Featuring Three Collaborations with Bruce Springsteen!

John Mellencamp’s twenty-fifth studio album Strictly A One-Eyed Jack features three collaborations with Bruce Springsteen including the previously released duet “Wasted Days” which was heralded by critics with NPR Music describing the song as “an implicit message about making the most of the years, months and minutes we’ve got left.” The 12-track collection was written and produced by Mellencamp, recorded at his Belmont Mall Studios in Indiana, and recorded/mixed by Grammy-Award winner David Leonard. It features a number of longtime band members including Andy York, Dane Clark, Mike Wanchic, Troye Kinnett, and more. 

“I would consider Bruce now, one of my better friends in the music business. Bruce and I talk quite a bit,” Mellencamp told SiriusXM’s E Street Radio. “I think he and I relate to each other because we’ve had similar experiences of growing up in a small town. Starting out, big band leaders…He’s like my big brother now.” 

The unique instrumentation of John’s band and his poignant songs about everyday life in the American heartland are widely credited with being the forbearer of the Americana/No Depression genre of rural-inflected music. Mellencamp continues his journey as the walking embodiment of heartland rock: passionate, plain-spoken and a self-proclaimed rebel.