{"id":430103,"date":"2026-08-11T21:34:07","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T21:34:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/430103\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T21:34:07","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T21:34:07","slug":"john-mellencamp-delivers-all-his-biggest-hits-at-the-hollywood-bowl-daily-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/430103\/","title":{"rendered":"John Mellencamp delivers all his biggest hits at the Hollywood Bowl \u2013 Daily News"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Mellencamp<\/a> walked on stage at the Hollywood Bowl with one hand overhead to acknowledge a welcoming roar, the other holding a cigarette for one last drag before dropping it on the floor and getting down to business on Monday, Aug. 17.<\/p>\n

He was dressed for work, too in the signature white T-shirt, black pants and boots he\u2019s worn for years. A 74-year-old rock star on tour, the 24-year-old telephone installer he was before making it? Neither need anything fancier.<\/p>\n

And for the next two-and-a-half hours, Mellencamp<\/a> did his job terrifically to the delight of fans that filled most of the Hollywood Bowl on the Dancing Words Tour \u2013 The Greatest Hits.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not hyperbole, either. Of the 24 songs in the show, 16 made the Top 40, with 10 of them cracking the Top 10.<\/p>\n

\"John<\/p>\n

John Mellencamp performs at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles on Monday, August 10, 2026. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Press-Telegram\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

\"John<\/p>\n

John Mellencamp performs at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles on Monday, August 10, 2026. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Press-Telegram\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

\"John<\/p>\n

John Mellencamp performs at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles on Monday, August 10, 2026. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Press-Telegram\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

\"John<\/p>\n

John Mellencamp performs at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles on Monday, August 10, 2026. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Press-Telegram\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

\"John<\/p>\n

John Mellencamp performs at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles on Monday, August 10, 2026. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Press-Telegram\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

\"John<\/p>\n

John Mellencamp performs at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles on Monday, August 10, 2026. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Press-Telegram\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

\"John<\/p>\n

John Mellencamp performs at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles on Monday, August 10, 2026. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Press-Telegram\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

\"John<\/p>\n

John Mellencamp performs at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles on Monday, August 10, 2026. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Press-Telegram\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

\"John<\/p>\n

John Mellencamp performs at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles on Monday, August 10, 2026. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Press-Telegram\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

Show Caption<\/p>\n

1 of 9<\/p>\n

John Mellencamp performs at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles on Monday, August 10, 2026. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Press-Telegram\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

Expand<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cLawless Times\u201d kicked off the night, a 2014 song updated for today. \u201cCan\u2019t trust the police, particularly if they\u2019re ICE,\u201d Mellencamp<\/a> sang as the lyrics appeared on a video screen designed to look like silent-movie title cards. \u201cLook out for the creepers, tappin\u2019 on your cell phone. My, my, my, these are lawless times.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, I\u2019m not the easiest guy to get along with,\u201d he said at its finish. \u201cSo I figure if you\u2019re here, you might not be the easiest to get along with, too. We\u2019re all the misfits, the mavericks, and most of all, we\u2019re nonconformists.\u201d<\/p>\n

With that, the hit parade began. \u201cSmall Town\u201d rolled into \u201cLonely Ol\u2019 Night\u201d into \u201cPaper in Fire,\u201d a trio of tracks from 1985\u2019s \u201cScarecrow\u201d and 1987\u2019s \u201cThe Lonesome Jubilee,\u201d which eventually combined for a third of the set.<\/p>\n

The video screen behind Mellencamp<\/a> and the band continued the vintage movie theater imagery, with live footage of the band inserted into larger images of ornate movie palaces.<\/p>\n

His eight-piece band is a rock and roll powerhouse, with many of the players with him since the early days. Guitarist Mike Wancic has been in the band since 1976, Mellencamp said, referring to him as a brother and teasing him like a brother, too. \u201cIf you noticed, he has a stool because he had open-heart surgery on his back,\u201d he said of Wancic late in the show.<\/p>\n

Fiddler Lisa Germano and Crystal Taliefero, who sang backing vocals and played saxophone and percussion, were with Mellencamp for most of the \u201980s and have returned to the fold in recent years.<\/p>\n

