“I have this opportunity to go out and be in the party again. You know, where you play for a lot of people, and you play all your old hit songs, and I quit doing that 17 years ago,” John Mellencamp tells his old pal Sean Penn in a video advertisement set in a vintage diner called Jack’s.
Naturally all of the waitresses have name tags that say Diane. The two men are sitting in a booth.
Penn chiding his friend says, “I mean, God forbid you become generous with your hits and all the soundtrack of people’s lives. I can’t imagine you want to do that. Maybe actually let yourself enjoy it. Just ’cause their hits don’t mean they’re not great songs, baby.”
And who can blame him? In the mid-’70s he would travel to New York City trying to break into the business and after meeting Tony DeFries, the British manager who had helped David Bowie’s rise, Mellencamp was signed but told to change his name to Johnny Cougar.
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