John Mellencamp Quotes - Page 4

Dear Mr. President, can I ask you a question, when the bombs fall down will they hurt everyone in my family?

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

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

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.

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

You can't tell your best buddy that you love him.

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.

All I'm doing is painting. It's my hobby. And that's that.

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.

I went to New York in 1974, to either try to get a record deal, get into the New York Art Student League, or be a dancer. So that was my plan. Some plan. And I had no money.

Give me someone I can look up to, show me someone I can love.

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.

The simple man, baby, pays for the thrills, the bills, and the pills that kill.

For me or a Bruce Springsteen to sit up in our ivory towers and make comments about racism, well, were not really in it, are we?

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.

Mama, why do I always fall for the crazy ones?

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

The greatest thing that ever happened to (my career) was the breakdown of the record companies, because there were no more stupid questions about how many hits are on the next record. It was very liberating.

The Internet is the wrong direction for music.

All my friends are so small town.

The reason I said the Internet is dangerous is that a couple smart guys could hack into a computer and shut down the Eastern seaboard if they wanted to. It's a terrible, out-of-control thing.

Turning music into digital was just a con, a record-company con.

I remember the first time I saw a CD, a technology guy brought one to my house and said we will be able to sell millions and millions of players, and people will have to restock their record collections. It was all about money. It was all about how much money we would make, "we" being "him."

I look at some of my contemporaries trying to emulate what they were 30 years ago and just because of the age factor alone, they look silly.

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