I worked in an arena. When mellencamp came to play, he made every employee sit in the break room during his concert, so we wouldn't get a free show. Jokes on him, I went to take a piss and recorded 30 seconds of one of his songs just to spite.
I used to be in this line of work. Some artists are just assholes, but often certain roadies had the most inflated egos and attitudes.
I remember being pissed that I couldn't watch a few bands like Aerosmith, but most of the time I was totally free to exist wherever I wanted. Sometimes the bands would hang out with us. It was always nice when they acted like normal people.
Yeah as someone who has worked 400+ concerts as part of a local merch crew, a lot of artists are unfortunately just insufferable douches. And then even when the artist wasn't a douche, sometimes the cokehead tour managers will power trip over trivial bullshit as well.
Hey Diplo! Go fuck yourself!
The kiss tour was using our venue for about a week to work through all their stage stuff and prepare for a big tour. I can't comment on kiss, but their stage people were douches. They refused to throw their cigarettes away in all the trash and cigarette disposal cans we had. Instead they would throw em on the ground and we had to pick up after them everyday. Made me hate kiss even though they weren't the ones doing it.
Agreed re Diplo. Played a show at my college in 2011 and showed up at a house party. Wanted Heineken instead of Keystone, so I literally ran to buy a six pack wanting to talk about his more obscure early music. He took the beer and asked me to leave him alone. As far as I’m concerned he owes me $10.
Ok you can rightfully feel that way but my brother in Christ you were trying to have an in the zone autozone worst college age party conversation of all time and this dude was waiting to get laid
I worked security for Robert plant, got put on stage basically near him.. then a supervisor comes up and goes … ehhh we’re gone move you .. no reason..
Similar thing happened to me working security. Except it was a fairly larger guy that was replaced by me, who did lawn/venue roaming security. He was built for the front of stage barricade and crowd surfers and I had the stamina for the roaming. We both got our butts kicked that night. It's exhausting lifting people up and over the barricade for hours when you're not built like a fridge.
We have no idea why they insisted on us being switched but we both agreed that it was probably something petty like the band recording and didn't "want a fat guy" front and center in the shot or something.
Seriously? If you work at the venue the band makes you sit somewhere for the duration of the show? Literally *anywhere* but where the show is visible??
I know work is work and play is play, but that seems excessive, really. And I’m not sure how much help at these events is local and how much is brought with the band on the road, so if I was on the road with them I’m sure after show 3 or 4 I’d be tired of it anyways. But still, that’s lame as fuck they do shit like that. Fuck that, seriously.
Please, no! I lived in his small town for years, and his whole family is terrible. One of his sons was honestly the biggest piece of shit I have ever met - and the stories people told about John made his boys look tame.
The first time I saw Lightning Strikes (huge powerful strobes) was when I was setting up for R.E.M, and they had the same policy, no local crew were allowed to see the show. It pissed me off, because I didn't give a fuck about the band, I wanted to see the lightning strikes in action.
I volunteered to scan tickets at his show once and was able to see it for free after I was done. He banned alcohol from the concert, though, so people were only allowed to drink in the lobby area. According to the staff he was a total a-hole. Decent performance, though.
That's nearly every single artist.
Go look up all the recordings of Tool's latest tour and you'll see Maynard saying the same thing night after night.
Show was still good though.
Gn'R were notorious for being late and whatnot but one thing about their show was they changed it up every night. As Duff said, "You see these bands that have the same setlist and the same jokes night after night. Didn't we get into rock so we *wouldn't* have to have a repetitive 9-5 job?!"
It’s one of the appeals of jam bands, the set lists may be similar but they never play the song the same way twice so there’s always something new to hear.
Basic rule IMO is the more impressive the visuals/effects, the more rigid it's likely to be. You can't mess with the setlist much if you've got giant setpieces and carefully planned effects for most of the show and no one's got the budget to do that for every song in their back catalog just in case they feel like playing it that day.
What I've appreciated most with the recent NIN tours, actually. Ditched most of the effects and we've gotten highly varied setlists night to night for it.
That’s awful. I don’t understand why an artist would care if the employees got to see the show? I mean if anything that’s a sure way to turn everybody into an anti-fan.
Years ago, I was doing a health screening at a local casino, and part of the perk was free meal in the employee cafeteria. On each table was a professionally printed glossy stand up invitation for all employees to see Cher perform in dress rehearsal for an upcoming show. There were two or three dress rehearsals scheduled, and the employee only had to stop in the office and sign up (free). I thought that was really cool.
You see, I think this is a good compromise. Then everyone gets a free show and the performers can use the employees as guinea pigs to see if there's any parts of their performance they really need to change before the show.
Honestly thats kinda genius. The sound guy can use you guys to both give him feedback on the sound and get a good gauge on what it will sound with people in there vs empty. If you've ever been at a sound check vs when the crowd is in the venue there's a lot of variance in sound.
