John Mellencamp Quotes

I get angry if I do things wrong, but that's what keeps me going. I want to do my best.

Most people get into bands for three very simple rock and roll reasons: to get laid, to get fame, and to get rich.

I don't know how much money I've made, don't know how many albums I've sold.

I had a period when I was sixteen where I started to get a big head. I was going through puberty, and I was nominated for an Academy Award. My head got inflated. My friends were the real ones who said, 'You're acting different.' But the truth is that I don't need that, because I don't get out of hand.

I don't sit around going, 'What is the matter with me? What do I have to do to get a hit?' And I don't also sit home and listen to my record every day and get drunk and go, 'Wow, this is great.'

I'm not heart-broken if I don't have a hit. But I guess a hit would help. It makes the money go up a bit.

Phil Collins sold five times as many records as I did. Does that make him nearly as influential as I am? Nope.

I've always been a person who thinks it's really important to better themselves.

You know, I didn't have enough money to quit my day job... the myth of the major label deal. Nowadays, you have a tour bus and a stylist and all this stuff. But back then, no way.

Jon Stewart is exactly the same guy he's always been, only with money. He knows that the moment he really believes he's important, the funny goes away and he becomes Bill O'Reilly, except shorter and Jewish.

I don't make money on the road, and so there's less and less incentive for me to do it when I don't have that adolescent desire for whatever it is, glory or fame.

I was very blessed with 'N Sync. It was a big success and it was a lot of fun.

In terms of achievement, the pride is very important to me. It keeps me going every day. The money is always second to me.

Anybody in the spotlight can get lost in that if they are not careful.

If the Eagles were to get back together, it would have to be for the right reasons. I think it would look awful if it were just for the money.

Winning isn't getting ahead of others. It's getting ahead of yourself.

The only thing I find interesting is self-interest.

I think I've done a pretty fantastic job, but of course I want to sell millions of records.

I once had a dream and this one familiar god, who was probably one of my master teachers, said, 'You should not worry about being on the charts. That's not important.'

Even though the popularity and the fanbase is much much greater, and more people have heard about me through things like the Grammys and the Ivors and touring and word of mouth, it doesn't reflect in the sales of the record and doesn't go into my pocket.

As a teenager, rather than setting myself on a course to pursue fame (quite common growing up in L.A., the entertainment capital of the world), happiness, fulfillment, and spiritual enlightenment (also quite common), I skipped right on to trying to be successful. 'Let's just get on with it,' I felt. 'Onward' became my motto.

Selling eight million copies of your first album will mess you up.

I guess if you're a normal person and all of a sudden you're getting $10 million a year, it can go to your head.

Even actresses that you really admire, like Reese Witherspoon, you think, 'Another romantic comedy?' You see her in something like 'Walk the Line' and think, 'God, you're so great!' And then you think, 'Why is she doing these stupid romantic comedies?' But of course, it's for money and status.

That's why I never took this business too seriously, thinking I was something special, when I knew the truly great performers in motion pictures. pictures.