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    • Sculpture by John Mellencamp unveiled at Indiana University Bloomington
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    Sculpture by John Mellencamp unveiled at Indiana University Bloomington

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    Rock star and singer-songwriter John Mellencamp is the latest Hoosier legend to be memorialized in bronze on Indiana University’s flagship campus.

    Several hundred people gathered outside the IU Auditorium Friday afternoon to see the sculpture unveiled. The piece, created by Indianapolis-based artist Michael McAuley, features Mellencamp playing his guitar, with his right arm extended triumphantly in the air. It is McAuley’s third sculpture on display on the Bloomington campus; he also created the sculpture of composer Hoagy Carmichael that stands outside the Auditorium, and the likeness of Nobel Prize-winning social scientist and former professor Elinor Ostrom that stands outside Woodburn Hall.

    The 73-year-old rocker, who lives in Bloomington, has been a force in the genre for decades, with hits including “Hurts So Good,” “Pink Houses,” “Small Town,” “Jack & Diane” and “ROCK.” in the US” He is a Grammy winner, a member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame and, alongside icons Neil Young and Willie Nelson, a founding member of Farm Aid. Mellencamp is also an experienced artist whose paintings are the subject of an exhibition currently on view at the university’s Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art.

    Read more: This Indy sculptor seeks to capture “the spirit within.” His latest subject: John Mellencamp.

    Several university officials, including J T. Forbes, president and CEO of the IU Foundation, and university president Pamela Whitten, were on hand to celebrate the occasion.

    “John Mellencamp’s work, both on stage and in his advocacy for farmers during the late 20th century Depression, made my family feel seen and supported in difficult times,” Forbes said. Forbes said he delivered his words “in gratitude for his contributions as a songwriter, storyteller, painter, poet and activist, especially to those who understand the struggle of family farming and the dignity it brings to rural life in America. “

    Anthony DeCurtis, an IU alumnus and Rolling Stone contributor, spoke about his decades-long relationship with the rocker. DeCurtis joked that the stars he has interviewed can sometimes be impressed by the writers who interview them — because of their accolades or their byline appearing in prestigious publications — but the one thing Mellencamp found impressive about him was the five years he spent spent in Indiana.

    “We never really talked about it. We didn’t have to. Every time we spoke, I felt a depth to our connection that could have come out of nowhere except my familiarity with the world that created him,” DeCurtis said.

    He continued: “John’s relentless creativity and hard work have elevated him to the level of other superlative artists whose status is inextricably linked to the environments from which they emerged: Woody Guthrie and Oklahoma, Bob Dylan and Greenwich Village, Bruce Springsteen and New Jersey , John Mellencamp and Indiana.

    “That is the legacy that this extraordinary statue honors,” DeCurtis said. “Anyone who comes into contact with it will have the opportunity to experience at least in part the extent to which John’s spirit pervades this university, this city, this entire state.”

    Mellencamp, who said he had not prepared any remarks for the occasion, took the opportunity to reflect on his journey to sculpture status, which included school struggles due to dyslexia and undergoing experimental surgeries as an infant to treat spina bifida – something he didn’t do. understand the full scope of until much later in life.

    “There were a lot of people who helped me through this journey and my lucky break,” he said. “You’re looking at the luckiest man in the world.”

    And then, in typical Mellencamp fashion — because an audience can never quite anticipate what he’ll say once he’s on stage — he called his bandmates and someone passed maracas and a red-and-white accordion onto the stage.

    “This accordion has been in my art studio for 20 years,” he said, noting that it belonged to former bandmate John Cascella, who died in 1992. “So John is kind of here with us too.”

    They played ‘Small Town’, ‘Rain on the Scarecrow’ and ‘Jack & Diane’. Mellencamp’s voice, hoarse and fierce, echoed through the hundreds in attendance.

    When the set ended, Mellencamp waved and thanked the audience.

    Audience members shot back: “We love you, John” and “Thank you YouJohn.”

    John Mellencamp of Indiana University: See the work

    You can find Mellencamp’s sculpture in the IU Auditorium North Garden, 1211 E. 7th St. in Bloomington.

    Those interested can also stop by the Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, 1133 E. 7th St. in Bloomington, to view a collection of Mellencamp’s paintings. “Crossroads: The Paintings of John Mellencamp” is on view through December 15.

    Contact IndyStar pop culture reporter Holly Hays at [email protected]. Follow her on X/Twitter: @hollyvhays.

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