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After 41 Years, Farm Aid Founder Mellencamp Still Lets It Rock
His Farm Aid Festival 2026 Set Was His Latest Greatest Hits Sing-Along
A native of the southern Indiana city of Seymour, John Mellencamp has lived as small-town "heartland rock" populist since the early 1980s (when he emerged as John Cougar, a monicker slapped on him by his agent).
Mellencamp has always worn his sympathies for working class Middle Americans on his sleeve. He already had big hits with socially edgy songs such as Pink Houses, Jack and Diane, Crumblin' Down and Authority Song when, in 1985, he released Rain on the Scarecrow, a song designed to draw attention to the devastation being wreaked on family farmers (included many from his home area) by the economic crisis of the 1980s.
A few months later, he joined Willie Nelson and Neil Young in launching Farm Aid. And on September 26, he took the stage, once again, during the 2026 Farm Aid Festival concert at Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
If his many fans in the crowd of 20,000 were looking for the rough-edged image he has cultivated for decades, they weren't disappointed. He came on stage wearing a plain white t-shirt and with a cigarette in his mouth, standing apart from his band to play his opening riffs.
Yet none of the Farm Aid performers interact with the audience more. His sets are mass sing-alongs to several of his greatest hits.
As he sang in his signature hit Jack and Diana, he let it rock and let it roll.
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