Mellencamp's New Blues

Mellencamp mined some of the same territory on last January's Freedom's Road, but all of the attention went to "Our Country," the "This Land Is Your Land"-style tune he sold to Chevrolet for a TV ad. It got more airplay than he ever expected: "That Chevy ad killed Freedom's Road," he says. But he's not apologizing. "I don't think people like the idea that I did that. But you know what? I've done so many things in my career people didn't like. If I thought it was the end of the line every time I did somethin' that people didn't like, hell, I'd been done with Johnny Cougar."

With its rich, gothic-Americana sound, shaped by the impeccably tasteful roots-music producer T Bone Burnett, Life, Death, Love and Freedom is an "adult record," as Mellencamp sees it, marking the end of his hitmaking days and the beginning of something new. "I'm trying to live up to, you know, what a guy my age should be doing," he says. "I'm trying not to look silly. You know, it's like people say, 'Hey, you're a rock star, man.' And I don't see myself that way anymore. I'm just, like, a journeyman electrician or something."

Mellencamp's house overlooks Lake Monroe, massive, pristine and blue; the property encompasses a good chunk of what used to be Paynetown, a village flooded by the government to create the state's largest man-made body of water. Mellencamp and his former-supermodel wife, Elaine ("the prettiest girl in the world," in his estimation — which objectively speaking is not far off), built the house from scratch a decade ago: It's a tasteful, Italianate mansion with a single turret. Inside, it's all high ceilings, dark-wood floors and eclectic art on the walls. After driving up a long and twisting driveway in his 1956 Chevy 150 station wagon (no air bags, seat belts unused), Mellencamp looks up at his home like he still can't believe it's his. "Not bad, right?" he says. "Talk about a house."

We're sitting at a picnic table in the decked-out pool area behind the house — which offers a lakeside view so spectacular that T Bone Burnett compared it to the Bavarian Alps — when Elaine comes home with their two kids, Hud, 14, and Speck, 13. Hud (named after Paul Newman's reckless man-child character in the 1963 movie) is a junior champion boxer — in his last fight, he broke his opponent's nose in the first 30 seconds of the match. "That kid over there is one tough fuckin' guy," Mellencamp says. "But the first time I saw him fight, I didn't like it — after it was over, I pulled him aside and said, 'Hey, you don't have to fuckin' do this, 'cause this is serious stuff.' " Longhaired Speck is a musician who played guitar with his dad when Mellencamp was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this year: "I learned to play 'Whole Lotta Love' today, Dad," he says.

Speck has other news: He and Hud just went to the doctor, who informed them that they'll both end up being over six feet tall — unlike their dad, who's five-feet-seven on a good day. "Who said that — the doctor?" Mellencamp says, not hiding his delight in this revelation.

"What the fuck does he know?"

Elaine, who is five-feet-eleven, looks at her husband, big blue eyes glittering: "You probably would have been six-feet-four if you hadn't started smoking," she says.

"I know!" John says, as his kids smile.

"I'm the littlest guy in my family."