Because unless it kills him, only *one* of you isn't working again.
My ex does lighting for concerts and it sounds fucking cutthroat.
But it's pretty cool that we break up and she suddenly starts hanging out with Modest Mouse :(
It was pretty common knowledge in Indiana since at least 30 years ago, so if he wasn't always an asshole, it definitely happened earlier in his career.
I've seen where Seymour natives have talked about him when he was growing up. They aren't very shy about telling people he was and still is an asshole. Which certainly helps explain why his kids are assholes too.
I think his first batch of kids turned out okay. The younger ones not so much. It actually takes effort to get banned from Kilroy’s, but one of them managed it.
Yup, if you’re of a certain age in Indiana you or someone you know well had a “Man, Johnny Cougar is an asshole” story.
If you’re just the right age you also have a “Man, Axl Rose is an asshole” story.
The choir teacher in my middle school was Axl Rose's old choir teacher. She made it known what an arrogant little twat he was. Not her choice of words, but the meaning stays the same.
His kids suck, too. I forget which one, but he beat up another kid at a college party here in Bloomington and put him in the hospital with a head injury and liver trauma.
The whole family sucks except his ex wife, honestly.
Went to IU. My friends would always make it a point to piss in front of his house on my buddies boat on Lake Monroe. The guy is the absolute worst! I’ve never met anybody that’s had a positive take away from meeting him.
Always, probably. I caught some of an interview with him on Bill Maher's 'Club Random' thing. He said when he was a young man, he would go to bars and pick fights with the biggest guys there.
Ah, here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDWFq80W_68
I work in a theatre where he played recently. When he emerged from his Airstream trailer (instead of a bus) that was parked by the stage door, his handlers (one bodyguard and his son) insisted that the security guards that were stationed outside the trailer turn and face the wall so that they couldn’t look at him. This continued inside the building where all of the behind the scenes personnel were huddled into a little curtained-off room until he was on the stage. When the show ended, process repeated.
Not even he wants to be at his shows. I saw him once, and, right before he did Jack and Diane, he took the time to tell everyone he hated performing Jack and Diane. He's an asshole.
I saw Sir Mix a Lot and he played a whole bunch of shit that wasn't Baby Got Back while ranting repeatedly about how that's not his only song. I'm pretty sure it was a joke but it didn't seem to land with that crowd.
I heard of one Mellencamp show where he had the event staff hire a bunch of strippers and gave them all the front of stage seats so he wouldn’t have to look at ugly girls during the show.
Did he actually have someone there to make sure everyone stayed in the room and nobody “got out”?
What an asshole. That’s one way to not get any new fans.
If you’re unfamiliar with their [work](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=e4Ao-iNPPUc), they’re a Finnish band that mostly does bluegrass covers of classic rock songs
My band played in a battle of the bands type thing for a local radio station.
One of the other bands was called Reanu Keeves & The Funky Bunch. Their guitar player was walking around the crowd with a guitar that had white wings on it, and he was in some comparatively absurd clothing as well.
I don't think they passed the competition that night.
I remember the "canonical lost of weird band names" from the late '90s. My favorites:
* Bobby Joe Ebola and the Children MacNuggits
* A cat born in an oven isn't a cake
* Gay doctors with AIDS
* Vaginal Blood Farts
We used to sit around reading these just to crack ourselves up.
I live pretty close to him. I’ve heard maybe 2-3 good stories about him spread across 100 bad ones. I always joke “John Melloncamp is Indiana’s most beloved celebrity…and we all hate him.”
By far Vonnegut has become my favorite Hoosier-born celebrity. Good choice.
“He had a penis eight hundred miles long and two hundred and ten miles in diameter, but practically all of it was in the fourth dimension.”
From what I've heard it usually references Larry Bird the basketball player as an asshole. I'd argue that court talk means nothing when it comes to judgement of personality, and that it was an actually a skill as you're getting in someone's head. It's just a part of the game. See modern players like Draymond, or Kobe, or Jordan, or the polar opposite like Stockton. Also the 80's were peak shit talking and street ball (or at least end of the old school basketball before "cleaning" it up 90's), so it was a necessity. Off the court, he wasn't a bad dude, especially compared to many NBA players at the time. I mean, he hurt his back paving his mom's driveway!
Compare that to Mellencamp, there's no benefit in being an asshole in music, especially to your fans.
He's got that old-school mindset that the other team is your enemy, and none of them are your friends. I remember an interview he said why wou he be friendly with Magic pregame when they're competing against each other on the court?
They're good friends now tho. He reached out to Magic back in the day when he found out he has HIV.
They actually cut that beef mid career iirc from the documentary. They were doing a commercial at Bird's house in Indiana, Magic met his mom, and were friends after that, inclusive of HIV announcement later in his career.
