This is one interview we're kinda happy to have missed.

Oh sure, we were a bit bummed when we heard proletariat rocker John Mellencamp had passed on our request for a chit-chat.

But then we did some research, and learned the artist formerly known as Cougar once had a reputation for being difficult -- throwing tantrums, storming out of interviews, and generally living up to his nickname, Little Bastard.

Well, we wouldn't want to reawaken the beast -- or the Bastard -- especially not this close to Mellencamp's MTS Centre show on Monday.

So we'll instead leave you with these trivia tidbits, arranged in honour of one of our fave Mellencamp hits.

R is for rock (duh!), but also the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, into which Mellencamp will be inducted next month. His fellow inductees (Madonna, Leonard Cohen, The Ventures, and Dave Clark Five) are among the most controversial in recent memory, and while we don't want to respark the whole "rock vs. pop" debate, we think it's safe to assume Mellencamp will do the bulk of the singing at the ceremony's all-star jam, since neither Cohen nor Madge can carry a tune worth a damn.

O is for Our Country, the lead single from 2007's critically acclaimed Freedom's Road, Mellencamp's highest charting album since Scarecrow in 1985. The song (famously used in a Chevy ad) earned Mellencamp a Grammy nomination for best solo rock performance. He'll know whether he won or not by the time he gets to Winnipeg -- the Grammys are handed out the night before, on Feb. 10.

C is for Cougar, Mellencamp's adopted moniker for much of his early career. He recorded under the name John (or Johnny) Cougar from '76 to '81, after his manager at the time changed it without his knowledge. He then amended it slightly, to John Cougar Mellencamp, with the release of '83's Uh-Huh, and in '91, dropped the Cougar altogether, releasing Whenever We Wanted as just plain ol' John Mellencamp.

K is for horror writer Stephen King, with whom Mellencamp has been working on a stage musical for eight years. The project, called Ghost Brothers of Darkland County, is currently being workshopped in New York, before going into production in Atlanta, Ga., this spring. "If it goes well in Atlanta, then we'll come to Broadway," Mellencamp said recently. "If it doesn't go well in Atlanta, we're done."

I is for Indiana, where Mellencamp was born and raised, eventually moving from small-town Seymour to New York City in the mid-'70s. These days, he hangs his hat in Bloomington, where he lives with his wife, former model Elaine Irwin, and two kids. He remains a devoted fan of Hoosiers basketball, and still regularly attends hometown games at Indiana University.

N is for new album, the forthcoming Life, Death, Love and Freedom, recorded with acclaimed producer T-Bone Burnett. The disc doesn't have a street date, but Mellencamp has already attracted flak for the song Jena, about the controversial Jena 6 trials in Louisiana. Jena's mayor claims the song unfairly depicts his town as a hotbed of racism, while Mellencamp has responded by saying the mayor should be directing his outrage at those citizens who still think it's OK to hang nooses from trees.

T is for Tastee-Freez, the small-town landmark immortalized in Mellencamp's blue-collar anthem Jack and Diane. The track shot to No. 1 in 1983, and remains Mellencamp's biggest hit single (he even revisited the title characters in the '98 song Eden is Burning, suggesting things may not have ended so well for the couple). Oh, and while he sings about chili dogs in the song's second verse, Mellencamp claims he hasn't eaten a hot dog since sometime in the late '70s -- and even then, it made him sick.

H is for heartland rock, a musical genre Mellencamp practically invented (along with fellow salt-of-the-earth types Tom Petty, Bob Seger and Bruce Springsteen). His devotion to the plight of struggling family farmers in the U.S. led him to co-found Farm Aid in 1985 (along with Neil Young and Willie Nelson), and to help convince members of Congress to pass the Agricultural Credit Act in 1987. Since then, Mellencamp has performed at almost all the Farm Aid benefit shows, and still sits on the charity's board of directors with Young, Nelson and Dave Matthews.

E is for John Edwards, the presidential candidate Mellencamp supported in 2004 and 2008. Mellencamp performed on the Vote for Change tour in 2004 (alongside politically minded musicians like Springsteen, Bright Eyes, and Dixie Chicks), and his hit Small Town was used as Edwards' official campaign song the same year. In November 2007, Edwards drew jeers after joining Mellencamp onstage at a show in Iowa, but the rocker made it up to Edwards (who's since dropped out of the race) by headlining at a campaign concert a few months later.

U is for "ubiquitous," which the dictionary defines as "being or seeming to be everywhere at the same time." Change it to read "seeming to be on rock-radio stations all the time," and we'd say that defines Mellencamp's catalogue to a T.

S is for Scarecrow, probably Mellencamp's best-known album, and still a seminal blast of classic American rock. Recorded in the tiny town of Belmont, Ind., (in a studio Mellencamp jokingly dubbed the Belmont Mall), the record features cameos by Ry Cooder and Rickie Lee Jones, and spawned the radio staples Lonely Ol' Night, Small Town, and R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.

A is for acting, something Mellencamp has tried his hand at, first in '92 with his own Falling from Grace, then again a decade later in After Image and Lone Star State of Mind. We've seen the first flick -- suffice it to say Mellencamp shouldn't give up his day job. As for why, well, we don't need to spell it out for you, now, do we?