the Tastee Freez,
Diane sitting on Jacky's lap,
Keepin' the love they had since teens.
Jack he says
"Hey, Diane, the Indiana game's about to start and its free;
Darla's gonna dribble down the court against Bobbie Brooks,
And do what she please!"
Saying "Oh yeah,
Life goes on, the thrill gets more subtle, but never is gone."
Saying "Oh yeah,
Life goes on, the thrill gets more subtle, but never is gone."
They walk on...
Jack he sits back, collects his thoughts for a moment.
Scratches his head, and does his best (mock) Howard Dean
"Well then, there, Diane, we oughta run off to the Trump rally"
Diane giggles and says
"Baby, I was thinkin' the same thing!"
Saying "Oh yeah,
Life goes on, the thrill gets more refined, but never is gone."
Saying "Oh yeah,
Life goes on, the thrill gets more refined, but never is gone."
"Even more preposterous was Mick Jagger/Stones antiwar single against Bush."
OMG. That thing is hilarious. It's "Road House" level camp.
Why do people pay money to go see these washed up musicians. Everything they've done of value is recorded and done when they were still good at what they do.
How's that concert experience? Is it as good as the college experience is these days?
I thought he dropped the Cougar part decades ago.
My 65 y.o. brother took his 23 y.o. daughter to see Bruce in Albany yesterday. She's apparently a fan, he isn't. I haven't heard how that went.
One of his ex-wives the model Elaine Irwin was stunning. See their music video for Get a Leg Up.
They named their children Speck and Hud.
He's playing in Fayetteville, NC, tomorrow, home of the former Ft. Bragg and home to the 82nd Airborne and zero Democrats. Bet he gets a chilly reception.
Hassayamper, I think you might be conflating two different concerts. I saw the Rolling Stones at Sun Devil Stadium in 1981 with George Thorogood and The Destroyers opening. George was hit in the head by a bottle during his set and returned bandaged and wearing a hard hat, and told the crowd to get stuffed (or something to that effect) before resuming his set. I've never seen The Who or this other guy, but your description of events sounds awfully similar.
I saw the Stones in the summer of 1982 at Slane Castle outside Dublin, and the audience were much better behaved, They not only cheered George Thorogood, they also gave great support for the first opening act, namely The Chieftans. That was one of the best concerts I ever saw.
“Sucking on a chili dog” is one of the worst lines in a bad song.
Who eats a chili dog right before sex?
This is a Hoosier aphrodisiac?
And nice service placement for Tastee Freeze.
How much did Cougar charge them for that name drop?
robother @ 1:22 PM
Good call!
When yer mind makes a promise that your body can’t fill.
Free speech from a celebrity we don't like
It's not free speech if people paid to hear something else, moron.
Howard:
Free speech from a celebrity we don't like.
Which might have repercussions for him because contracts were involved.
Mellencamp seems to me to be the lesser John Prine. Not as able at the peak. No Pathos. I am satisfied with Steve Goodman tapes when I phase into this genre.
I'd rather hear Willie do a Patsy Cline cover.
John henry:
But Dick is from the heartland, Lansing,
Which? There are nine.
These people irritate me but I can ignore them. The one that really geebs me out is Jagger. I have yet to be able to scrub from my mind the image of a tight-clothed eighty year old derelict prancing.
The older Mellencamp would be good casting in a movie about Nathan Bedford Forrest, the Civil War Raider Cavalry General, he looks and sounds like him. It could be an exciting movie, lots of horses jumping over things, but will never be made.
Forrest never said "Git thar Fustest wit de Mostest". He said get there first with the most men. At Spring Hill Tennesse he told General Chalmers to assault a hill in a forest, telling him that the Federals were gone, Chalmers expressed doubts. Chalmers went in and hit Bradley's Union Brigade and got routed out with many killed. Forrest rode up to him afterwards and said, "They was in there, sure enough, was'nt they, Chalmers?" Forrest was a funny guy.
News stories are saying he was heckled when trying to tell a story, but none of them are giving any details about the story. Not even a vague description of what it was about, just "a story". I was ready to think that the internet may have jumped to a conclusion when I read the first article like that. By the last one, I was fairly sure the story he was telling was political.
Mellencamp has enough money. He isn't having fun as a performer. If he has useful political insights, I've not heard them. There are a lot of other things he can do with his life.
He should start by realizing that he isn't as special as he used to think, and that not being so special can be a lot of fun. Read a book, go for a walk, plant a vegetable garden. Call up an old friend. Life needs to be about more than politics.
"Life needs to be about more than politics."
You can't be a leftist if you think like that.
As the second video reveals, this was not about anything political. Mellencamp was just telling a lengthy story, and some didn't want to put up with it.
I have heard that some, older, performers do this. Springsteen always did a little of this, and I've seen him a few times. There are always those who do not appreciate it. I understand the audience's frustration with the performance. I'm not sure I understand the performers' motivation to do that.
I have no knowledge of Mellencamp's political views, but, he is a performer, and those kind of people usually lean left. The things you guys are saying above do not surprise me.
I heard him live, once, opening for Heart. He was not really well know then, and performing as John Cougar. I remember telling my wife that he was a much better act than Heart, and would be big. I was right.
