Top 90 John Mellencamp Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “I enjoy the pleasure of my own company.”

— John Mellencamp

2. “An honest man’s pillow is his peace of mind.”

— John Mellencamp

3. “There is nothing more sad or glorious than generations changing hands.”

— John Mellencamp

4. “I fight authority and authority always wins.”

— John Mellencamp

5. “Now more than ever the world needs love, not just a slogan.”

— John Mellencamp

6. “Growing up leads to growing old and then to dying And dying to me don’t sound like all that much fun.”

— John Mellencamp

7. “Ain’t that America, home of the free? Little pink houses for you and me.”

— John Mellencamp

8. “Take ‘Jack and Diane.’ I was so disgusted with people thinking the line ‘Hold on to sixteen as long as you can’ meant to stay a teenager forever. What I meant was keep doing whatever makes you feel alive.”

— John Mellencamp

9. “I do things my way and I pay a high price.”

— John Mellencamp

10. “It’s what you do and not what you say. If you’re not part of the future, then get out of the way!”

— John Mellencamp

11. “Rock’n’roll starts between the legs and goes through the heart, then to the head. As long as it does those three things, it’s a great rock song.”

— John Mellencamp

12. “Future generations, riding on the highways that we built, I hope they have a better understanding.”

— John Mellencamp

13. “You can’t tell your best buddy that you love him.”

— John Mellencamp

14. “Don’t ever lose that innocent laughter, don’t let time take that away.”

— John Mellencamp

15. “Your Life Is Now!”

— John Mellencamp

16. “People have the right to say what they want to.”

— John Mellencamp

17. “Some people say I’m obnoxious and lazy, that I’m uneducated, that my opinion means nothing, but I know I’m a real good dancer.”

— John Mellencamp

18. “Grace, Mercy and Forgiveness will help a man walk tall. Walk tall!”

— John Mellencamp

19. “Sometimes love don’t feel like it should, you make it hurt so good.”

— John Mellencamp

20. “Mama, why do I always fall for the crazy ones?”

— John Mellencamp

21. “All I’m doing is painting. It’s my hobby. And that’s that.”

— John Mellencamp

22. “Check it out, forgot to say hello to my neighbors. Check it out, sometimes I question my own behavior.”

— John Mellencamp

23. “What is there to be afraid of? The worst thing that can happen is you fail. So what? I failed at a lot of things. My first record was horrible.”

— John Mellencamp

24. “Most people in life, give up too early.”

— John Mellencamp

25. “When you live life for yourself it’s hard on everyone. And that hasn’t changed. For me, if anything, it’s gotten worse.”

— John Mellencamp

26. “I’m looking for trouble. A lot of people get to be a certain age and they just kind of lose interest or they give up. But I’m looking for trouble.”

— John Mellencamp

27. “The simple man, baby, pays for the thrills, the bills, and the pills that kill.”

— John Mellencamp

28. “There’s a young man in a T-shirt listening to a rock and roll station. He’s got greasy hair, greasy smile, he says, Lord this must be my destination.”

— John Mellencamp

29. “Grandma’s on the front porch with a Bible in her hand, sometimes I hear her singing take me to the promised land.”

— John Mellencamp

30. “I need a lover that won’t drive me crazy, someone that knows the meaning of hey, hit the highway.”

— John Mellencamp

31. “I’ve never fit in in any music world. I’ve always been an outsider. I mean, the fact that I live in Indiana – I live in a fly-over state. I’m not running away from anything, that’s the problem. Most people go to cities because they don’t like where they come from.”

— John Mellencamp

32. “I want you to dance naked, if you like, I’ll join you.”

— John Mellencamp

33. “The dust to which this flesh shall return, it is the ancient dreaming dust of God.”

— John Mellencamp

34. “You know, it’s cigarettes that killed Jerry Garcia. Everyone thinks it’s heroin, but it wasn’t. It was cigarettes.”

— John Mellencamp

35. “If you hide information from people, don’t want people to see the Ten Commandments or don’t want people to hear about Darwin, aren’t we hiding things that we know from our future generations? I just think that that’s incorrect.”

— John Mellencamp

36. “My grandmother made sure that I went to church every Sunday. And shed come over and pick us boys up, and we would go to the Nazarene church. And back then, that was about as close to heaven as I ever got, because just the time to be able to spend with her, and she was very, very religious.”

— John Mellencamp

37. “All the women in the world want a phony rock star who plays guitar.”

— John Mellencamp

38. “Give me someone I can look up to, show me someone I can love.”

— John Mellencamp

39. “Go to work and be a Hollywood stud, drive your four wheel drive right into the mud.”

— John Mellencamp

40. “She said she wasn’t afraid of Satan, in fact, she thought he was a joke. She said she’d tear his tail off and run her fist down his throat.”

— John Mellencamp

41. “I don’t want to be a politician. I don’t like politics. It’s petty; it fights dirty.”

— John Mellencamp

42. “When you live in hysteria, people start thinking emotionally.”

— John Mellencamp

43. “Dear Mr. President, can I ask you a question, when the bombs fall down will they hurt everyone in my family?”

— John Mellencamp

44. “We have been lied to and terrorized by our own government, and it is time to take action.”

— John Mellencamp

45. “Want me to spend the night? Hey lover boy, you know I will, and my best girlfriend lives down the road, together we will thrill you.”

— John Mellencamp

46. “Unemployment is sky-rocketing; deflation is in our future for the first time since the Great Depression. I don’t care whose fault it is, it’s the truth.”

— John Mellencamp

47. “You cannot expect the guy who drove the car into the ditch to navigate it out of the ditch. You have to put a new driver in the seat. I’m not saying the new driver is going to be any better, but we need a new driver. Kerry is the only choice.”

— John Mellencamp

48. “I thought I knew a lot about music. Then you start digging and the deeper you go, the more there is.”

— John Mellencamp

49. “I’m the guy who wrote The Authority Song. Did they think I was kidding? Did they think it was only a song to entertain?”

— John Mellencamp

50. “Natalie from the Dixie Chicks could have said what she said before 9-11 and no one would have cared.”

— John Mellencamp