#2438 - John Mellencamp

John Mellencamp (0:03)

The Joe Rogan Experience.

Joe Rogan (0:06)

Shrink by day, Joe Rogan Podcast by night, all day. Why would I hit my tattoos?

Joe Rogan (0:16)

Because you get older and they get all smudgy.

Joe Rogan (0:19)

Mine are getting kind of smudgy.

John Mellencamp (0:21)

Yeah, well, look at them.

Joe Rogan (0:22)

Look at this one.

Joe Rogan (0:24)

It's pretty smudgy.

Joe Rogan (0:28)

I owned a tattoo parlor in, I don't know what year it was, mid-80s, and they were illegal in Indiana. But because it was me, they said, okay, leave them alone.

SPEAKER_4 (0:41)

Really?

Joe Rogan (0:42)

I remember when they were illegal in New York. I went to Connecticut to get my first tattoo.

Joe Rogan (0:48)

Yeah, I didn't know it was illegal, but I met this guy in LA and he worked at Sunset, you know, where the Hyatt House is, and there was a tattoo parlor right across the street. Anyway, he was there. And so I brought him to Bloomington because he wanted to get out of LA and guess why they closed me down?

Joe Rogan (1:13)

Why?

Joe Rogan (1:14)

The fucking guy was a heroin addict.

John Mellencamp (1:18)

I know.

Joe Rogan (1:20)

And he did this tattoo one time and I went over, I just went over to the shop, I said, hey, let's do this little... And he was all fucked up. And it was just like, what's wrong with it, you know? Because I didn't know. I don't know anything about heroin addicts, so...

Joe Rogan (1:35)

There wasn't a lot of heroin addicts back then. That was a rare thing. Now, we think about how many people are, because of the Sackler family, thinking how many people are hooked on opiates today. I mean, it's got to be.

Joe Rogan (1:47)

Lots.

Joe Rogan (1:49)

It's off the charts in comparison to what it was like in, you know, the 1980s. There was, I mean, I knew one guy that had a friend who did heroin. That's it.

Joe Rogan (2:01)

Well, I was at a, the first time I saw somebody do heroin was, I was in college, and there was a place called Bull Island that tried to imitate Woodstock, and me and my then wife and my kid, my little girl, and my roommate, who lived with us. We're just walking down there, and we see this guy shooting up, so we just thought, well, we'll watch. Because he was just sitting right there. I mean, there was like 200,000 people there. And he shot, and he went out. And I looked at the guy I was with, and I go, we won't be doing this.

We're not going to do this.

Joe Rogan (2:52)

I had a friend who was a longshoreman, and he worked with this guy. Every lunchtime, he would go and score and sit in his truck and shoot up. And that's what he did every lunch. He was a functional heroin addict. And he would show up for work every day, and he did his job. But during lunchtime, during his hour, he would do heroin and just fucking find his happy place.

SPEAKER_4 (3:20)

And then an hour later, go back to work.

Joe Rogan (3:24)

And the one shot would last all day?

Joe Rogan (3:26)

I don't know. I don't know if he did heroin. I didn't ask if he did heroin after that as well. I'm assuming he probably did. But he was a functional heroin addict. Like, guy kept a full job. He was in the Union.

SPEAKER_4 (3:40)

And everybody knew.

Joe Rogan (3:41)

This guy would go on his break, shoot up.

Joe Rogan (3:46)

Last time I did drugs was 1973

Joe Rogan (3:53)

What was the reason you stopped?

SPEAKER_4 (3:55)

My ear?

Joe Rogan (3:56)

Yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan (3:58)

Well, I used to like to smoke and drink whiskey. And then I liked to fight.

Joe Rogan (4:08)

Oh, that's a problem.

Joe Rogan (4:10)

I couldn't whip anybody.

But I loved the contact and the rush of like starting the fight. But I was in college and my roommate and I went to this downtown bar which we'd never been to. And I sat at the bar and I would start these fights. You know, just a prick. And I was sitting next to this big guy and for whatever reason, I thought it was a good idea if I spit on him. One of those guys. You know, those guys that get drunk. Yeah, well, that was me. So I did and we went out back and he left me in the alley like a wet rag. I mean, he beat the shit out of me. Beat the shit out of me. And I was a hippie. I had hair down to here. And the guy, my roommate was driving me home into no pinto. And I was leaning on the door like this. I was so fucked up from getting beat up. I mean, the oars around my face were this big. And I was leaning on the door and all of a sudden he went over a road track and I fell out of the car. Got my hair wrapped around the jiggum flop that holds the car. And the guy that I'm with, drunk driving, he didn't even know I fell out of the car. And I'm going, stop the car. He didn't even know.