I've spent more time today reading about Mellencamp than I have listening to his songs during the last two decades. (Mostly because I change the channel when they come on. I heard them too much when they were popular.)
Apparently the story he was telling at the moment was about his 99-year-old grandmother. It was not political at that moment, but it was one of several stories he told as song introductions.
It wasn't a bunch of "hecklers", but was one guy who wanted to hear "Hurts So Good" and then another one who said, "maybe if you played some music". Scroll down to a comment by ACS on my second link. It's the best description I've read of what happened. It sounds like it might reasonably be true.
The weirdest thing about this is that the concert was on St. Patrick's Day and it's just now getting attention.
RideSpaceMountain said...
Actors play pretend for a living and musicians sing songs for a living. These are the types of people worshipped (sic) by people on the left side of the political spectrum. It still baffles the mind that these types of people - vilified and considered to be on the lowest rung of society just 300-400 years ago - are held to be paragons of wisdom, virtue, and didactic reasoning among liberals.
-----------------------
I agree with you, but the right/conservatives also have their actors that they worship:
Jon Voight
James Woods
Clint Eastwood
Kelsey Grammer
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Tim Allen
Roseanne Barr
Dennis Quaid
Kurt Russell
Vince Vaughn
Jessica Simpson
Heather Locklear
Joe Pesci
Cheryl Ladd
Jaclyn Smith
Chuck Norris
Fred Thompson
Shirley Jones
Jim Belushi
Dennis Miller
Ben Stein
James Caan
Drew Carey
Stephan Baldwin
Dennis Hopper
Adam Baldwin
Sylvester Stallone
Yakov Smirnoff
Mel Gibson
Fred Grandy
That's an abbreviated list. But since there are so many more on the liberal/left wing side, that's why it seems like they are all stupid leftists. But there are also stupid rightists as well. Actors and entertainers are not philosophers or enlightened leaders.
Ampersand: "If he has useful political insights, I've not heard them."
If you catch a bit of the Mellencamp/Bill Maher discussion you will quickly realize Mellencamp really is dumb as a box of rocks.
Truly.
Which would easily place him in the top 25% in intelligence of all democratical posters at Althouse blog.
"He should start by realizing that he isn't as special as he used to think, and that not being so special can be a lot of fun. Read a book, go for a walk, plant a vegetable garden. Call up an old friend. Life needs to be about more than politics."
Yes, Mellencamp should throw away the car, blow up the tv, move to the country, find himself a home. Have a lot of children, try to find Jesus, in his own way. Play a guitar, make a lot of money, think that Jesus is full of shit.
He's a far-left lunatic asshole.
Always has been.
Shut up and sing.
This is a reason I don't go to concerts anymore. I may like the music, but I don't pay to hear someone's political views. Also, all to often the sound quality is crap.
LLR-democratical lonejustice: "I agree with you, but the right/conservatives also have their actors that they worship:"
More leftist BS ignorantly mistaking worship with conservatives/republicans simply noticing someone not despising them.
Which any conservative/republican would know.
But lonejustice doesn't.
LLR-democratical lonejustice is not nor ever has been a conservative/republican.
QED
Old & Slow,
No, I’m quite certain about both the date and the performer.
https://www.alamy.com/singer-john-cougar-mellencamp-who-was-hit-on-the-head-with-a-thrown-bottle-and-knocked-unconscious-during-his-last-concert-in-tempe-ariz-in-1982-donned-a-hard-hat-for-his-first-song-when-he-appeared-in-tempe-april-3-1986-ap-photomichael-meister-image525975610.html
https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/music/phoenix-scariest-live-music-moments-9773985
https://www.phoenixmag.com/2015/10/01/behind-the-twinkies/
John Mellencamp wouldn't have a career without Bowie and Tony DeFries deciding they wanted their very own pet Springsteen. So his entire life has been clouded by that chip on his shoulders. I don't think he's personally ever had a jonesing to be a working class hero - that was all Bowie and DeFries and the image they gave him.
Strip all that away, however, and I never thought he had much else going for him. And I could understand how that might make an old man bitter.
@lonejustice
I don't see where a random list of celebrities that in your opinion are viewed positively by conservatives establishes any kind of 'both sides do it'.
I recognize a couple of names, Fred Thompson and Fred Grandy, who threw their hats into the political ring. Grandy served several terms as a Congressman from Iowa and did pretty well despite getting a lot of guff from both Democrats and the usual 'concerned conservatives' over his character 'Gopher' the The Love Boat TV show, which really had nothing to do with his performance as a Congressman.
Actually running for office is sort of the exact opposite of the typical left-leaning performer blathering about political topics that most normal people get upset about.
I think Oliver Anthony would have referred to Mellencamp as a "rich man north of Indianapolis".
Reminds me of the song "Indianapolis" by the Bottle Rockets, about a guy who's van breaks down and gets towed into Indianapolis for repairs:
Sittin' in this bar is gettin' more than I could stand
If I could catch a ride, really I think I'd ditch this van
Who knows what this repair will cost, scared to spend a dime
I'll puke if that jukebox plays John Cougar one more time
His best song, IMO. Like a third of it is intro.
I really liked (still do) the Scarecrow album. Nothing much after that.
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