The Josh Innes Show - John Mellencamp..Super Tool

Episode Date: May 30, 2025

John Mellencamp, creator of solid classic rock bangers, is one of the great tools of this or any era. He is a fan of the Indiana Pacers and he's not pleased with Pat McAfee. 2025 Celebrities are truly the least likable humans. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I think the John Mellencamp, Pat McAfee, Knicks fans story is my favorite story of the last couple days. If you don't know the story, John Mellencamp had to issue an apology on behalf of Indiana towards the Knicks celebrity fans who were at game four of the Eastern Conference finals in Indianapolis because Pat McAfee was given a microphone and he went in and in wrestling par lands quote cut a promo on the Knicks and that was his job in that instance to get the people hyped up. He's a wrestling guy and he was trying to get the fans all revved up and ready to go. So in the bit he steps up and he like points it, you know all these big celebrities that were you know in Indianapolis for it. Spike Lee, Timothy Chalamet, Ben

Stiller you know there's been history between the Knicks and Spike Lee and the Pacers so like it's fun shit and at the end of it he says let's send these sons of bitches back home with their ears ringing the crowd goes nuts the players on the bench are laughing having a good good time. It was a cool freaking moment. And for whatever reason, Pat McAfee always finds himself like the lightning rod for this kind of shit. One celebrity who was in attendance that was not pleased with it and was embarrassed and had to release a statement about how embarrassed he was was John Mellencamp, formerly Johnny Cougar, formerly John Cougar Mellencamp, but currently John Mellencamp,

who is a well-known Indianon, a Hoosier as it were. And of course, he was born in a small town and little pink houses and all that other shit and Cherry Bomb and I fight Authority and Authority always wins. Although I feel like he'd be a big fan of Authority now. He like really comes off cuckish all the time. But so John Mellencamp was very embarrassed and not happy about that and released a statement. I was embarrassed when somebody under whose direction I don't know called out some of the people who made the trip from New York to support their team and in turn support our team. The audience booed these people. I'd say that was not Hoosier hospitality. One could only say it's poor, poor sportsmanship. I was not proud to be a Hoosier and I've lived here

my entire life on behalf of most Hoosiers. I would like to apologize for our poor behavior. I'm sure the Pacers had nothing to do with this Smackdown. Brother, it's fucking sports. What are we doing here, you pud? Let's play a couple commercials and we'll talk about it. It won't take long to tell you Neutral's ingredients. Vodka. Soda. Natural flavors. ingredients vodka soda natural flavors so what should we talk about no sugar added neutral refreshingly simple. Yes, so what we're dealing with here is someone who has zero sense of humor, right?

Like the second I heard Pat McAfee do that, I'm like, okay, this is probably not going to go well publicly, and he told these sons of bitches to be sent back with their ears ringing and blah blah blah and um he's a lightning rod for criticism for whatever reason people just really like he's the guy he is the poster child for criticism for whatever reason but John Mellencamp clearly has no concept of like what sports fandom is because like like brother like of all, let's start here with John Mellencamp. I have not that I've heard a billion stories about John Mellencamp on a personal level, but the stories I've heard about John Mellencamp from people I know who've interacted with John Mellencamp or who have interacted with people who've interacted with John Mellencamp,

every story I've heard is just negative. Like the guy's a fucking lunatic. Which is fascinating because he built this whole brand on being like, kind of like country, like middle America, Springsteen, and I was born in a small town and little pink houses and wild night, and one of my favorites. But look, I'm not criticizing the music. That's the thing is this motherfucker puts out bangers.

Like the reality of John Mellencamp is John Mellencamp's catalog is great. That's when a smoke was a smoke. Groovin' when groovin' like he's got some jam. That paper and fire. And of course my favorite, not even done with the night or ain't even done with the night. So the music of John Mellencamp is very good. But everything about John

Mellencamp is just unlikable, unrelatable dickhead yells at his audience all the time, like multiple times since I've gotten into classic rock radio. And I only did classic rock from 2001 to 2004. So I did it for a little over, what was that, three years I guess I've done Classic Rock Radio. Multiple times there have been stories about John Mellencamp berating his audience and at one point stopped the show and left because somebody in the audience pissed him off. He's totally unrelatable, he's not a likable guy and what happened is he probably has some sort of weird inferiority complex to these big city New York.

