Two pivotal moments changed John Mellencamp’s rockstar lifestyle: His ex-wife and a heart attack.
Mellencamp, 70, recently opened up about a heart attack he suffered at age 42. The health scare occurred in 1994.
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“I had lots of doctors going, ‘John, your cholesterol’s way too high and you smoke.’ I’d go, ‘F**k it,'” Mellencamp tells People. “I learned my lesson after I had a heart attack.”
“There comes a time when you got to go, ‘Okay, I’m done with this s***,'” Mellencamp said. “It’s funny and attractive to be 25-years-old and be someplace high and drunk. But when you get to a certain age, it’s not funny anymore. It’s not cute, not sexy. Nothing good about it.”
His ex-wife Elaine Irwin sparked a meaningful change in Mellencamp.
“Elaine came out on tour with me [early on] and looked at what was going on,” he said. “She goes, ‘This is not going to go on anymore. No more [random] people backstage.’ I said to her, ‘Why? I thought we were having fun.’
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“And she goes, ‘Yeah, if you’re 15. But you’re not 15 anymore. You’re married to me, so there’s nobody backstage.’ I said, ‘You go tell the band,’ and she did. There’s not been anybody — no girls or hangers-on — backstage at my shows since then. Her advice was good.”
Mellencamp is preparing for the release of his new album, Strictly a One-Eyed Jack, which is scheduled to release on Jan. 21.
