In 2008, the Republican presidential nominee, John McCain, was blasting John Mellencamp songs at his rallies, until the musician asked him to stop[1].
Mellencamp is a Democrat[2]. “We said, ‘You understand what side of the political landscape Mellencamp is part of, please know his music is for everybody,’” said Mellencamp over the phone from his Indiana home. “But we said, ‘You might want to relisten to these songs.’”
McCain stopped playing the songs at his rallies, many of which were taken from Mellencamp’s 2008 album Life, Death, Love and Freedom[3]. Now, the album returns to the spotlight for its 10th anniversary at the musician’s forthcoming solo exhibition at ACA Galleries[4] in New York, which opens on 26 April.
Life, Death, Love and Freedom features more than 25 new political paintings that reflect on the past to see the present situation. “I thought the album approached a lot of different emotions and feelings in the human condition,” said Mellencamp, “and that these paintings did, too.”
The 66-year-old artist and musician may be known for his hit singles like Hurt So Good from the Footloose soundtrack in 1982, his former days as “John Cougar”[5] or for co-founding the Farm Aid[6] benefit concert series with Willie Nelson. But all along, Mellencamp has fuelled his activism into his paintings.
Just as his songs from 2008 dealt with injustices (like the song Our Country, where he calls on the government to “help the poor and common man”), the paintings do here, too. “Some of the songs are more attuned to today’s world than when I wrote it,” he said. “But you have to keep going.”
