NOTE: Originally this article reported what was being posted on X, which is that Mellencamp was booed off the stage because he was talking about Biden. However, as the article has now been edited to reflect, he was actually speaking about his grandmother when rudely interrupted by the audience, not ranting about his political views. This article and its title have been edited to reflect the truth of the matter. Further, Mellencamp reportedly did not end the concert, as he eventually came back on stage.
In an absolutely wild performance, singer John Mellencamp paused his concert to deliver a pro-Biden message and then, when the audience booed and made clear its preference for his music over his lecuture, called an early halt to the concert and stormed off stage after teasing the audience with “Jack and Diane,” much to the audience’s annoyance.
In the video of the incident that emerged and quickly went viral on X (formerly Twitter), Mellencamp can be seen arguing with a member of the audience, who shouted “Just play some music” as he spoke. Mellencamp responded by saying “you don’t know me” and “you don’t f***ing know me” as the audience booed, with the booing having been provoked by the pro-Biden lecture he delivered in the middle of the concert.
Obviously annoyed, he then tells the audience that he’s going to cut 10 songs off of the concert because of the audience’s behavior. “Since you’ve been so wonderful, I’m gonna cut about 10 songs out of the show,” he said. “Guys, I can stop this show right now and just go home,” he had said in the segment of the video right before that.
Evidently, that’s what he decided to do, as he then began to start singing his hit song “Jack and Diane,” but, just moments into it, he stopped singing and said, “You know what, show’s over.” Then, without another word, he turned around and stormed off stage.
The incident soon took off on X, with X personality Amiri King posting, “Biden supporter John Cougar Mellencamp throws a tantrum and storms off stage after he learns his audience doesn’t want to be politically lectured and would rather get what they paid for.” That post had garnered over a million impressions at the time this article was written.
Citizen Free Press, posting the same video, captioned it by saying, “John Mellencamp storms off stage after promoting Biden. The audience didn’t want to hear his political opinions. Maybe Cougar left to suck on a chili dog.”
However, it later emerged that Mellencamp was not talking about Biden, but rather talking about his grandmother. Posting on X about that, Jimmy Goodson said, “There is a lie circulating that @johnmellencamp stormed off stage due to crowd reaction because he was praising Biden. It is a lie. Here is the full incident. John Mellencamp was talking about a conversation with his dying grandmother. It had NOTHING to do with Biden.”
Watch the video here:
According to The Daily Wire, the concert did not end after Mellencamp walked off the stage partway through the hit song. That outlet reported, “The band and singer did eventually return to the stage and finish the show.”
Before it came out that Mellencamp was speaking about his grandmother, not Biden, one commenter joked, “Old and irrelevant man yells at crowd, remember folks the musicians you listen to actually hate you. Don’t support them just steal their music on YouTube with an ad blocker.” And another said, “I think he did the audience a favor by stopping. He sounded horrible. I’ve heard dog howling better than that.”
One other commenter wrote that they would never go to a Mellencamp concert because of the incident, saying, “After seeing the behavior of that singer John Mellencamp, I never plan to go see his concerts. I don’t want a political sermon when I’m paying to see a music concert.”
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