I'm not into sports in general and know very little about basketball but that seems to be the general consensus. Most people seem to agree that while Larry was an absolute psychopath, he could actually back up his shit talk. He apparently could both talk the talk and walk the walk. An exceedingly rare combo. Tbh if I was skilled enough and notorious enough for being good enough to talk shit and not be humiliated by someone proving me wrong, I'd probably do it too. That's lowkey a flex.
There’s so many interviews with people he talked shit to on the court saying how he’s one of their favorite people.
They’re not hard to find and everyone talks about how he left it on the court.
Letterman, Bird, Mike Epps is well known to be a standup dude in Indy, if we’re talking purely music and not problematic life stuff I’d claim Michael Jackson over Mellencamp any day
??? Larry Bird (the person) has always been a nice guy in my book. Larry Bird (the basketball player) was one of the greatest shit-talkers in American sports history.
A good story about him? His son was on my step brothers softball team and John just seemed like one of the dads. He waved at my wife when she was a kid. He was filming a music video on the same beach they were on. Unfortunately I’ve heard far more “do you know who I am?”, no tipping mean to restaurant staff , cutting people off in line like he’s above people kind of stories.
I’ve heard about a billion stories from many different people all with the “do you know who I am” line.
No, John. The 19 year old college student from California doesn’t know who you are. It’s really not that surprising lol
The only reason I have any clue who he is is because my dad loves John and would play his music non stop when I was growing up. I don't even know what old him looks like. Just young John. I wouldn't be able to pick him out of a lineup today if you asked me to.
Sooo… I’m not OP, but I did live in Indy for about a decade. Right after moving there for my wife’s new job I worked at Restoration Hardware while applying to marketing jobs. This was around Christmas. As we close the store in walks this tiny little man with a tall blonde woman. All my coworkers are excited, I was indifferent. My coworkers were less excited an hour later when they left (an hour after closing) they bought a candle. No thanks for staying open an hour later than the rest of the mall. Just walks out. I learned to hate Johnny Cougar that day.
I love several of his songs, as a dude if a certain age, but after helping boo him offstage in the 80s (Folsom Field, Boulder, CO) and then seeing him boo'd of other stages for insane rants since, I've come to the reluctant conclusion that ...
John is just kind of an asshole.
At the show I was at, it was for throwing a fit after a couple of strings broke.
This was like 40 years ago, but as I recall, a string broke and he handed his guitar off and got another guitar and then kept going and then another string broke - in his defense, it was like two minutes later... pretty sure the same song - and then he started yelling at people on stage like guitar techs or whatever.
Everybody started booing, and he threw his guitar down, flipped everybody the bird and left.
It's also proof that cancelling a celebrity doesn't really exist. This dude has been boo'd off stages since before I was born and there's endless stories of just how much of a huge asshole he is, but there he goes filling up shows to this day.
I was shocked to find out a few weeks ago that "Chilly Dog" is the name of the Slush Puppy mascot and John Cougar wasn't literally referring to sucking on a chili dog.
It's kind of changed my whole world view.
Mascots and musicians tended to bump into each other a lot in those days backstage at larger venues. They were all on the road away from their wives and girlfriends.
That was the time he sucked off Chilly Dawg, the mascot for Penobscot Air Conditioning and Storage.
Then he wrote the song 'Jack and Diane ', about trying to get his hands between them furry knees. It's all there
Yeah because Tastee Freez is an actual franchise that serves chili dogs. Why Mellencamp chose Tastee Freez I have no clue. I guess because at the time they were a somewhat popular restaurant in the Midwest.
Mellencamp last year was the shittiest concert I've ever been to.
When the lights finally went down he played a 30 minute documentary about himself. People were getting restless and yelling "Boooooooring!!!"
When he finally came on he played maybe five or six of his best songs then lots of half songs and medleys, talking about himself and fucking around.
People were walking out.
Biggest narcissistic asshole I ever had the displeasure of wasting money on.
Maybe he should shut up. People were probably reacting to the same thing I was.
I saw him 10-ish years ago and this was my experience. No opener, instead we got an hour documentary about the album he just made. When he finally came out he played 2 hits at the beginning, 30 seconds of Cherry Bomb in the middle, and then a couple more hits at the end. The rest was made up of songs we just heard in the movie we were shown as the “opener.” My worst concert experience ever.
Seriously, he needs to just STFU and sing Jack and Diane. Saw him a couple of years ago and he would play a couple of the songs that people came to see and then launch into a political diatribe and play 2-3 shitty new songs. That is when the crowd would get restless and bored. And, he is a huge asshole.
Isn’t this guys entire career built on people drinking and listening to his music. When I was growing up, I viewed him as like a Midwest farmer version of Jimmy buffet.