Maybe, again, I'm trying to play armchair Freud here, but maybe he's got an issue with like, you know, he's trying to be the cool guy with all of his big city New York buddies like Spike Lee and all these other guys. So now that you've offended his liberal friends, now you've gone too far Pat McAfee. You've offended his liberal buddies, his liberal Biden bros, and now he's pissed off about it and he feels the need to issue some sort of statement to the point that he issued it officially like on like he made a graphic and everything. Didn't just tweet, I'm embarrassed. He had a fucking graphic. God, I think they should bring Pat back for game six and do it all over again. Have some fucking balls about you. Of course, that'll probably never happen again, but it's just sad. Like, I think

Pat's got very douchey qualities about him, but I think big picture, he's seemingly a nice dude who's built a nice world for himself and he's having fun. He's living the fucking dream. He's in his mid to late 30s going to the games. He represents Indianapolis. I'd say he represents Indianapolis in the state of Indiana better than John Mellencamp who constantly just looks like an asshole. Every story I've ever heard is that he is an asshole and I'm not just talking about shit you

read on the internet. I'm talking about people I know who've been in radio and other things that have encountered Mellencamp and said he's a jerk off. And for me, and here's what I've learned in doing classic rock radio, is that many, many of these guys, these older rock dudes, are unlikable people.

And you're saddened when you find it out. Like John Mellencamp, if you just like think about eighties John Mellencamp, you're like, hey, this dude might be pretty cool. Seemingly, he's not. Bruce Springsteen seems to be one of the most insufferable people. Now, granted, I have an unfair disdain for Springsteen because in my history in sports radio, all of these fucking sports radio guys love Bruce

Springsteen. And I'm like, I don't get it. I don't think the music's very good. He's got a couple of good songs. I don't really give a shit about Springsteen. He seems like again phony every man wannabe guy who lives in a mansion. A couple years ago I read the writer for his shows and I'm like like how much do you really need to put on like the shit that's in a writer if you don't know what a writer is a writer is like the shit that has to be at the arena for the performer before I'll even go on you know like the old joke about you know you need like 500 brown M&Ms or Ozzy wouldn't go on stage that night and there was the story about I think Van Halen was the one that did the brown M&Ms but anyway so it's like the kind of shit you need like well we want

to make sure we got two bottles of Jack Daniels and two 30 packs of Bush light and whatever. This dude's writer was just like my wife needs the most recent copies of Elle magazine and I don't know that Elle magazine is a thing but you know the most recent copies of blank blank blank magazines I need to make sure there are these types of couches these types of chairs I need fish I need all this shit and it's like I understand that like being a celebrity and being a performer opens you up to being able to get certain things and I'm cool with that. Like you're about to perform for 30,000 people or whatever the number is and you're getting paid a shitload of money you might as well be comfortable before you do it but some of the shit is so ridiculous and you're like how

how with a straight face can you ask for this shit? Like we're asking for that kind of shit is an example of someone who asks for that kind of shit because they, asking for that kind of shit is an example of someone who asks for that kind of shit because they can ask for that kind of shit and to me that makes you an asshole. And it's one thing if you do it early in your career when you first become famous and it's like, wow, you mean I can have caviar? Cool. When you're like 75 years old and you're a gabillionaire and you're doing shows at like Madison Square Garden or whatever and you're demanding certain types of fucking water and certain types of fish and certain types of magazines for your fucking wife.

I'm like, dude, fuck off. Like get real. You can't be the kind of people to go out and talk about how sad this country is and how the little man's getting fucked and you're over here like eating expensive fish before you're showing demanding expensive shit and shit that no one fucking needs to perform a concert

but you're asking for it. So you're a dickhead and I think you're a dickhead. I mean, all of the Neil Young seems like a real shit bag. Like all of these guys are super political and just like super unrelatable and unlikable dudes. A lot of dudes in classic rock are like that. They're just old miserable people. And to me, John Mellencamp is one of the most unlikable dudes. Like I just,

he and and Springsteen are just unlikable. And I was ahead of the curve on the hating Springsteen well before it became trendy with Trump. This is not a Trump thing. This is not me aligning myself with Trump because I don't care about any of that. I've just care about any of that. I've just never liked Springsteen. Here's a Buzzfeed article. 13 celebs the internet would protect at all cost and 13 they'd throw to the wolves without

hesitation. Well let's see who those are. Because I can tell you who mine is. I'm protecting Sammy Hagar because he seems like a cool as fuck dude and for the most part the other classic rock dudes can all kick rocks and I'm still a sucker for Tom Hanks for whatever reason I think he's a likable guy I like him but a lot of guys are not likable a lot of ladies are not likable they're unrelatable people let's see hated Drake falls into that category loved Dolly Dolly Parton. Fun fact, I hate Dolly Parton.

