NEW YORK (AP) — An urgency in the ringing guitar and thunderous drums that opened the 1985 album “Scarecrow ... the artist then billed as John “Cougar” Mellencamp.

His new album, his 25th, is called "Orpheus Descending ... I hear it all the time. Or John Cougar Mellencamp - I'll be introduced that way. But, you know, that's what it was, you know?

Mellencamp stayed John Cougar through his 1982 breakthrough, American Fool, and its hits “Hurts So Good” and “Jack and Diane.” He got the Number 1 single and album on the Billboard charts ...

An urgency in the ringing guitar and thunderous drums that opened the 1985 album “Scarecrow ... for the artist then billed as John “Cougar” Mellencamp. The disc, which is getting the ...

Mellencamp released his first album under the name Johnny Cougar in 1976. After modest success, his breakthrough came in 1979 with the album John Cougar and the single “I Need a Lover.” ...