I wanted to sound like, you know, Louis Armstrong. 'Are you kidding me? Have you ever heard my voice, honey? It's fantastic! Are you kidding me? I sound like a black guy singing now.' Don't you? Or is it just getting better and better?' He's been smoking, by the way, most of his life - since he was 10.Īs he looked for another cigarette, Pauley noted, 'You have a voice to protect. The singer-songwriter credits cigarettes with giving him a voice like Louis Armstrong. He has five children, and nine grandkids. He's been linked in recent years to perennial cover girl Christie Brinkley and actress Meg Ryan – and before them, three wives. Apparently, women just don't like me very much. 'What is the greatest lesson you've learned from the women in your life?' It's an acknowledged fact that relationships have been a struggle. If John Mellencamp sounds like one self-assured son-of-a-gun, she is the reason why: 'Here's the trick, if you want a kid that has confidence: my grandmother told me every day of my life, 'Buddy, don't forget: you're the handsomest, luckiest, talented boy in the world.' The flip side of that is, it's really hard for girlfriends to compete with that!' he laughed. 'When the Iraq War started, I was so against that.' 'Your fans are probably way, way, way on the spectrum to the right of you,' said Pauley. Pays for thrills, the bills, the pills that kill 'Pink Houses,' for instance, is not a red-white-and-blue anthem:

John mellencamp hometown