It's so much better, because we didn't know what the f**k we were doing when we made that record. Which I thought was really a good record, but nobody else seemed to care.īaltin: For some reason the song, "Between A Laugh And A Tear" was that song that I just became absolutely re-obsessed with. So it's hard for me to understand why that record was more successful than, say, I made a record called Life, Death, Love and Freedom. And I'm not gonna walk out and go, "Hey, welcome to The Forum." I'm not gonna do that. One of my biggest problems is that I don't like to placate people. Mellencamp: No, I'm not there yet because I have a huge problem. Somebody will name a song, and I'd go, "Did I write that song?" And they'll go "Yeah," and I'll go, "What album is that on?" It's all kind of just run together for me, but there were records that I thought were good that were very overlooked for the time, so it's not unusual.īaltin: When you look back, are you able to step back and see why the records were so successful? I can't even remember all the songs that I've written, I really can't. I was surprised at a song on that album called "Minutes To Memories," which was a story about a young guy meeting an old man on a greyhound bus, and what the old man imparted to the young guy. But now that it's been remixed and you can hear the lyrics, I was surprised at that song. I thought it was okay, and I had Rickie Lee Jones singing with me ("Between A Laugh And A Tear"). And at the time, I didn't think much of it. Mellencamp: Right now they are remixing an album I made called Scarecrow in like '85. It looks like the vibe that you give off though."īaltin: Are there older songs of yours then that you're surprised when you go back and revisit that you can go back to and you're pleasantly surprised how they hold up? Because if I did a painting of you, you would go "Ah f**k, it don't look like me." And I would go, "It's not supposed to. I may start out thinking I'm going to paint something, and I end up painting something similar to what I thought I was gonna paint, but I ended up painting something totally different and that is called creativity. I'd write a verse and I'd go, "Oh, I can't go there." But in the last 10 years, I let the songs go where they wanna go, not where I want them to go. When I was a kid, I used to try to control the song. It was just sent to me, and what I've learned is that you can't control the song. I'm surprised a lot because like I said, a lot of times, I didn't even know what I was writing about.
So it was just that simple of the thought that led to that song.īaltin: Were there themes that emerged in the record that surprised you? Even as simple as, "How are you doing today?" "I'm doing great." No, they're not, but they say it anyway. 'Cause you turn the news on, you get lies. The average person hears 300 or 400 lies a day and will tell 150 himself and not even know it. And I guess maybe everybody does." And then I did a little research. Mellencamp: The first song on the record is a song called "I Always Lie To Strangers." And I thought, "Well, I don't really do that, but I guess maybe I do.
And I felt that it was important to make sure that this guy was represented properly.īaltin: What were those first couple of songs where you started to realize that this messenger was speaking to you?
And I realized that this is one guy's story. It sounds silly, and I'm sure you've heard it a thousand times, but it was the same messenger delivering these songs to me. Mellencamp: Yeah, I realized after a couple, three songs. Then I'm open to suggestions, which means that sometimes I'll be doing something and a voice in my head will go, "Well, you better write this down." And I think, "Ah, f**k I'm painting, I don't want to write this down." And I'm like, "You need to write this down, John." And that happened quite a bit with this record.īaltin: What was the impetus for writing all from the voice of One-Eyed Jack? Was there one song early on where you realized that this character was the narrator for this album? But I have grown to be a good observer and good listener, so I hear what other people think and what people say. But who's the character? You can't write about yourself all the time. I've been very lucky and beat a lot of odds. I've been very fortunate, as you well know.
Mellencamp: This is my twenty-sixth album, twenty-seventh, I don't know.
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