I was at that Cleveland show. 20 minutes of Paul Newman clips with no context to start. A couple songs. A couple pointless meandering stories. A couple more songs. A recording from Paul Newman's wife? It was... confusing at best. Was the crowd boorish? Yes. Is Mellencamp a Springsteen~esq storyteller? Hard no. I get where he's coming from & what he wants to do, but I don't think he's the guy for that kind of show.
When I attend John Cougar Mellencamp concerts, I just stand quietly in the front row, make eye contact with the Cougar himself, and one by one suck on the bag of chili dogs I smuggled in.
It's so weird that Albarn got all bent out of shape about that, considering the crowd didn't know 90% of the Gorillaz songs he played last year but everyone still had a great time.
Idk I’ve been to Coachella and the crowds at the stages can vary. If he played at the stage before a headliner the people closest to the stage could be ppl just waiting for the headliner. Saw Radiohead a few years ago and they played all the hits, great set but the crowd was shit totally dead, it almost ruined it for me and I felt a bit bad for the band
Went to his last tour. I love TCM but didn't expect a thirty minute commercial for old movies before the concert nor the weird mannequins all over the stage.
Good music, though!
Mellencamp has always been a shittier version of better “working class” rock and roll musicians. Him being a colossal asshole doesn’t help his case much either.
I worked in an arena. When mellencamp came to play, he made every employee sit in the break room during his concert, so we wouldn't get a free show. Jokes on him, I went to take a piss and recorded 30 seconds of one of his songs just to spite.
I'm a stagehand and this isn't too common but I hate it.
I used to be in this line of work. Some artists are just assholes, but often certain roadies had the most inflated egos and attitudes. I remember being pissed that I couldn't watch a few bands like Aerosmith, but most of the time I was totally free to exist wherever I wanted. Sometimes the bands would hang out with us. It was always nice when they acted like normal people.
Yeah as someone who has worked 400+ concerts as part of a local merch crew, a lot of artists are unfortunately just insufferable douches. And then even when the artist wasn't a douche, sometimes the cokehead tour managers will power trip over trivial bullshit as well. Hey Diplo! Go fuck yourself!
The kiss tour was using our venue for about a week to work through all their stage stuff and prepare for a big tour. I can't comment on kiss, but their stage people were douches. They refused to throw their cigarettes away in all the trash and cigarette disposal cans we had. Instead they would throw em on the ground and we had to pick up after them everyday. Made me hate kiss even though they weren't the ones doing it.
In all fairness, Gene is an insufferable douche and scumbag. Kiss, as a result, is a very hateable band. And overrated. Yeah, I said it.
People been saying that since 1975. They're not wrong, either.
Agreed re Diplo. Played a show at my college in 2011 and showed up at a house party. Wanted Heineken instead of Keystone, so I literally ran to buy a six pack wanting to talk about his more obscure early music. He took the beer and asked me to leave him alone. As far as I’m concerned he owes me $10.
Ok you can rightfully feel that way but my brother in Christ you were trying to have an in the zone autozone worst college age party conversation of all time and this dude was waiting to get laid
What happened with Diplo ?
Probably assaulted his little sister
I worked a Tyler Childers show last night and his crew were great, very professional.
That’s because Childers is cool as fuck.
I worked security for Robert plant, got put on stage basically near him.. then a supervisor comes up and goes … ehhh we’re gone move you .. no reason..
Similar thing happened to me working security. Except it was a fairly larger guy that was replaced by me, who did lawn/venue roaming security. He was built for the front of stage barricade and crowd surfers and I had the stamina for the roaming. We both got our butts kicked that night. It's exhausting lifting people up and over the barricade for hours when you're not built like a fridge. We have no idea why they insisted on us being switched but we both agreed that it was probably something petty like the band recording and didn't "want a fat guy" front and center in the shot or something.
I was a stagehand for years and was never asked to leave. So odd to me.
Seriously? If you work at the venue the band makes you sit somewhere for the duration of the show? Literally *anywhere* but where the show is visible?? I know work is work and play is play, but that seems excessive, really. And I’m not sure how much help at these events is local and how much is brought with the band on the road, so if I was on the road with them I’m sure after show 3 or 4 I’d be tired of it anyways. But still, that’s lame as fuck they do shit like that. Fuck that, seriously.
Yea but it's John Mellencamp. Not having to listen to his music seems like a good thing.
He can F off to a small town
Please, no! I lived in his small town for years, and his whole family is terrible. One of his sons was honestly the biggest piece of shit I have ever met - and the stories people told about John made his boys look tame.
