A duet with John Mellencamp and Johnny Cash? Sounds like a great idea, doesn't it? However, like many seemingly wonderful plans, it did not work out too well in actuality. In fact, Mellencamp, 74, remembers the debacle to this day. He still finds it cringey. When Mellencamp was a guest on The Joe Rogan Experience on January 14, the singer talked candidly about what went so terribly wrong.
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The Two Were Performing Together in 1995
The occasion was an event associated with the grand opening of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. A bunch of A-listers from the music world were on hand, such as Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, and Bruce Springsteen. One of the highlights was to be the Cash-Mellencamp duet.
Unfortunately, as John Mellencamp told Joe Rogan, they got off to a rocky start. The Eagles were taking so long for their soundcheck that everything was running 40 minutes late. Cash was evidently fuming.
Mellencamp Said Skip the Soundcheck
Mellencamp said he realized that the "I Walk The Line" singer was already feeling grumpy. They would only be doing one track, "Ring Of Fire", so Mellencamp said skip the soundcheck. That turned out to be a huge mistake.
Right off the bat, when their performance began, Mellencamp was thrown off guard. The result was, in his opinion, disastrous. "He started the song. 'I fell into...' I didn't realize that he had changed the [expletive] key from him smoking to a lower key. So I couldn't hit the note. I couldn't find a [expletive] note because it was not the note the song was written in."
He Raced off the Stage in Embarrassment
The singer could not get off the stage fast enough, he said to Joe Rogan, his faux pas in front of music royalty left him deflated and ashamed. "As soon as the song was over, I ran off stage. I was totally humiliated. So, I ran off stage and got to my trailer. I just get back there and all of a sudden, knock on the door and I answer and it's John. He said, 'Can I come in?' And I go, 'I don't know why you'd want to, but yeah, come on in.' He goes, 'I told you we should have soundchecked.'"