Other highlights of the first of two sets included an acapella take on \u201cHuman Wheels,\u201d a crowd-pleasing \u201cR.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.\u201d and \u201cCheck It Out,\u201d which featured a lovely accordion melody from keyboardist Troye Kinnett.<\/p>\n

Most of the band left the stage before the final pair of songs of the opening set, with Mellencamp on acoustic guitar backed by bass and accordion for a stripped-down arrangement of \u201cKey West Intermezzo (I Saw You First).\u201d<\/p>\n

Then he was all alone for an acoustic version of \u201cJack & Diane,\u201d his first and only No. 1 single. Well, not exactly alone. To Mellencamp\u2019s clear delight, most of the Bowl joined in on this little ditty about teenage lovers in the heartland. So much so that at one point he stopped singing, pointed at a fan in the front rows, and with a grin on his face said, \u201cYou know what? You may not sing good, but [bleep-er] you sing loud!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo let it rock, let it roll,\u201d Mellencamp sang, the crowd joining in for the acapella bridge. \u201cLet the Bible Belt come and save my soul \/ Holdin\u2019 on to sixteen as long as you can \/ Changes come around real soon, make us women and men.\u201d<\/p>\n

After intermission, the second set opened with Mellencamp\u2019s promise of picking up the pace with more up-tempo tunes. He opened it by going back to the oldest song in the set, \u201cI Need A Lover,\u201d which gave him his first Top 40 in 1979 when he was still reluctantly using the stage name Johnny Cougar.<\/p>\n

\u201cMinutes to Memories\u201d and \u201cYour Life Is Now\u201d featured more of the honest, straight-ahead rock and roll that Mellencamp remains, perhaps one of the last major practitioners still standing. [Before the show, I overheard fans sharing stories about Mellencamp, Tom Petty and Bob Seger concerts they had\u00a0attended, and there were more than a few Petty T-shirts in the crowd.]\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWild Night,\u201d Mellencamp\u2019s Van Morrison<\/a> cover featuring Me\u2019Shell Ndegeocello that went to No. 4 in 1993, had most of the crowd dancing once more, Mellencamp duetting with Taliefero and bassist John Gunnell wowing the crowd with a long slap-and-pop solo.<\/p>\n

A sweet yet ribald anecdote about slow dancing with his girlfriend at a teen basement party drew laughter from the seats before leading into the yearning love song \u201cAin\u2019t Even Done With the Night,\u201d after which Mellencamp jumped into a run of hits so good you might think he was showing off, if you didn\u2019t know that\u2019s not something he\u2019d do.<\/p>\n

\u201cRain On the Scarecrow,\u201d which he introduced with a story about co-founding Farm Aid with Willie Nelson and Neil Young in 1985, remains a powerful, passionate call to fight for American family farms and farmers.<\/p>\n

After \u201cPop Singer,\u201d Mellencamp finally played something from \u201cUh-Huh,\u201d the 1983 album that saw him escape the pop-oriented path his record label and management originally planned. \u201cAuthority Song\u201d rocked hard over a twanging guitar riff, \u201cCrumblin\u2019 Down\u201d kept the rock-and-roll momentum charging ahead, and then \u201cPink Houses\u201d capped that album\u2019s trio of songs.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, but ain\u2019t that America for you and me?\u201d he sang, in \u201cPink Houses,\u201d one of many songs he\u2019s written from the perspective of the common man and the populism of a Woody Guthrie or Pete Seeger. \u201cAin\u2019t that America, somethin\u2019 to see, baby? \/ Ain\u2019t that America, home of the free, yeah? \/ Little pink houses for you and me.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a pause to introduce the band, the night closed with \u201cCherry Bomb,\u201d one more song of young love in a small town, and \u201cHurts So Good,\u201d yet another hit in a night that contained multitudes.<\/p>\n

Mellencamp might not be the easiest guy to get along with, as he\u2019d noted earlier in the show. But his songs? Fifty years after he started, they\u2019re your best friends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John Mellencamp walked on stage at the Hollywood Bowl with one hand overhead to acknowledge a welcoming roar,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":430104,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[2644,8122,48,52,51,47,50,49,6998,100,420],"class_list":["post-430103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-concerts","tag-hollywood-bowl","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-music-concerts","tag-news","tag-things-to-do"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430103\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/430104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}