POP/ROCK - Dec. 18, 1987

John Cougar Mellencamp attracted 5,000 fans to two free concerts in Chillicothe, Ohio, on Wednesday, including Gov. Richard Celeste, who danced to the music with two of his daughters in the press balcony of the Shoemaker Center on the Ohio University-Chillicothe campus during Mellencamp’s second show. The concerts resulted from about two years of negotiations between local radio station WFCB-FM and Mellencamp’s manager. In April, 1986, WFCB disc jockey Chip Arledge presented Mellencamp with a petition signed by 6,200 people, each pledging to pay $20 per ticket to see Mellencamp in the Ohio city.