John Mellencamp: Plain Spoken Live from The Chicago Theatre

Keep it small.

Remember. Always keep it small.

But keep it going.

Keep it small and keep it going.

Try to keep it as plainspoken as possible.

Keep it vague,

so people can include themselves

in what you're saying,

or what you're singing, or what you're painting.

And don't hit it on the nose.

Don't be so specific.

If you're too specific,

it becomes exclusive only to you.

I'm not sure where they're gonna find

the young writers of the future,

because they will not have the opportunity to grow

as I did as a songwriter,

or as a painter, or as an actor.

Because everything is based on this Monday--

what happened on the weekend.

Because of the digital world, and because of the Internet,

you can't tell what's true and what's not true,

and who's writing and who's stealing and...

And there are plenty of people who can write.

And I don't know where they find their voice

in such a world that is so loud

and with so many voices now.

It just becomes racket after a while.

Seems like, once upon a time ago,

I was where I was supposed to be.

My vision was true, and my heart was, too.

And there was no end to what I could dream.

Life is short, even in its longest days.

I went to New York initially

to look into the New York Art Student League,

and, oh, by the way, I took a-- a demo tape

that I had made with a local band

that I was singing with.

And so I dropped that off at different record companies

and management companies, and, uh...

...and before I even got back to Indiana,

I had a call from one of the management agencies,

and they wanted to handle me, manage me.

So, as it turned out,

the New York Art Student League wanted money,

and the, uh, management agency wanted to give me money.

So for a 21-year old guy, fresh out of college,

money coming in was better than money going out.

Sometimes, the way people act,

it surprises me that they show

any interest at all in other people.

They seem-- The world seems so selfish, sometimes.

But then again, we are always

interested in other people.

I've always been interested in observing people

and watching what they do and their mannerisms

and how they talk and-- and how they dress.

And, uh, what kind of hustle is this person running?

You know, what kind of

Why is this guy being so aggressive?

Why is this girl being so quiet?

All of those things, uh, seemed to zoom by me,

and I never could really make much sense

out of it until after the fact.

I've always been interested in other people,

and at the same time,

always found other people in my way.

Yeah!

I hear people talk all the time

that they tried to please their parents,

or they tried to please their teachers or their coach

or-- or their lover. Or somebody.

I-- It never dawned on me.

I-- I'm not a people-pleaser.

I guess I'm just...

It's not part of my make-up

or the way I was brought up.

I-- I understand people who do that.

But, to me, it always looked like boot-licking,

in some fashion.

I never really wanted to go to the girl.

I always wanted her to come to me.

I never wanted to go to the music.

I wanted it to come to me.

So, I never really, um, thought too much

about what my parents thought of what I was doing,

or the grades I was making,

or the girl I was dating,

or the car that I was driving,

or-- or why I stayed out when they told me to come in.

But, that way, I always figured,

it was just left to me.

At the end of the day, I can take your suggestion,

but if it fails then it's my failure, not yours.

I always, uh, paid attention to the way people spoke.

I found it interesting that there were different accents

in the United States at one time.

Not so much anymore, now that we're all on the same page,

and all on the same CNN, and all on the same networks.

But when there were pockets of the United States

that you could tell a Boston accent

from a Southern accent,

or somebody from Texas, uh...

I always enjoyed the rhythm of those dialogues,

and those-- that language and the way they spoke,

and the way they enunciated their words, and...

and, uh, it created a rhythm for me.

And I just loved talking

to people from New Orleans, you know.

And the language that they used.

And "Big Daddy" this, and "yes, sir,"

and it was interesting, to me.

Even though I can't spell, and I can't

Uh, I'm a terrible speaker, myself,

I always enjoyed the rhythm of language that they used.

If you listen to the dialogue

of Tennessee Williams,

it's-- it's just amazing,

the way that Blanche spoke in such poetry, and--

and the way that Stanley Kowalski spoke

with such brutality,

and this all coming from one man.

One guy could create these characters

that were so different from each other,

but it was all coming from the same voice.

And, uh... and then, of course I loved the music.

As long as I can remember, I grew up in a house

where I had young parents.

They were only 20 years older than me,

and, uh, I can remember listening to Odetta,

a folk singer.

And at the same time listening to Julie London

and listening to, uh, something

as ridiculous as Mitch Miller,

and listening to something as, uh, interesting to me as--

as Woody Guthrie.

All those records existed in my house.

My dad, uh, would have these bongo parties, you know.

On Friday nights, my dad and his buddies

would bring their bongos and congos over,

and they'd play records on the stereo.

And they'd all just play the bongos together,

and, uh, at the time,

there were three boys and my parents

living in this small house,

and I remember falling asleep many nights, hearing...