At first look, there’s little to recommend that John Mellencamp, a pillar of ’80s heartland rock, and Mick Ronson, David Bowie’s trusted sidekick, would have a lot frequent floor.
However their juxtaposing backgrounds and personalities might have been simply the correct combine for a success tune.
Mellencamp was the rough-and-tumble insurgent, keen for achievement however distrustful of higher-ups within the recording trade. By the early ’80s, he was nonetheless performing as “Johnny Cougar,” the stage identify his administration had insisted was extra marketable. Mellencamp disliked it from the beginning.
“I fought my complete life to have some type of individuality, from grade college on as much as the place I’m now,” he mentioned to Rolling Stone in 1982. “And that’s nonetheless my biggest drawback.”
Alternatively, Ronson, who was classically skilled on piano and violin as a baby, was a much less assertive determine. An exceptionally proficient arranger, along with a guitarist, he was open-minded and imaginative when it got here to working within the studio.
“Music’s all the identical, actually,” he informed RockTimes. “I do not suppose you possibly can say, ‘I am a jazz musician’ or ‘I am a rock musician.’ In the event you’re a musician, you are a musician. I believe you possibly can go into any space of music — it is simply music!”
At starting of the ’80s, a mutual supervisor introduced the artists collectively in a Miami studio, leading to one in every of Mellencamp’s biggest hits. Watch the video under to get your complete odd-couple story.
John Mellencamp Albums Ranked
A pre-fab pop singer turned heartland rocker turned rootsy moralist, John Mellencamp has had virtually as many profession turns as names.