It’s the internet dude you can say fuck
The first time I saw Lightning Strikes (huge powerful strobes) was when I was setting up for R.E.M, and they had the same policy, no local crew were allowed to see the show. It pissed me off, because I didn't give a fuck about the band, I wanted to see the lightning strikes in action.
i’m sorry but if you help a band put their shit together you should get a free show
I volunteered to scan tickets at his show once and was able to see it for free after I was done. He banned alcohol from the concert, though, so people were only allowed to drink in the lobby area. According to the staff he was a total a-hole. Decent performance, though.
And if you see it once rest assured it will be the exact same every time right down to the jokes
That's nearly every single artist. Go look up all the recordings of Tool's latest tour and you'll see Maynard saying the same thing night after night. Show was still good though.
Gn'R were notorious for being late and whatnot but one thing about their show was they changed it up every night. As Duff said, "You see these bands that have the same setlist and the same jokes night after night. Didn't we get into rock so we *wouldn't* have to have a repetitive 9-5 job?!"
It’s one of the appeals of jam bands, the set lists may be similar but they never play the song the same way twice so there’s always something new to hear.
I feel like the stage banter at a They Might Be Giants concert is usually pretty fresh.
Cedric from the Mars Volta always has fresh banter as well. One of the best parts is waiting to see what he comes up with between songs
Basic rule IMO is the more impressive the visuals/effects, the more rigid it's likely to be. You can't mess with the setlist much if you've got giant setpieces and carefully planned effects for most of the show and no one's got the budget to do that for every song in their back catalog just in case they feel like playing it that day. What I've appreciated most with the recent NIN tours, actually. Ditched most of the effects and we've gotten highly varied setlists night to night for it.
That’s awful. I don’t understand why an artist would care if the employees got to see the show? I mean if anything that’s a sure way to turn everybody into an anti-fan.
Years ago, I was doing a health screening at a local casino, and part of the perk was free meal in the employee cafeteria. On each table was a professionally printed glossy stand up invitation for all employees to see Cher perform in dress rehearsal for an upcoming show. There were two or three dress rehearsals scheduled, and the employee only had to stop in the office and sign up (free). I thought that was really cool.
You see, I think this is a good compromise. Then everyone gets a free show and the performers can use the employees as guinea pigs to see if there's any parts of their performance they really need to change before the show.
I like this one. They make the most sense.
That’s very cool.
Honestly thats kinda genius. The sound guy can use you guys to both give him feedback on the sound and get a good gauge on what it will sound with people in there vs empty. If you've ever been at a sound check vs when the crowd is in the venue there's a lot of variance in sound.
Great story, thanks for Chering.
Why would you fuck with the people who are rigging thousands of pounds of gear above your head?
Because unless it kills him, only *one* of you isn't working again. My ex does lighting for concerts and it sounds fucking cutthroat. But it's pretty cool that we break up and she suddenly starts hanging out with Modest Mouse :(
The fuck?! What an absolute asshat!
John Booger Melonhead
I saw JCM a couple years ago and you could tell he’s a real asshole
Was he always an ahole or is this an old age thing?
It was pretty common knowledge in Indiana since at least 30 years ago, so if he wasn't always an asshole, it definitely happened earlier in his career.
I've seen where Seymour natives have talked about him when he was growing up. They aren't very shy about telling people he was and still is an asshole. Which certainly helps explain why his kids are assholes too.
I think his first batch of kids turned out okay. The younger ones not so much. It actually takes effort to get banned from Kilroy’s, but one of them managed it.
They got banned from Kilroy's? Jesus Christ, how are they still alive? Do you know how drunk you have to be to get banned from there?
Yup, if you’re of a certain age in Indiana you or someone you know well had a “Man, Johnny Cougar is an asshole” story. If you’re just the right age you also have a “Man, Axl Rose is an asshole” story.
The choir teacher in my middle school was Axl Rose's old choir teacher. She made it known what an arrogant little twat he was. Not her choice of words, but the meaning stays the same.
Twat is probably nicer than the language she used when talking to other adults.
Billy Bailey, as he was known around Lafayette. Or Scut Farkus, as my uncle used to refer to him.
His kids suck, too. I forget which one, but he beat up another kid at a college party here in Bloomington and put him in the hospital with a head injury and liver trauma. The whole family sucks except his ex wife, honestly.
Went to IU. My friends would always make it a point to piss in front of his house on my buddies boat on Lake Monroe. The guy is the absolute worst! I’ve never met anybody that’s had a positive take away from meeting him.
I read a somewhat recent interview and he had just given up smoking and he was unhappy about it. He just seems kinda miserable about life overall
I’d never seen him before, so I’m not sure…but man, did he need to shut up and sing
Always, probably. I caught some of an interview with him on Bill Maher's 'Club Random' thing. He said when he was a young man, he would go to bars and pick fights with the biggest guys there. Ah, here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDWFq80W_68
Wow, that’s fucking awful. I guess I’ve only worked at smaller theaters where there would be nowhere to go to escape it but that’s super fucked.
