John is currently out on tour. The "Summer Work Tour" started July 3rd and runs until August 3rd in Las Vegas. Visit John's official site for tour dates and information.

The 15th Farm Aid concert will be held in Pennsylvania on Saturday, September 21st. As usual, the founders of Farm Aid, Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp, and Dave Matthews will all be on hand at this year's event. Check out the official Farm Aid site for details and more information.

John's new CD, Cuttin' Heads, was released in the United States on October 16th. Best Buy is selling an exclusive version of the CD that includes a bonus cd with two extra tracks that were recorded last year during John's "Good Samaritan" tour. These tracks are live versions of "In My Time of Dying" and "Hey Gib."

John has been named the recipient of the 2001 Billboard Century Award. This award, according to Billboard's Jill Pesselnick, is "given annually to an artist who has not received the wider recognition he or she merits." For the complete article Billboard did about John click here.

The Summer 2001 tour is over. There are rumors that John may head back out on tour again to support Cuttin' Heads. If anything comes of this I will post it here.

Peaceful World, the first single from the Columbia release "Cuttin' Heads" has been released to rock radio stations as of August 7th.

Supposedly it is a problem with packaging that is holding up the release of John's new CD titled "Cuttin' Heads". Here's what John had to say about the problem: "The album cover is kind of a unique album cover," he explained. "It's not in a jewel box. It's this special kind of cardboard, and you gotta tear it a certain way or it won't open, and they're, like, 'What the f--k are you...? Why don't you just put it....' 'Naw, I want this.' So, it...we're kind of waiting on artwork and all kind of things, you know?" (Taken from Launch.com)

Filming for "Lone Star State of Mind" an independent film produced by Lisa Moiselle and directed by David Semel began Jan. 31st in Austin, TX. John has a small role in this new film that also stars Josh Jackson and James King among others.

Check out mellencamp.com for all the latest news.