John Mellencamp recently sat down for an interview with AARP; here's what he had to say:
Men will be boys
"Girls, never trust a man under 40 because he's still a boy. I've met thousands of tough guys, thousands of nice guys; they're all the same."
Angry young men
"Here's what I told my son Speck, who's always fighting everybody and fighting himself. I said, "I know you consider yourself a dangerous young man, but I'm a dangerous old man." A dangerous old man can use anger to his advantage. He's cagier and smarter. He knows what he's doing. A young man just has outbursts."
Good and bad habits
"I lift weights, and I run, but my exercise is not about vanity. I work out because I smoke. If I'm going to afford myself the luxury of smoking, I'd better do something to offset it."
His day job
"Painting is harder on me than being onstage. I stand 8 or 10 hours a day. I used to consider it a hobby, but now I don't. It's hard to be taken seriously because I'll always be considered a celebrity painter. Being a rock star has been a pain in the ass all around."
The myth of happiness
"Happiness is a fleeting moment of a day. It's not a state of being. If you're happy all the time, something's wrong with you. We are put on this earth to toil and to make things. Making the world a better place is not a happy job."
What's left
"I intend to make my ending good. I'm hoping it's one of those long, lingering deathbed conversions. A lot of people go, "Oh, I hope I just die quick." Not me. I need time to put things right."
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