John Mellencamp's Son Starts Facebook Group to Convince Dad to Stop Smoking

John Mellencamp's son Speck has taken to Facebook in an effort to convince his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame father to quit smoking. "I made a deal with my dad that if I get a 1,000,000 to join this group he will quit smoking," Speck writes on the Facebook group page. That means it'll only take a platinum plaque's worth of fellow Facebookers to get Mellencamp to ditch the nicotine and live a healthier lifestyle. It's been written that Mellencamp used to smoke four packs a day, and while he's since cut down that number significantly, he remains a smoker to this day.

So far, Speck has only recruited around 13,000 friends and Mellencamp fans to convince Johnny Cougar to stop smoking, but the number continues to leap as this grassroots movement spreads. People are using the group's Wall to post advice on how to quit smoking and lend support for this good cause. So we implore the Rolling Stone readers and all our friends over on our RS Facebook page to join this group today and help Speck get his pops to quit smoking.

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Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

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