It’s About You

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John Mellencamp has a reputation for hiring people based on gut instinct rather than résumés. His guitar tech once told me he used to be a gardener — which says a lot about how John operates.

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In that same spirit, in 2008, John approached my dad — whose work had always been rooted in still photography — about making a film. The idea was to document his baseball field tour with Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan. At the same time, John would be recording his album No Better Than This in historic locations across the country.

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He didn’t want a big production crew. Just two people. So it was up to my dad and me to shoot the whole thing.

The tour lasted a little over six weeks and added 12,000 miles to our rented minivan as we followed the tour bus from town to town. Initially, we were told there would be an editor to help us make sense of all the footage. That job, however, eventually fell to us as well.

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After nearly two years of shooting, watching, and editing, the result was It’s About You — a film that captures not only the tour, but something raw and honest about John, the music, and the places that shaped it.