Billy Joel, formerly my favorite musician for many years, just inducted John Mellencamp, another one of my favorites, into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame at a ceremony in New York City.

Joel gave a funny, alcohol-fueled speech which began with a story about Mellencamp forcing him to appear at the first Farm Aid concert in Champaign, Illinois, back in 1985. He described the audience as "100,000 children of the corn wearing John Deere hats" -- hey, I was one of those children! (Actually, I was a college student who had been awake for 40 hours straight and long abandoned by the people I went with before Mr. Joel made it to the stage). He continued with a story about playing flag football with Mellencamp after a concert in Indianapolis, then went on an anti-VH1 rant that was obviously censored. So much for this being a live telecast.

John Mellencamp grew up and continues to live in Seymour, Indiana, which is a stone's throw away from where I was born. One time I literally ran into him and his wife as I was making my way up the escalators to the movie theater on the third floor of Indianapolis's Circle Centre. Anyway, I've always loved Mellencamp's music. He's a proud left-wing voice of the common man and of the Heartland. And he's prolific, too, having released 10 albums of new music since Mr. Joel's last one in 1993.

So far (the five hour show is still going on...), Mellencamp is the only big name inductee who is actually performing, too. Madonna, for instance, had Iggy Pop(!) sing hard-rock versions of two of her songs following her induction.

Anyway, I'm very happy for John Mellencamp, and pleased that he capped off his set with "The Authority Song", because it and "Cherry Bomb" are my two favorites from his catalogue of hits.