Note: evidently they think highly enough of him that not only are they giving him an honorary degree and asking him to give the speech, but they also have a pavilion named after him, the Mellencamp Pavilion.
His Rock N Roll Hall of Fame Induction speech was a real hoot, or so I am given to understand. So why are they so surprised? What did they expect?
What do the Teeming Millions say? Was he out of line, to show up casually dressed and to give a flippant speech? Are they a bunch of old fuddy-duddies, or should he have tried to be more serious? Who do YOU think would have been a more appropriate choice to give the commencement speech? Me, I say, “Good for him. Time enough later for sententious speeches about ‘we only pass this way but once’, etc.”
Interesting think I’ll call mom now and have her call the relatives in Indiana what they think. All IU graduates and Mellencamp fans. Have you ever seen the movie Breaking Away? I guess Mellencamp would be classified as a “townie”. And it is a well known fact that he has a tiny chip on his shoulder about “the establishment”. Think I’ll call and see what they say…Get back to ya on a close up and personal opinion.
I have no idea what was said in the speech, I will admit that, but whatever it was would have been forgiven a hundred times over if it meant Indiana winning a basketball game.
Yer pal,
Satan
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Notthemama asks: Was he out of line, to show up casually dressed and to give a flippant speech?
How was he dressed? What did he say?
Hard for me to decide without knowing that. I don’t think graduation speeches have to be exercices in formality, but if someone came out and said “go try out heroin while you’re still young, it’s a blast” I might have a problem with that.
Did Indiana get standards of decorum all of a sudden or something? They also just gave Bobby Knight a slap on the wrist:
“Unless, of course, he makes a better showing in the NCAA next year,” he did not add. I’m sure the IU students feel good about their tuition dollars going toward an investigation that discovered that Bobby Knight has a “troubling pattern of behavior”.
That should last about ten minutes.
I say that if you have Bobby Knight as a basketball coach, you should expect him to be Bobby Knight. If you invite a rock star to give a graduation speech, you should expect him to be a rock star. Get over it.