John Mellencamp
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
And so I remember the, I was in, getting ready to leave England and
And I heard that Gaff had good news for me in America.
So that's the reason I went home.
And the good news was that he just got a deal for me on Mercury Records.
So I went back to the United States.
We started making records and just kept plowing away.
They fucking hated me because of Johnny Cougar.
Main Man came up with that name, Johnny Cougar, and his excuse was,
His name was David Jones, and I called him David Bowie, and look how well that worked out.
And I'm 22, and I'm going, but I don't like this name.
And they go, well, you don't have to participate.
You can go back to Indiana if you want.
It was like, well, fuck you, then I will.
And then I walked outside and thought for a minute, thought,
I guess I'm Johnny Cougar.
And they compared me to James Dean and Bruce.
And, you know, so the critics just hated that.