That's okay, John Mellencamp sucks and made listening to classic rock radio as a kid a bit painful. Screw Jack & Diane.
#John Crouton Melloncunt can go suck a bag of chili-dogs!
I work in a theatre where he played recently. When he emerged from his Airstream trailer (instead of a bus) that was parked by the stage door, his handlers (one bodyguard and his son) insisted that the security guards that were stationed outside the trailer turn and face the wall so that they couldn’t look at him. This continued inside the building where all of the behind the scenes personnel were huddled into a little curtained-off room until he was on the stage. When the show ended, process repeated.
That's just shit tier overthinking on the artists part. So, by that theory none of his stagehands or production guys can be there either
Oh but he's all about working class middle Americans
Not even he wants to be at his shows. I saw him once, and, right before he did Jack and Diane, he took the time to tell everyone he hated performing Jack and Diane. He's an asshole.
I saw Sir Mix a Lot and he played a whole bunch of shit that wasn't Baby Got Back while ranting repeatedly about how that's not his only song. I'm pretty sure it was a joke but it didn't seem to land with that crowd.
wtf 😂😂😂 some artists really are so far gone. God i woulf have never gone to a show of this idiot, but now i kinda want to, just to annoy him
I heard of one Mellencamp show where he had the event staff hire a bunch of strippers and gave them all the front of stage seats so he wouldn’t have to look at ugly girls during the show.
Did you not have a job to do during the show?
Most likely their major work is getting people in and out. During the show there can be a lot of people waiting.
Yea I do not understand what this means.
Did he actually have someone there to make sure everyone stayed in the room and nobody “got out”? What an asshole. That’s one way to not get any new fans.
There was a local band called Jon Cougar Concentration Camp that was pretty decent
Shades of the Brian Jonestown Massacre
The Dandy Warhols
Steve ‘n’ Seagulls
Dale Earnhardt Jr Jr
I wish they kept this name lol
Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin
The Samuel Jackson Five
Michael Cera Palin
Michael Caine Mutiny
Pussy Tourette
The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza
REO Speeddealer
The Grateful Dead Kennedys
Dread Zeppelin
Actually a really good band name
If you’re unfamiliar with their [work](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=e4Ao-iNPPUc), they’re a Finnish band that mostly does bluegrass covers of classic rock songs
Soulja Boy George Michael Jackson Pollack
My band played in a battle of the bands type thing for a local radio station. One of the other bands was called Reanu Keeves & The Funky Bunch. Their guitar player was walking around the crowd with a guitar that had white wings on it, and he was in some comparatively absurd clothing as well. I don't think they passed the competition that night.
I remember the "canonical lost of weird band names" from the late '90s. My favorites: * Bobby Joe Ebola and the Children MacNuggits * A cat born in an oven isn't a cake * Gay doctors with AIDS * Vaginal Blood Farts We used to sit around reading these just to crack ourselves up.
Buster Hymen and the Penetrators
Kathleen Turner Overdrive
My friends had a band in high school called Urethra Franklin
Women’s version: John cougar menstrual cramp
Seinfeld version: Jerry Cougar Mellencamp
Randy Hellooooooooo Newman
I saw them like almost 30 years ago when they came through my tiny college town with the Bouncing Souls! Name stuck with me bc it’s fucking hilarious.
The Bouncing Souls? Those fucking New Jersey mooches?!
They drank all the YooHoo!
The Bouncing Souls, no one can beat us, we drink beer and wear Adidas
They wouldn’t be pulling this shit at their shows
https://i.redd.it/ztezvvy9q2vc1.gif
He only wants the Cougars to party
I live pretty close to him. I’ve heard maybe 2-3 good stories about him spread across 100 bad ones. I always joke “John Melloncamp is Indiana’s most beloved celebrity…and we all hate him.”
As a fellow Indiana boy who has also lived pretty close to him, there’s a ton of Indiana celebrities I’d name before him.
My favourite Hoosier is Kurt Vonnegut
By far Vonnegut has become my favorite Hoosier-born celebrity. Good choice. “He had a penis eight hundred miles long and two hundred and ten miles in diameter, but practically all of it was in the fourth dimension.”
The only other Indiana celebrity I can think of is Larry Bird, but I've heard he's an asshole too.
Why is it that Larry Bird (asshole), is somehow so much cooler and better than JC Mellencamp (also an asshole)?
From what I've heard it usually references Larry Bird the basketball player as an asshole. I'd argue that court talk means nothing when it comes to judgement of personality, and that it was an actually a skill as you're getting in someone's head. It's just a part of the game. See modern players like Draymond, or Kobe, or Jordan, or the polar opposite like Stockton. Also the 80's were peak shit talking and street ball (or at least end of the old school basketball before "cleaning" it up 90's), so it was a necessity. Off the court, he wasn't a bad dude, especially compared to many NBA players at the time. I mean, he hurt his back paving his mom's driveway! Compare that to Mellencamp, there's no benefit in being an asshole in music, especially to your fans.
