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Mellencamp uneasy with McCain's song use
02/07/2008 7:00 PM, AP
Amanda Lee Myers
PHOENIX (AP) — It may be "Our Country," but it's John Mellencamp's song. When the liberal rocker found out that Republican presidential hopeful John McCain was playing his songs at campaign events, his publicist wrote the campaign a letter explaining Mellencamp's political leanings and that the singer/songwriter supported Democrat John Edwards for the presidency.
"Are you sure you want to use his music to promote Senator McCain's efforts?" according to the letter, which was sent Monday. "Logic says that the facts might prove to be an embarrassment, were they to be circulated widely."
Publicist Bob Merlis said Mellencamp told him that he was uncomfortable with the situation and couldn't imagine that the senator wanted to be associated with him.
"You know, here's a guy running around saying, 'I'm a true conservative.'" Merlis said in an interview with The Associated Press. "Well, if you're such a true conservative, why are you playing songs that have a very populist pro-labor message written by a guy who would find no argument if you characterized him as left of center?"
McCain campaign spokesman Brian Rogers in Washington, D.C., said Thursday that the songs would no longer be played. He declined to elaborate.
Mellencamp songs that had been played at McCain's events included "Our Country" and "Pink Houses."
In the first, Mellencamp sings, "There's room enough here for science to live, and there's room enough here for religion to forgive." In the second, he sings about a simple man who "pays for the thrills, the bills and the pills that kill."
Merlis said he hasn't received a reply to his letter but said Thursday that the situation is "kind of funny" and that Mellencamp, who is on tour in Canada, saw the irony in it.
Kurt Davis, co-leader of McCain's Arizona campaign, said he was not aware of the Mellencamp situation.
"I think it's all kind of funny," he said. "I think probably if people were looking for conservative rock bands, it'd be a pretty small number. Really, at the end of the day, what you're doing at those events, you've got to keep people entertained while they're waiting, and it has to be music that cuts across different generations."
If it were up to Davis, he said he'd have gone with some Kansas songs or Chris Daughtry's "Home" at McCain's election night party Tuesday in Phoenix.
At the party, McCain walked onto the stage to the theme from "Rocky," and Jon Bon Jovi's "Who Says You Can't Go Home" played as he left.
Bon Jovi is supporting Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton.
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On the Net:
John McCain: http://www.johnmccain.com/
John Mellencamp: http://www2.mellencamp.com/
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