Born 75 Years Ago Today In Indiana, He Turned His Small-Town Roots Into A String Of '80s Hits

John Mellencamp has built a reputation for making no-frills, no-nonsense music that relates to everyday people who don't live a shiny, glitzy lifestyle, while pulling from his upbringing in Seymour, Indiana, for inspiration. Today, Wednesday, October 7, the gifted singer-songwriter turns 75 years old, so to mark the occasion, we took a quick peek into his formative years, as well as the incredible chart success he achieved in the 1980s.

To start, Mellencamp holds the record for the most No. 1 Top 40 hits as a solo artist on Billboard's Hot Mainstream Rock chart with 22 in total, and during the 1980s, he put 16 songs on the Billboard Top 40, including his best-charting song "Jack & Diane," which stayed at No. 1 for four weeks in '82. But his success can't only be measured by his music accomplishments, as Mellencamp has done a tremendous amount to help others as well. In 1985, he started Farm Aid with Neil Young and Willie Nelson, the yearly music festival that's raised over $90 million to help American farmers. Along with artists like Bruce Springsteen, John Fogerty, and Bob Seger, Mellencamp has solidified his position as one of the greatest roots rockers of our time, which is another reason to celebrate him.

While most 12-year-olds were still years away from finding their lifelong passion, John Mellencamp was already playing in bands, and by age 14, he formed a band called Crepe Soul. His father, Richard Mellencamp, known as a tough disciplinarian, nudged him towards sports, but thankfully for music fans, he opted for a guitar instead of a baseball bat. Mellencamp then taught himself how to play after picking up his brother Joe's guitar after Joe no longer wanted to play. The singer also paid attention to the people around him – to the ins, outs, triumphs, and struggles of daily life, which helped his songwriting tremendously down the road.

Mellencamp's life then took a major turn after his girlfriend Priscilla Esterline became pregnant when he was 18 years old, and the two eloped. That caused a major rift between Mellencamp and his father. In fact, he told Bill Maher (via YouTube) that his dad cut him off financially and refused to pay for college. So, with a child and not much money, Mellencamp headed to New York to scout out whether he'd have better chances in music or art. 

"I went to New York on a dual mission. I wanted to see how much it cost to go to the New York Art Student League ... and I had a demo tape," he once told CBS News. "I was 20, maybe 21, and it turned out that the New York Art Student League wanted money, but the record company wanted to give me money ... To a 21-year-old guy. Well, they're ready to give me money. Of course, when I got my first record deal, I didn't even have a guitar."

After being signed by the label MCA, John Mellencamp released his first album, "Chestnut Street Incident," in 1976 under the name Johnny Cougar. The album sold poorly and his label dropped him, but Mellencamp soon signed a deal with Riva Records and released the LP "A Biography" in 1978, which gave him his first hit with the song "I Need a Lover,"  a cut that peaked at No. 28 in 1979 on Billboard's Hot 100.

Mellencamp's career would then really prosper in 1982 after releasing his "American Fool" album, scoring major hits with "Hurts So Good" and "Jack & Diane." The album spent nine weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, but the chart success was far from over, as his 1983 album "Uh-huh" delivered hits "Pink Houses," "Crumblin' Down," and "Authority Song." 1985's LP "Scarecrow" peaked at No. 2, and included bangers like the No. 2 hit "R.O.C.K. In the U.S.A. (A Salute to '60s Rock)," a No. 21 hit, "Rain On the Scarecrow," and No. 6 hits "Lonely Ol' Night" and "Small Town." In '87 Mellencamp had a Top 10 hit with "Paper and Fire," and he continued to have hits into the '90s.

But despite the success, Mellencamp never embraced the rock star image or mentality, not even when "American Fool" first took off. "I've learned that all the money in the world doesn't make you happy," he told news anchor Jack Cafferty in 1982, which was later shared on a Mellencamp YouTube page. "...The whole thing of being in the music business, I think, is to find out who you are and to be happy with your job, which is the same if you're a carpenter or a bricklayer or whatever you're doing."