Ruth Eckerd Hall to present John Mellencamp | Diversions

CLEARWATER — John Mellencamp will bring his “Live and In Person 2023” tour to the Tampa Bay area for three performances, running Monday through Wednesday, Feb. 13-15, 8 p.m., at Ruth Eckerd Hall, 1111 McMullen Booth Road, Clearwater. 

Tickets start at $53.25. Call 727-791-7400 or visit www.rutheckerdhall.com.

The tour is set to kick off Feb. 5 at the Indiana University Auditorium in Bloomington, Indiana. It will include multiple nights in New York City, Chicago, Vancouver, Nashville, Clearwater, Minneapolis and more, before concluding with two nights in South Bend, Indiana, on June 23 and 24.

The tour is being presented by AEG Presents and sponsored by Turner Classic Movies. The partnership with TCM is a landmark collaboration and a first for Mellencamp, who has never previously had a tour promotional partner in all his years of performing live. 

Coinciding with the tour announcement, “Legends of Rock: John Mellencamp” opened at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. This new, permanent part of the museum’s expanding Legends of Rock exhibit features artifacts including the suit worn in promotional photos for Mellencamp’s 2003 album “Trouble No More,” his 1976 Fender Telecaster Custom guitar played onstage extensively and the studio tracking chart for “Jack and Diane” from 1981, as well as an oil painting by Mellencamp himself, “Backbone” (2022), reworked from a 1993 self-portrait.

A reissue of Mellencamp’s eighth studio album, “Scarecrow,” was released Nov. 4 on Mercury/UME. The box set includes two CDs of newly remixed and remastered songs plus previously unreleased bonus tracks and alternate versions, a booklet full of rare photographs and all new liner notes by acclaimed author and music critic Anthony DeCurtis. 

Mellencamp is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Halls of Fame. He is a recipient of the John Steinbeck Award, the ASCAP Foundation’s Champion Award, the Woody Guthrie Award, the Americana Music Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award and ASCAP’s Founders Award.

Mellencamp’s extensive touring and live shows have solidified his place at the forefront of American music.

Mellencamp is one of the most successful live concert performers in the world. In 1985, Mellencamp, together with Willie Nelson and Neil Young, created Farm Aid. The social activism reflected in his songs helped catalyze Farm Aid, the concert series and organization that has addressed the struggle of American family farmers for more than 25 years. 

Mellencamp journeyed into the darkness of coal mining life in his reverent cover of Merle Travis’ 1946 song “Dark as a Dungeon,” recorded in support of “From the Ashes,” National Geographic’s documentary about the mining industry.