John Cougar Mellencamp,
Grammy-winning singer-songwriter
has recorded 23 albums. He is best known for
his #1 hit song
“Jack & Diane.” Nominated for thirteen Grammy Awards he
was
inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006.
Where did his drive to succeed come from? A
look at his life
and birth order will give us some answers.
The Drive and Power to Achieve
Where does
one get the personal power to drive themselves to
achieve? Using birth order theory,
we usually see Double birth
orders that combine the ordinal number of birth with
the Only
birth order that increases a person’s personal power. We can
also see
an increase in drive when one fights for power with
an older sibling, sibling
rivalry. This is the story of John
Mellencamp.
Early Years
John was
born October 7, 1951, the second of five children in
Seymour Indiana. He was
born with spina bifida but an early
operation corrected it. His older brother
may have resented the
extra attention he received even though John didn’t know
about the problem until he was twelve. His older brother Joe is
three years
older. His younger siblings are Ted, Janet and
Laura. He formed his first band,
Crepe Soul, at the age of 14.
Second Born and Sibling Rivalry
John, the Second
born child did not want to be told what to do.
Second borns will usually never give in even if they know that
they are
wrong. The Second born will often go off in another
direction from their older
sibling. When there are two boys the
sibling rivalry can become intense. We all know the story of
Cain and Able and
that didn’t turn out too well. Both boys had
bands growing up but John’s older
brother Joe took a more
traditional route in life than did John.
Two Boys Two Directions
Joe played
quarterback on the football team and was a
member of the student council. He went off to Indiana
University after High
school and majored in sociology and
psychology. He finished his education at
Ohio State in
electrical engineering, following in his father’s profession.
He achieved
to become the President of Beacon Electric.
John took a different route, he was a beer-swilling truant in
school and eloped with his pregnant girlfriend when
he was
18. This was the first of three wives and five children. He
attended
Vincennes University a two-year college. This is
when his use of drugs and
alcohol escalated. He did
graduate as his focus got better after giving up
drugs and
alcohol.
John’s Song About Brothers
Nothing can
express the feeling a younger brother has for his
older sibling than the song
John wrote called “Brothers”. Some
of the lyrics show just how powerful sibling
rivalry can be.
“You don’t care for me
and man, I don’t think that much of you”
“It’s as normal at it can be this
sibling rivalry. We should have
dropped it at 22 but man I can’t stand the
things you do.” “Now
that we’re grown up it ain’t helped nothin’ at all. On my
birthday, please don’t bother to call.” As we can see the effects
of one’s Birth order lasts a life time. John may have won the
battle of the brothers
when his father left his job as executive
vice president of Robbins Electric to
become his financial
manager.
John the Social Reformer
John seems
to have been angry all his life and his music tells
stories of just how life
seems unfair. He was been the scrappy
musical spokesman for forgotten man. He has been an
advocate for farmers and
testified before congress with Willie
Nelson. His great-great grandfather,
Johann Heinrick
Mollenkamp was a peasant farmer from Germany that settled
in
Indiana in 1851. John went on to play concerts for Farm Aid.
He is politically a left-of-center populist with no love for big
business.
Health Issues
In 1994 John
suffered a heart attack. Today, still a chain
smoker, he is true to his Second
born birth order letting no
one tell him what to do. He feels that it is the combination
of drugs
and smoking that will kill you so that is why he no
longer takes drugs.
For more
information about birth orders you can get my book
Life’s Fingerprint: How Birth Order Affects Your Path
Throughout Life by
Dr. Robert V.V. Hurst or visit my website
www.mybirthorder.com. For those
that contact me through
the website I will send you a FREE a code to download the
book through Audible books. Just tell
me what blog you read
from http://doublebirthorder.blogspot.com
