Every week during 2022, 99.1 PLR focuses on one of the many great rock artists in history. Listen weekdays at 11am, 1pm, 5pm and 9pm as we play one of their classics, a live cut, or a fan favorite. This week is John Mellencamp.

Listen Fridays at 1pm as we play highlighted songs from their album, as voted by you!

Learn more about the artist:

John Mellencamp was born in Indiana and was convinced by his manager to change his name to Johnny Cougar. His early albums failed to take off but “I Need A Lover” started to get him attention. In 1982, he recorded American Fool, which the record company thought would fail. “Hurts So Good” and “Jack and Diane” were massive and allowed him to change back to his real name. A string of success followed and he became one of the roots rock voices of the ’80s. He helped form the Farm Aid shows and, into the ’90s, still managed to score some hits. Now he tours at his own pace and releases albums here and there.

Stats:

Album Sales: 25 million

Studio Albums: 23

Grammys Won: 1

Fun Facts:

• He is a very good painter. So good that he has had a number of museum exhibits of his work and says if he didn’t make it as a musician, he would have turned to art.
• He signed a contract that is for the rest of his life. That has never happened to an artist before but Republic Records agreed.
• He was asked to be part of Live Aid and said no. Instead, he helped start Farm Aid and tries to perform in it every year.
• He was born with spina bifida and had surgery very young. The surgery was experimental and saved his life. The condition did exempt him from the draft.
• He was extremely angry at the ’90s. He hated grunge and hip hop and said that his records, at that time, were “paint by numbers”.