John Mellencamp and more: 4 times Hoosiers helped make big Farm Aid cultural moments

Farm Aid seems to have a penchant for Indiana. Co-founding board member John Mellencamp wears his Seymour roots proudly. Plenty more Indiana musicians — including Axl Rose, Henry Lee Summer, Jimmy Ryser and John Hiatt — have sprinkled their Hoosierness across the festival's stages over the years.

As it turns out, the state has a soft spot for Farm Aid, too. The concert has sold out every time it's been here — in 1990, 2001 and now Saturday. Fans bought up this year's tickets in about 90 minutes, faster than in other locations, Farm Aid's communications director said.

"We're very lucky to return to Indiana," Jennifer Fahy said. "The crowds there are wonderful, and ... so many people in Indiana are deeply connected to agriculture in a way that isn't true in every state in the U.S."

The day-long festival will include performances by board members Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews and Margo Price as well as hands-on activities about climate and agriculture, a market and discussions about farming issues. The proceeds will support causes including local and regional food systems; farmland preservation; and farmers' legal, financial and mental health, Fahy said.

Guide to Farm Aid 2023: Everything to know about event, farming in Indiana

In the midst of the 1980s farm crisis, Farm Aid brought together people from rural areas with those living on the coasts and in cities so everyone could better understand difficulties farmers faced, said Dan Gilbert, coordinator of a History Harvest project, which has been collecting oral histories and artifacts from attendees at 1985's inaugural Farm Aid in Champaign, Illinois.

"In the history of American popular culture — maybe in American culture and society more generally — often, the Midwest disappears. We're flyover country or we're not placed at the center of popular narratives," said Gilbert, associate professor in the Department of History at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

"One of the main messages right from the start of Farm Aid, both in terms of how the organization presented itself but also in how artists framed their musical contributions from the stage, was giving voice to experiences and perspectives from rural America, and from the Midwest in particular, that needed to be heard," he said.

Indiana has played a key role in showcasing those perspectives to the rest of the nation. Here are four times the state has been part of major Farm Aid-related moments.

Mellencamp's role in Farm Aid

In 1985, Nelson, Young and Mellencamp organized the Champaign concert to draw attention to the farm crisis. Thousands of farmers had lost their livelihoods, and the rest were caught in a web of debt, failed policies and plummeting crop prices.

Mellencamp immediately displayed his Hoosier roots. The Seymour native donned a Future Farmers of America jacket from his hometown and played "Rain on the Scarecrow," which he'd written about the foreclosure crisis.

At the concert, he cemented his zeal for small farmers by calling to the stage Bobbi Polzine, member of the farm activist group Groundswell. The Worthington (Minnesota) Daily Globe reported that Polzine was the only non-performer on stage during the 14-hour concert.

"That moment of Mellencamp and Polzine standing together on stage ... was one of the moments that crystalized the power of Farm Aid as a meeting place of folks making powerful music and folks making powerful change in other ways through their activism," Gilbert said.

Mellencamp's passion for supporting farmers endures to this day, said Fahy, noting that at last year's Farm Aid the singer committed to play the "Rally for Resilience: Farmers for Climate Action" that took place in March in Washington, D.C.

"He was the first one to stand up and say, 'I'll be there,'" Fahy said. "That's so authentic, and it means so much."

Bloomington's surprise Lou Reed-Mellencamp show

The Bluebird made history Sept. 17, 1987, when Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Mellencamp and Lou Reed shared the nightclub's stage in a surprise under-the-radar concert a few days before that year's Farm Aid. The Hoosier singer-songwriter performed "Small Town," among other hits, and then introduced the iconic former Velvet Underground member. Reed delivered “New Sensations," “Sweet Jane" and more.

Reed had traveled to Bloomington to rehearse with Mellencamp before playing Sept. 19 at Farm Aid III in Lincoln, Nebraska, according to IndyStar archives.

Only a few dozen fans witnessed the under-the-radar show in person. But a 44-minute video — originally shot by Tony Philputt, who owned Broad Ripple record and video store Second Time Around — emerged in 2020 on YouTube.

The video stopped short of a performance by John Prine, who later appeared from the wings, Rolling Stone reported.

Before Reed left Indiana, he slipped in one more surprise: On Sept. 18, a lucky rock history class at Indiana University saw the legend grace the podium as a guest.

Elton John's powerful tribute to Ryan White

On the evening of April 7, 1990, Elton John paused before "Candle in the Wind" and said, "This one's for Ryan." He was honoring his friend, the Kokomo native who contracted HIV through a contaminated blood transfusion and became a champion of AIDS awareness and education.

John and 45,000 audience members at the Hoosier Dome then sang together before the crowd erupted into a "roar of approval so loud and so long that it rang the ears and brought the little hairs on the backs of necks to full-alert status," then-Indianapolis News critic Mike Redmond wrote.

Hours later, an 18-year-old White drew his last breath. John sang "Skyline Pigeon" at his funeral.

At John's final concert in Indianapolis in 2022, the singer called the city "a pre-eminent feature in my life" and credited White as the inspiration that helped him achieve a sober lifestyle. Then he dedicated "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" to White's mother, Jeanne White-Ginder.

A farewell to Indiana: Elton John honors Ryan White during final Indianapolis concert

Indiana's previous Farm Aid honored heroes after 9/11

Just shy of three weeks after the 9/11 attacks, Indiana's second Farm Aid saw many powerful moments. The Sept. 29, 2001, concert — at the then-named Verizon Wireless Music Center — took on a new identity as "A Concert for America."

Reminders and reflections of 9/11 were threaded throughout. Arlo Guthrie led the star musicians in his father's anthem, "This Land is Your Land." Newly installed Farm Aid board member Dave Matthews sent out his rendition of "All Along the Watchtower" to New York.

"We've got to bring people together. We have to show strength," Fahy said about the goals that shaped the 2001 Farm Aid. "We have to also give people something to enjoy and to remind us of the power of music and the power of our coming together and the strength of our country."

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Contact IndyStar reporter Domenica Bongiovanni at 317-444-7339 or d.bongiovanni@indystar.com. Follow her on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter: @domenicareports.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Farm Aid 2023: 4 times Mellencamp and Hoosiers made big moments