NEWS - THE GHOST BROTHERS OF DARKLAND COUNTY

John Mellencamp talks musical

Posted: September 3, 2003, 10:07

"In a recent AP interview, John Mellencamp talked a teeny bit about the musical he's writing with Stephen King.

What will the musical you're writing with Stephen King be like? MELLENCAMP: (Laughing) I can tell what it's not going to be like: It won't be "Jack and Diane" meets "Cujo." He's already written the story -- it's very beautiful, more like "The Green Mile." It's an American story about an American family. Some of the characters are 100 years old, some are 15. So that will give me the opportunity to write for each character in a different style. I ain't writing a bunch of rock songs"

Thanks to Jonathan Reitan.

John Mellencamp interview

Posted: July 15, 2002, 11:27

John Mellencamp recently did an interview and in the introduction the following can be read:

Mellencamp, who co-founded the Farm Aid benefit concerts with Willie Nelson and Neil Young in 1985, is now working on a project with best-selling author Stephen King. King is writing the book, Mellencamp the music for a theatre presentation about an American family.

This isn't 100% correct though. King is NOT writing a book, only the play. There aren't any plans for a book.

Here are the two questions that concerns King:

Q: Peaceful World took on a new resonance for listeners, obviously, after Sept. 11. Have the events affected your writing since then?

Mellencamp: I haven't written since then, except for a few small smatterings for a musical I'm working on with Steve King. As you may or may not know, Peaceful World was written a few years before Sept. 11. I think all songs that are not just pop throwaways would take on a new meaning after such a tragedy.

Q: What's it like collaborating with Stephen King? Can you tell us any more about the project? And I hear King has his own rock band -- you ever give him any lessons?

Mellencamp: Steve is an honest gentleman, a person of integrity, and has written a beautiful story. Hopefully, we can complete this project before this time next year. But he is busy and so am I. And as far as his rock band goes, well -- I tuned his guitar once and Steve certainly looks cool.

Ghost-story musical

Posted: November 2, 2001, 20:12

Jonathan over at STEPHEN KING COLLECTORS sent me the following:

The following short article, "The Sing of Horror" comes from the November/December 2001 "Pages" magazine:

"John Mellencamp and Stephen King are continuing to develop their ghost-story musical, which is expected to open in the spring of 2002. Mellencamp says he hopes to see the as-yet-unnamed musical on Broadway--someday. The rocker and the writer will finalize the project some time in Febuary. Mellencamp, who's writing 15 songs for the show, calls King's script "the most beautiful story."

King will finish musical in February

Posted: August 7, 2001, 12:36

According to John Mellencamp he and King will finish the musical that they have been working on in February:

Tuesday August 7 9:09 AM ET
Mellencamp, King Work on Musical

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) - John Mellencamp and fiction writer Stephen King expect to complete the musical they're working on sometime in February.

Mellencamp said the two plan to meet in February to finish the musical, which he termed "an American story."

"Steve has written the most beautiful story," he said. "I've written about five songs for this thing and there's not one rock song anywhere near it."

Mellencamp said he still has about 10 songs to write for the production.

"If this works like we think it's going to, it'll be great," he said.

Thanks to Bob Ireland

King and Mellencamp

Posted: February 10, 2001, 13:12

Stephen King and John Mellencamp are writing a musical together.

This is what it says on King's official site:

Musical Collaboration with John Mellencamp
For more please visit John Mellencamp's official Web site at www.mellencamp.com.

For more info. Here are two articles about it:
Exclusive: Mellencamp, Stephen King Developing Musical
STEPHEN KING EYES B'WAY HORROR SHOW

King and Mellencamp's musical ready in late 2001?

Posted: November 1, 2000, 19:20

Monday,October 30,2000
By BILL HOFFMANN

Broadway is about to become the Great Fright Way, thanks to Stephen King, who's penning a new horror musical.

The best-selling author has joined forces with rock singer John Mellencamp to write a macabre rock opera that will feature a haunted house and rapping ghosts.