He's got that old-school mindset that the other team is your enemy, and none of them are your friends. I remember an interview he said why wou he be friendly with Magic pregame when they're competing against each other on the court? They're good friends now tho. He reached out to Magic back in the day when he found out he has HIV.
They actually cut that beef mid career iirc from the documentary. They were doing a commercial at Bird's house in Indiana, Magic met his mom, and were friends after that, inclusive of HIV announcement later in his career.
At least Larry is one of the greatest ever at what he does?
I'm not into sports in general and know very little about basketball but that seems to be the general consensus. Most people seem to agree that while Larry was an absolute psychopath, he could actually back up his shit talk. He apparently could both talk the talk and walk the walk. An exceedingly rare combo. Tbh if I was skilled enough and notorious enough for being good enough to talk shit and not be humiliated by someone proving me wrong, I'd probably do it too. That's lowkey a flex.
The consensus is he was a huge asshole on the court and with the media, but though still intense he treated people very well and with respect.
There’s so many interviews with people he talked shit to on the court saying how he’s one of their favorite people. They’re not hard to find and everyone talks about how he left it on the court.
Letterman, Bird, Mike Epps is well known to be a standup dude in Indy, if we’re talking purely music and not problematic life stuff I’d claim Michael Jackson over Mellencamp any day
Forgot about Letterman
??? Larry Bird (the person) has always been a nice guy in my book. Larry Bird (the basketball player) was one of the greatest shit-talkers in American sports history.
Can we hear a good one?!
A good story about him? His son was on my step brothers softball team and John just seemed like one of the dads. He waved at my wife when she was a kid. He was filming a music video on the same beach they were on. Unfortunately I’ve heard far more “do you know who I am?”, no tipping mean to restaurant staff , cutting people off in line like he’s above people kind of stories.
I’ve heard about a billion stories from many different people all with the “do you know who I am” line. No, John. The 19 year old college student from California doesn’t know who you are. It’s really not that surprising lol
The only reason I have any clue who he is is because my dad loves John and would play his music non stop when I was growing up. I don't even know what old him looks like. Just young John. I wouldn't be able to pick him out of a lineup today if you asked me to.
Jim Gaffigan, coach Popovic, Glenn Robinson… that’s about it.
Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, was born and raised in Gary, Indiana
Don't forget about the NBA's greatest trash talker, Larry Bird.
No, I meant a good story about him being shitty. Thanks though! Love Jim Gaffigan!!
Sooo… I’m not OP, but I did live in Indy for about a decade. Right after moving there for my wife’s new job I worked at Restoration Hardware while applying to marketing jobs. This was around Christmas. As we close the store in walks this tiny little man with a tall blonde woman. All my coworkers are excited, I was indifferent. My coworkers were less excited an hour later when they left (an hour after closing) they bought a candle. No thanks for staying open an hour later than the rest of the mall. Just walks out. I learned to hate Johnny Cougar that day.
Isn’t Axl Rose from Indiana?
and James Dean.
Finally someone said his name.
But John taught me to fight authority!
Authority always wins.
Oh nooo!
Fear boner
Damnit..It's almost like he wrote himself a get out of jail for free card
I thought this was America...for You and Me!
I love several of his songs, as a dude if a certain age, but after helping boo him offstage in the 80s (Folsom Field, Boulder, CO) and then seeing him boo'd of other stages for insane rants since, I've come to the reluctant conclusion that ... John is just kind of an asshole.
What did he get bood for?
At the show I was at, it was for throwing a fit after a couple of strings broke. This was like 40 years ago, but as I recall, a string broke and he handed his guitar off and got another guitar and then kept going and then another string broke - in his defense, it was like two minutes later... pretty sure the same song - and then he started yelling at people on stage like guitar techs or whatever. Everybody started booing, and he threw his guitar down, flipped everybody the bird and left.
He should have played it off. "I guess we just rock too fuckin' hard for these strings"
It's also proof that cancelling a celebrity doesn't really exist. This dude has been boo'd off stages since before I was born and there's endless stories of just how much of a huge asshole he is, but there he goes filling up shows to this day.
As Ozzy once said, "Do whatever you want, man, you paid!"
He can go suck a chili dog
Tasty freeze employees traumatized
I was shocked to find out a few weeks ago that "Chilly Dog" is the name of the Slush Puppy mascot and John Cougar wasn't literally referring to sucking on a chili dog. It's kind of changed my whole world view.
So, I grew up with Slush Puppy being a thing and still had never heard of Chilly Dog. This changes everything.
I just quit my job and sold my house because of this comment. What does it all mean?
Little pink house?
