What are the best and worst drugs you’ve ever taken? I’m not so sure I believe in that value the way I used to. Once upon a time, a long time ago, music carried some sort of value. The fact that I did a Chevy ad means nothing. I also see the lie in everything.ĭo you get hurt if people accuse you of hypocrisy – say, after the Chevy ad (despite being vehemently anti the use of his songs in commercials, he allowed Chevrolet to use Our Country in 2006) – or do you not care? I’m not a member of any denomination but I’m not an atheist, so I guess they’d call me an agnostic. I’ve never worked for wages my entire life, and I never will have to now.Īt one point your new album was going to be religious in theme. Who can have anticipated when I started making records at twenty-one that at sixty-five I’d still be making records? I just feel lucky that I can live life the way I want, write songs, paint, and don’t have to work for anybody.

What would be the highlight of your career: the approbation of Bob Dylan, your involvement in Farm Aid, your (2008) induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame…? Everybody who idolises a celebrity needs to take a look at themselves. It’s worthless regardless of whether you’re a celebrity or not.

Is that because you’ve had the luxury of being a celebrity – you can afford to dismiss it as worthless? It’s just with the communications that we have today we know about everything before it happens. I see countries not being very good neighbours to other people, but it’s always been this way. Have you heard of the Holocaust? It doesn’t get any worse than that, and I don’t see any of that going on right now. Each generation seems to want to think that they’re growing up in the end times, but of course it’s not. I can tell you that it’s not “hooray”, though.Īre you afraid of what might happen with him at the helm? I’ve met this guy numerous times and I really don’t know quite what to make of him yet. If George W Bush was, in your words, “a rodeo clown”, what does that make Donald J Trump?

John mellencamp hits