John Mellencamp, also known as John Cougar and John Cougar Mellencamp, (born October 7, 1951) is best known for being an American rock singer-songwriter.

Mellencamp was born in Seymour, Indiana. At age 14, he joined a soul band named "Crepe Soul" and served as one of two lead singers in the group.

In 1970, his senior year of high school, Mellencamp married Priscilla Esterline (in Kentucky, where it was legal for 17-year-olds to get married), and they had a daughter named Michelle on December 4 of that year. In 1971 he formed a short-lived cover band called "Trash".

In 1974 he graduated from Vincennes University and took a job at a phone company in Seymour before deciding to go to New York in an attempt to land a record deal. 1989's Big Daddy was a quieter, mostly acoustic venture that was filled with introspective songs and was indeed the last album to contain the "Cougar" moniker.

Big Daddy was a bit on the somber side but contained standout tunes like "Jackie Brown," "Big Daddy of Them All" and "Void in My Heart."

In 1999 Mellencamp covered his own tunes as well as those by Bob Dylan and the Drifters for his album Rough Harvest, one of two albums he owed Mercury Records to fulfill his contract (the other was The Best That I Could Do, a best-of collection).