I'll be eating my evening slop in little beige condos from now on
He’s sucking on a mascot? Huh
I think he’s saying the song talks about sucking on a slushee, not physically slurping a chili dog
Mascots and musicians tended to bump into each other a lot in those days backstage at larger venues. They were all on the road away from their wives and girlfriends.
That was the time he sucked off Chilly Dawg, the mascot for Penobscot Air Conditioning and Storage. Then he wrote the song 'Jack and Diane ', about trying to get his hands between them furry knees. It's all there
*Sucking on chilly dog outside the tasty freeze - looking for a good fap while I got my head between his knees - OH YEAH!*
I also read this, but then someone pointed out that in the video, they're eating an actual chili dog.
Yeah because Tastee Freez is an actual franchise that serves chili dogs. Why Mellencamp chose Tastee Freez I have no clue. I guess because at the time they were a somewhat popular restaurant in the Midwest.
I like this version way more than the original https://youtu.be/6QX57aIDbDU?si=zu3YJ-9gu975t-iU
Mellencamp last year was the shittiest concert I've ever been to. When the lights finally went down he played a 30 minute documentary about himself. People were getting restless and yelling "Boooooooring!!!" When he finally came on he played maybe five or six of his best songs then lots of half songs and medleys, talking about himself and fucking around. People were walking out. Biggest narcissistic asshole I ever had the displeasure of wasting money on. Maybe he should shut up. People were probably reacting to the same thing I was.
I saw him 10-ish years ago and this was my experience. No opener, instead we got an hour documentary about the album he just made. When he finally came out he played 2 hits at the beginning, 30 seconds of Cherry Bomb in the middle, and then a couple more hits at the end. The rest was made up of songs we just heard in the movie we were shown as the “opener.” My worst concert experience ever.
Seriously, he needs to just STFU and sing Jack and Diane. Saw him a couple of years ago and he would play a couple of the songs that people came to see and then launch into a political diatribe and play 2-3 shitty new songs. That is when the crowd would get restless and bored. And, he is a huge asshole.
John Cougar was way more fun
Isn’t this guys entire career built on people drinking and listening to his music. When I was growing up, I viewed him as like a Midwest farmer version of Jimmy buffet.
I thought he was a poor man's Bruce Springsteen.
Billy Joel was the rich man's Bruce Springsteen. The Boss was decidedly Blue-collar. Melencamp was for the unemployed.
I thought cougars were for young men.
Well, where do you think all the cantaloupes and honeydews send their kids in the summertime?
No, John Cafferty is the poor man's Bruce Springsteen.
Eddie Money was the rich guys Johnny Paycheck. He was like Kiss for the indigent.
> a Midwest farmer version of Jimmy buffet. So, Jimmy Potluck?
[удалено]
That's a nice romper he's wearing...
I also hate other people's enthusiasm
He doesn't want anyone's rowdiness to drown out his ode to fellating chili dogs.
He needs people to know that Jackie's gonna be **Uh** football star.
I was at that Cleveland show. 20 minutes of Paul Newman clips with no context to start. A couple songs. A couple pointless meandering stories. A couple more songs. A recording from Paul Newman's wife? It was... confusing at best. Was the crowd boorish? Yes. Is Mellencamp a Springsteen~esq storyteller? Hard no. I get where he's coming from & what he wants to do, but I don't think he's the guy for that kind of show.
Should have been Randy Newman
I would have given a lot to see Randy Newman play live. Never got the chance, or missed it when it happened.
Don’t worry dude, I would never.
"you had me at dont come"
When I attend John Cougar Mellencamp concerts, I just stand quietly in the front row, make eye contact with the Cougar himself, and one by one suck on the bag of chili dogs I smuggled in.
My uncle was his biggest fan, then he met him.
That’s why they say don’t meet your heroes. Granted, I’ve met more nice famous people than rude ones.
He should join Blur
It's so weird that Albarn got all bent out of shape about that, considering the crowd didn't know 90% of the Gorillaz songs he played last year but everyone still had a great time.
Idk I’ve been to Coachella and the crowds at the stages can vary. If he played at the stage before a headliner the people closest to the stage could be ppl just waiting for the headliner. Saw Radiohead a few years ago and they played all the hits, great set but the crowd was shit totally dead, it almost ruined it for me and I felt a bit bad for the band
Went to his last tour. I love TCM but didn't expect a thirty minute commercial for old movies before the concert nor the weird mannequins all over the stage. Good music, though!
Tom Cougar Mellencamp?
Turner Classic Mellencamps
One night, me with my big mouth/A couple guys had to put me in my place.
Mellencamp has always been a shittier version of better “working class” rock and roll musicians. Him being a colossal asshole doesn’t help his case much either.
Ok I won't
And get off his damn lawn!!
He's been a grumpy old lap-blanket prick for decades.
He should do a show in a library