John Cougar Mellencamp

A lot of record company people, even though they're our age, want to be perceived as young hip guys, and they're hurting the business.
John Mellencamp

A lot of Woody Guthrie's songs were taken from other songs. He would rework the melody and lyrics, and all of a sudden it was a Woody Guthrie song.
John Mellencamp

Bob Dylan's first couple of records in the 60's weren't considered cover records, but he only wrote one or two original songs on each album.
John Mellencamp

Do I think it's OK to fight authority as long as you're only talking about the high school teacher? No.
John Mellencamp

I couldn't have recorded this record 15 years ago. My voice didn't have the depth to pull these songs off.
John Mellencamp

I don't have to worry about any pop sensibility. I can write adult songs, and I don't have to worry about choruses and hook lines.
John Mellencamp

I don't want to be a politician. I don't like politics. It's petty; it fights dirty.
John Mellencamp

I think it's ridiculous to try to sell records to teenagers, because teenagers don't buy my records. And there ain't that many teenagers out there in the marketplace.
John Mellencamp

I thought I knew a lot about music. Then you start digging and the deeper you go, the more there is.
John Mellencamp

I want to sell to people my own age, because that's the way I write songs.
John Mellencamp

I would never say John Kerry would be a great president. I will say that George Bush has divided us; he has filled this country with hatred.
John Mellencamp

I'm the guy who wrote The Authority Song. Did they think I was kidding? Did they think it was only a song to entertain?
John Mellencamp

I'm using my art to comment on what I see. You don't have to agree with it.
John Mellencamp

I'm wide open and will entertain anything anybody has to say, but if it's MTV and radio, well, they're great things, but can't be the only thing. I don't know that it would work even for the Beatles.
John Mellencamp

I'm your average Joe guy. I don't really care for politicians.
John Mellencamp

I've just been fortunate to havehad a lot of hit records, though Human Wheels doesn't qualify as a hit record-but it's really the best single I've ever had.
John Mellencamp

If fans are going to turn on me because of this, they weren't my fans anyway. I couldn't betray a whole 25 years of record making and not do this. I had to.
John Mellencamp

In so many musicals today, the story is moved forward by a song. I don't think we're gonna try to do that.
John Mellencamp

It's my responsibility as a singer-songwriter to report the news.
John Mellencamp

My thought was I should try to stick with names that people may recognize like Robert Johnson, Son House, and Hoagy Carmichael, so if somebody cared to research, they would find a wealth of material.

Natalie from the Dixie Chicks could have said what she said before 9-11 and no one would have cared.
John Mellencamp

People have the right to say what they want to.
John Mellencamp

People in Indiana have known me for 25 years. They've known George Bush four.
John Mellencamp

This is about black people selling out other black people.
John Mellencamp

This is not a rock opera. This is not Tommy. I can write songs that emote, and that's it.
John Mellencamp

Unemployment is sky-rocketing; deflation is in our future for the first time since the Great Depression. I don't care whose fault it is, it's the truth.
John Mellencamp

Wait a minute, guys, I have always been on your side. I have always spoken for you, always tried to put on a good face for the state of Indiana. All of a sudden, some of you people think I'm a bad guy?
John Mellencamp

We could walk 3 minutes and be on the beach. I think the music kind of suffered because of it. It kind of smelled like Jimmy Buffett, which is a bad thing.
John Mellencamp

What is there to be afraid of? The worst thing that can happen is you fail. So what? I failed at a lot of things. My first record was horrible.
John Mellencamp

What's the difference? One guy's the same as the other.
John Mellencamp

When people are afraid, they make emotional decisions.
John Mellencamp

When politicians use fear, they are playing into the enemy's hand.
John Mellencamp

When you live in hysteria, people start thinking emotionally.
John Mellencamp

You cannot expect the guy who drove the car into the ditch to navigate it out of the ditch. You have to put a new driver in the seat. I'm not saying the new driver is going to be any better, but we need a new driver. Kerry is the only choice.
John Mellencamp