The show - based on an idea by Mellencamp - is about two brothers with a strong, mutual hatred.

Tempers reach the boiling point when their father takes them for a visit to an old cabin they have not visited since they were young kids.

In an eerie twist, it emerges that their father had two older brothers who not only loathed each other, but killed one another while staying in the same cabin years earlier.

The ghosts that inhabit the cabin sing in a variety of musical styles, from rap to rock to country.

Mellencamp says he plans to cover "any type of music that Americans have invented. Our goal is to end up on Broadway."

King has already written a synopsis of the show and won over financial backers. He has also convinced Mellencamp to look past the horror meister's dubious track record in musical theater.

In 1988, the Broadway show of King's 1974 novel, "Carrie" - about a girl with supernatural powers - closed after just five performances. It lost close to $7.5 million.

King's latest venture comes 16 months after he was nearly killed in Maine when he was run down on the side of a road. The author of "The Dead Zone, "The Green Mile" and "Bag of Bones," King is currently riding high with "The Plant," the world's first successful "e-novel."

Mellencamp - who used to go by the name of John Cougar - has had more than a dozen Top 10 hits, including "Jack and Diane," "I Need a Lover" and "Authority Song."

The duo's Broadway show could be ready for the fall 2001 season.

King and Mellencamp is developing a Musical

Posted: October 23, 2000, 19:07

Exclusive: Mellencamp, Stephen King Developing Musical

Two of pop culture's biggest names -- Stephen King and John Mellencamp -- are uniting to write a musical, and naturally, it's a ghost story. "Our goal is someday to end up on Broadway," Mellencamp tells Billboard. "We're not going to take it straight to Broadway." The artist knows he and King are bound to make mistakes along the way, "but that's part of the fun of it. See, that's the great thing about this for Steve and I both; we don't really have to do this."

The untitled work was Mellencamp's idea, but King, one of the top-selling authors of all time, quickly agreed to work with the singer, whom he's long admired. "I'm like everyone else, I think he's great," says King. "He's from the Midwest; he's got a nice, sort of 'common people' thing."

For King, the story was appealing. "I was in Florida, so John came down and told me the plot," he says. "It was kind of a ghostly thing, which is why he thought of me, I guess. I liked the story."

The play, according to Mellencamp, is about "two brothers; they're 19 years old or 20, maybe 18 or 21, who are very competitive and dislike each other immensely. The father takes them to the family vacation place, a cabin that the boys hadn't been to since they were kids."

"What has happened is that the father had two older brothers who hated each other and killed each other in that cabin," says Mellencamp. "There's a confederacy of ghosts who also live in this house. The older [dead] brothers are there, and they speak to the audience, and they sing to the audience. That's all I want to say, except through this family vacation, many things are learned about the family, and many interesting songs are sung."

Mellencamp says he's written four songs already for the project, including tracks called "My Name Is Joe" and "You Don't Know Me." Each song is written with the character's personality and age in mind. "I plan to have every person sing from their generation," he says. "This is what I'm thinking right now, but it may not work out this way. When the 18-year-old sings, he'll be rapping at you. When the people in their 70s are singing, they'll be singing in the style of Broadway or the style of Sinatra or country. I intend to cover any type of music that Americans have invented."

While the road is littered with unsuccessful musicals by pop artists, both Mellencamp and King are adopting a "why not?" attitude. "We talked about [Paul Simon's] 'Capeman.' John and I both agree that maybe it didn't work, but that this might," says King. "That's really part of my attraction about working with him. He has a lot of courage and ability to go in there and say, 'This isn't supposed to work, but we're going to do it anyway.'"

Copied from Lilja's Library: http://liljas-library.com/

NEWS - THE GHOST BROTHERS OF DARKLAND COUNTY

John Mellencamp talks musical

John Mellencamp interview

Ghost-story musical

King will finish musical in February

King and Mellencamp

King and Mellencamp's musical ready in late 2001?

King and Mellencamp is developing a Musical

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