Description
LABEL: Republic
VINYL RELEASE DATE: 5/20/2020
ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE: 1/21/2022
VARIANT: Black Vinyl LP
"A long, long time ago / When I used to chase rainbows / I thought there was a pot of gold / When I got to the end / But there were many people there / And I said, 'What are you doing here?' / They said they were looking for the end of the rainbow," Mellencamp sings on his new song, "Chasing Rainbows," a single from his highly anticipated 25th studio album, Strictly A One-Eyed Jack.
While "Chasing Rainbows" is the first official single from the record, listeners got their first taste of Strictly A One-Eyed Jack in September 2021 when Mellencamp teamed up with Bruce Springsteen for the duet "Wasted Days," which also appears on the album.
"I worked on three songs on John's album and I spent some time in Indiana with him," Springsteen told Sirius XM's E Street Radio earlier this year. "I love John a lot. He's a great songwriter and I have become very close [with him] and had a lot of fun with him. I sang a little bit on his record."
Mellencamp shared two live albums in 2021 ahead of the full-length album. Lonely Street (Live 1984) arrived in May 2021 with a 17-song tracklist including "Shoot Out The Lights" and "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood." In August 2021, he shared The Good Samaritan Tour 2000 which included 12 songs across 43 minutes. It featured "All Along The Watchtower" and "In My Time Of Dying."
The latter album arrived alongside Mellencamp's documentary The Good Samaritan Tour 2000. The film was narrated by Matthew McConaughey, with special contributions by Nora Guthrie. It follows Mellencamp on his iconic 2000 tour in which he played free shows across the country.