Why did Mellencamp drop cougar?

His manager dubbed him Johnny Cougar out of his belief that nobody would buy a record by anybody named Mellencamp. John protested but was overruled and eventually, of course, reclaimed his birth name as his public name.

What ethnicity is John Cougar Mellencamp?

German
He is of German ancestry. He was born with spina bifida, for which he had corrective surgery as an infant. Mellencamp formed his first band, Crepe Soul, at the age of 14; he later played in several local bands including Trash, Snakepit Banana Barn and the Mason Brothers.

How old is John Cougar Mellencamp?

70 years (October 7, 1951)
John Mellencamp/Age

What is John Cougar Mellencamp’s real name?

John J. Mellencamp
John Mellencamp/Full name

How many packs of cigarettes did John Mellencamp smoke a day?

John Mellencamp suffered a heart attack 20 years ago, after having smoked four packs of cigarettes a day for years. And it seems the 62-year-old rocker is still stuck in the habit; he was seen puffing away while out for a stroll with girlfriend Meg Ryan in SoHo in New York on Sunday.

Why did John Mellencamp change his name to Johnny Cougar?

Performing as Johnny Cougar and John Cougar (1976–1982) DeFries insisted that Mellencamp’s first album, Chestnut Street Incident, a collection of covers and a handful of original songs, be released under the stage name Johnny Cougar, insisting that the bumpy German name “Mellencamp” was too hard to market.

Why is John Mellencamp considered a good songwriter?

John is one of the great American songwriters and a great rock spirit. He’s always been somewhat feisty, and his ‘Authority Song’ tells that story. But that’s a good thing. That’s rock ‘n’ roll at its very core. Johnny Cash called Mellencamp “one of the 10 best songwriters” in music.

What song did Bruce Springsteen and John Mellencamp duet on?

During the 1987–88 Lonesome Jubilee Tour, Mellencamp was joined onstage by surprise guest Bruce Springsteen at the end of his May 26, 1988 gig in Irvine, California, for a duet of Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone,” which Mellencamp performed as the penultimate song during each show on that tour.

What was John Mellencamp’s first album under his new name?

The first album recorded under his new name John Cougar Mellencamp was 1983’s Uh-Huh, a Top-10 album that spawned the Top 10 singles “Pink Houses” and “Crumblin’ Down” as well as the No. 14 hit “Authority Song”, which he said is “our version of “I Fought the Law’.”.