John Mellencamp's career in music has spanned more than 35 years, during which time he transitioned from pre-fab pop idol to one of the most highly-regarded mature songwriters of a generation.

Mellencamp fell in love with music at an early age and was fronting a soul band in his native Indiana by the time he was 14. He would go on to release 26 albums with domestic sales exceeding 40 million copies. He has been nominated for 13 Grammy awards, was recipient of Billboard's Century Award, ASCAP Foundation's Champion Award, The Woody Guthrie Award, Q's Classic Songwriter Award and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Mellencamp has amassed 22 Top 40 hits and holds the record for the most tracks by a solo artist to hit Number 1 on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks Chart. The social activism that is reflected in his songs was one of the key catalysts that launched Farm Aid, the concert series and organization that has addressed the struggle of American family farmers for more than 25 years. The unique instrumentation of his band and overall approach is widely credited with being the forbear of the Americana/No Depression genre of rural-inflected music.

Mellencamp is an accomplished painter whose work has been the focus of several one-man gallery exhibitions as well as a joint showing with Miles Davis. He has been working, in collaboration with Stephen King, on a play entitled Ghost Brothers of Darkland County that will be directed for the stage by Liv Ulmann.

On break days during his 2009 national tour with Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson, Mellencamp recorded No Better Than This, the upcoming album that will be released on August 17th by Rounder Records. The sessions took place at the First African Baptist Church in Savannah, GA; Sun Studios in Memphis; and in the same San Antonio hotel room where Robert Johnson recorded in 1936, all utilizing just one microphone and recorded on a vintage mono tape recorder with T-Bone Burnett producing.

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