John Mellencamp spends an awful lot of time alone, painting. Not long ago, he went 35 days without leaving his Indiana compound, a stretch so lengthy that his 85-year-old dad told him he was worried. But whether he wants them or not, songs still come to him, as his strong, country-inflected new album,
This article originally appeared on www.rollingstone.com: John Mellencamp Talks Bob Dylan, Stephen King, Touring With the Kinks