And I think it's because the whole world seems to love her. Nobody really knows why they love her. And Dolly for president, like you guys like her because she's an old lady, seems like a nice person that has gigantic fake tits and every part of her is fake. Like I just, I don't get it. I know this is like a negative thing and people are like how the fuck can you not like Dolly? I just don't. Sue me. Let's see. Hated JoJo Siwa. Well, she's easy to hate because she's clearly in that weird stage of her life where she doesn't know what the fuck she is. Not that I pay a ton of attention to her, but like some minutes she'll look very weird. Then she'll look kind

of normal. Kind of like Demi Lovato who by the way Demi Lovato got married recently and looks normal again. There was that stretch where she looked like a lumberjack or she actually looked like she wasn't the singer, but she was a roadie and she wasn't a roadie for like a fun young band. She was like a roadie for like Blue Oyster Cult. Let's see, loved Zendaya. I have nothing for Oregon Zendaya. Hated Rachel Zegler.

Well, she is. She's the lady from the Snow White film. Yeah, people don't like her. Let's see. Loved Brendan Fraser. Brendan Fraser is a guy who's forever loved. That's a solid one. I would agree with that. Just nobody dislikes Brendan Fraser. Hated Taylor Swift. Loved Keanu Reeves. People love him. Jilly wants to have a John Wick watch party because we've never watched any John Wick films and I keep seeing the promo for Ballerina with that hot gal that inexplicably played Marilyn Monroe in that movie but Ballerina is the name of that movie not the movie she played Marilyn Monroe the one she played Marilyn

Monroe was blonde was that what it was called like Marilyn Monroe did not have that accent this This doesn't make any fucking sense. Hated Steven Seagal. Well, haters gonna hate, now aren't they? Loved Julie Andrews. Who even knew Julie Andrews was still alive? Hated Kanye West. That's fair. Loved Jack Black. I agree. I think there's been a turn on Jack Black because Jack Black used to be a guy that people fucking hated, but I think somewhere along the line he's become a guy that people really love and I'm all for that. They should love him because I love Jack Black.

Hated Ellen. Yeah, they do hate Ellen but she was not nice to people apparently. Loved Paul Rudd. Paul Rudd is another guy that people never really seem to turn on. James Corden. See, that's the thing about James Corden. It says he's hated. The thing about James Corden is that James Corden seemed like's the thing about James Corden. It says he's hated think about James Corden

Is that James Corden seemed like a fake nice guy and people eventually turn on fake nice guys And that was James Corden who just seemed like a fake nice guy And said Ellen seemed like a fake nice person and as it turns out she was a fake nice person Loved Pedro Pascal they love him because they see him in those damn gifts with the make your own kind of music Hated Jennifer Lopez. I don't want to go down this entire list of these loved and hated people either like listen, I don't like John cougar melon camp John melon camp. He seems like a giant asshole I've seen him stop multiple shows and videos because the crowd annoyed him and he just left. And then like he does that thing where he's like, oh, this guy wants to do this. So well, I guess you guys don't get a fucking show now, do you? Like I've never like I

there's been fair criticism of me that like, I'm, you know, a guy that's resentful of the audience at times and that's fair. I've done that before. This guy truly hates the audience hates the people that buy the tickets to see his show. He is the fucking worst and he obviously has no sense of humor. I hope McAfee comes out there again on Saturday and does the same kind of shit. And then if he had any balls, I want to see Pat McAfee and he won't do this because it's not the kind of dude he is. I don't think. He should do that whole bit again and then we go, we also have John Mellencamp in the building and see what

the reaction is for John Mellencamp and that motherfucker is gonna get booed. God damn it! That would be so fucking good if he does the same bit again. Like here we are again. Here's Timothy Chalamet, Ben Stiller, Spike Lee, boo boo boo. Oh, by the way, John Mellencamp is here and they will boo him and I know they will fucking boo him because Pat McAfee is a thousand times more relatable to people in Indiana than Ivory Tower cocksucking motherfucker John Mellencamp. I'm telling you. Holy shit, that would be amazing if he would do that. But we shall see.