life that I love and not be pushed to the side again, I felt really great about that. I look at every day as a blessing that I'm even here". Early Bird Cafe: Mellencamp offered an in-depth account to former USA Today and Rolling Stone writer Elysa Gardner during a May 1, 2017 interview in New York City about how this obscure song from the Jerry Hahn Brotherhood came into his life: "I saw a band when I was a teenager – I went to see a band called Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, and the opening act was a band called Jerry Hahn Brotherhood. And they were just a bunch of hippies, you know – real long hair. No show, no presentation – guys just kind of walked out and started playing, which I appreciated. I wasn't much into the light shows and bombs and stuff. But anyway, they did two or three songs that I just went 'Wow, these songs are great.' So I went and bought their record. I was a hippie once upon a time. I had [long hair] – it was 1969, 1970, you know, barefoot with a guitar. You people that are old enough probably remember but you young people don't remember, but people used to have parties and you would pass the guitar around and all the guys would play a song. So whenever the guitar came my way I always played 'Early Bird Cafe' and then acted like I wrote it. So in my mind, finally, I did write it. It was my song. Because I would go places, "Hey John, play that 'Early Bird Cafe' song.' People just assumed I wrote it because, like you, they had never heard the record. So that song really became mine more than the guy that wrote it or Jerry Hahn Brotherhood, you know, 40 years ago. I've been playing it for 40 years, so we're making this record and I just finally....because the guys in the band have heard me play it a hundred times, I said, 'Lets just cut 'Early Bird Cafe.' And so that's what we did". Mellencamp also told Gardner about his favorite part of the song, saying: "I love the last part of it where she says, 'She asked me where I'd been, and I said I was hung up with some beggar in the sky.' I thought