“I ended up writing songs and growing up in public with my songwriting. And it's a good thing for me back then: in the early '70s, there was a thing called artist development, where an artist could find his feet, find himself, find his voice. I think I made five or six albums before I sold five or six albums.”

American singer-songwriter

John Mellencamp is an American singer-songwriter, born in 1951. Earlier in his career, he performed under the names Johnny Cougar, John Cougar, and John Cougar Mellencamp. He is known for heartland rock, a style built around traditional instrumentation and straightforward songwriting. His career was later recognized with induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008 and the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2018.