Musician, singer-songwriter, painter, activist and actor John J. Mellencamp is 65 today. Wish I had been able to spend some time on a better writeup for JCM but I haven't been feeling well and just didn't have the energy to do so. JCM has been one of the prominent musical artists for me since the early 80s, and I own many of his albums. He's kinda rock, kinda country, kinda pop, kinda not, and his main influences bear that out -  Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, James Brown and the Rolling Stones. He was another of the few non-metal 80s artists to stand the test of time for me. 

Rolling Stone said of him: "Mellencamp has created an important body of work that has earned him both critical regard and an enormous audience. His songs document the joys and struggles of ordinary people seeking to make their way, and he has consistently brought the fresh air of common experience to the typically glamour-addled world of popular music."

He's been all over the world, dated and married supermodels and actresses, but still has a home in southern Indiana. And he hated the name John Cougar. Happy birthday, John.