The Indiana native and Grammy-award winning artist John Mellencamp will perform at 8 p.m. March 22 in Ball State University’s Emens Auditorium.
The Muncie performance marks the 10th stop in Mellencamp’s “Live and in Person 2024” tour, which began in early March. Tickets start at $49.50 and are available for purchase on the Ball State University website or at the Emens Box Office, open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Born in Seymour, Indiana, Mellencamp participated in music from a young age, performing local shows as part of a soul band at 14. Under the pseudonym “Johnny Cougar,” MCA Records released “The Chestnut Street Incident,” Mellencamp’s first album, in 1976. The dubbed name was encouraged by his manager, who believed the name “Mellencamp” wouldn’t sell any records. His roots, rock or Americana style music began to break out in the late 1970s, and in 1982, Mellencamp’s album “American Fool” was the year’s best-selling album.
After the success of his fifth album, “American Fool,” the musician began to slowly reclaim his birth name, releasing music, including popular song “R.O.C.K. in the USA,” under the name “John Cougar Mellencamp.” His lyrics, especially in albums like “Scarecrow,” shared his concerns for the common man. In 1985, Mellencamp joined fellow artists Willie Nelson and Neil Young to launch Farm Aid, a concert intended to raise funds and awareness about the decline of family farming. Now an annual music festival, Farm Aid has raised $78 million in support of local agriculture.
By the 1990s, “Cougar” was dropped completely and Mellencamp exclusively released music under his birth name. Mellencamp had always protested the moniker since the release of his first MCA album. In a 2005 interview with the American Songwriter, Mellencamp said that after the “Johnny Cougar debacle” he rejected any two cents from managers from that point on.
In 2008, Mellencamp was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and was awarded the John Steinbeck Award in 2012. Over the course of his career, Mellencamp has accrued 14 Grammy nominations, securing the Best Male Rock Vocal Performance Award in 1983 for “Hurts So Good,” which has amassed over 248 million streams on Spotify.
