Get a good job by the time you ’re fifty, and that ’s that. They work in the fields, and they work in the factory, and if you ’re lucky, you can be like your old man. Mellencamp told Edwin Miller of Seventeen, “Everybody said, ’John, you ’re dumb. Gradually growing apart from his first wife, Mellencamp had started to record demos of his own songs and take music as a career more seriously, much to the derision of seemingly everyone he knew. ”Īfter being kicked out, the Mellencamps stayed together for another ten years. They kicked the young couple out with the typical “you ’ll never go any where with this silly rock and roll business. Considering the fact that he had a wife and daughter to support, his in-laws did not see guitar playing as a stable occupation. At that time, the only productive thing Mellencamp did was play music in local bar bands, using the guitar skills he started building at the age of fourteen. Attending junior college, studying communications, and barely holding down a job for more than a few months, Mellencamp reverted to his old partying ways. With the intent of making a living for themselves, the newlyweds moved into Priscilla ’s parents ’ house with their newborn daughter Michelle. ” The couple were in love and Priscilla was pregnant. In Rolling Stone, Mellencamp recalled, “You could get married there at eighteen without your parents ’ permission. At the age of eighteen, Mellencamp took off to Kentucky and married his twenty-three year old girlfriend, Priscilla. As a teenager, Mellencamp had few interests other than hanging out, getting high, and listening to rock n ’ roll. His father, vice president of Robbins Electric in Seymour, pushed Mellencamp to excel at school and sports, neither of which the boy took to heart. John Mellencamp, with his two sisters and two brothers, was raised strictly. Known for his unpretentious manner and brutal honesty, Mellencamp wishes to be taken seriously on his own terms, without losing sight of where he comes from, which granted, is hard when you ’ve never really left. Bucking the rock star tradition of leaving the hometown for more glamorous pastures, Mellencamp remains a resident of Indiana. But it also produced at least one musician, celebrated son, John Mellencamp. Seymour, Indiana, a blue collar town about forty minutes from Bloomington, is populated by about 20,000, mostly electronics industry workers.

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