Having long resisted filling his concerts with nothing but his many hits, John Mellencamp will reintroduce numerous old favorites on his Dancing Worlds tour this summer. The trek will begin July 10 in Grand Rapids, Mi., and will visit Indianapolis, just an hour north of Mellencamp’s adopted home base of Bloomington, eight days later.
It was previewed through a video depicting Mellencamp, 74, and friend Sean Penn sitting at a roadside diner whose jukebox just happens to be stocked with nothing but the singer/songwriter’s material (“don’t they have any Bad Bunny? Lee Greenwood?,” Mellencamp wonders). In it, the artist wrestles with whether to dust off songs from his back catalog, which he says he stopped doing “17 years ago.”
Penn then quips, “God forbid you’d become generous with your hits and all the soundtrack of peoples’ lives. I can’t imagine you’d want to do that [or] maybe let yourself enjoy it.” The pair are promptly admonished for smoking indoors before the restaurant’s staff and patrons begin singing an impromptu version of Mellencamp’s 1982 favorite “Jack and Diane.”
Per his rep, the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and Farm Aid co-founder will perform songs such as “R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.,” “I Need a Lover,” “Wild Night” and “Ain’t Even Done With the Night” for the first time in more than 10 years on Dancing Worlds. Tickets go on sale Jan. 23.
Here are John Mellencamp’s tour dates:
July 10—Grand Rapids, MI—Acrisure Amphitheater
July 11—Tinley Park, IL—Credit Union 1 Amphitheatre
July 13—Kansas City, MO—Morton Amphitheater
July 14—Shakopee, MN—Mystic Lake Amphitheater
July 16—Clarkston, MI—Pine Knob Music Theatre
July 18—Noblesville, IN—Ruoff Music Center
July 19—Cincinnati, OH—Riverbend Music Center
July 21—Cuyahoga Falls, OH—Blossom Music Center
July 24—Mansfield, MA—Xfinity Center
July 25—Holmdel, NJ—PNC Bank Arts Center
July 26—Wantagh, NY—Northwell at Jones Beach Theater
July 29—Bristow, VA—Jiffy Lube Live
July 30—Charlotte, NC—Truliant Amphitheater
August 1—Alpharetta, GA—Ameris Bank Amphitheatre
August 3—Tampa, FL—MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre
August 6—Houston, TX—The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion|
August 9—Phoenix, AZ—Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre
August 10—Hollywood, CA—Hollywood Bowl
August 12—Mountain View, CA—Shoreline Amphitheatre
