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Former swimmer quickly learns art of performing
By David Lindquist @Indystar.com
July 12, 2002
Jenn Cristy may have been the Big Ten's best female swimmer in 2001, but she
wanted to make music.
As an Indiana University freshman four years earlier, she'd abandoned piano
studies to devote more time to athletics.
"I was trying to figure out how I could get back into music, but I had no
connections," Cristy says. "I was completely lost."
But before her senior year was out, Cristy joined John Mellencamp's band as
a vocalist and percussionist -- essentially by catching the Hoosier rock
star's attention when she sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" at a men's
basketball game.
"Everybody always asks, 'How did you audition? Was there open casting for
that?' " she says.
It wasn't that difficult, or easy. It just was.
Mellencamp built a multiplatinum career with homegrown musicians. In recent
years, he's added Indiana players Dane Clark on drums, John Gunnell on bass
and Courtney Kaiser as a vocalist.
Cristy says she visited Mellencamp's staff, but not him, after the national
anthem performance. Apparently passing that test, she then was invited to
meet Mellencamp at his Brown County recording studio.
"John told me it was going to be a lot of hard work," Cristy says. "I said,
'I can do it.' It's kind of like swimming. It's a 24-hour job."
Took crash course
Joining the band in the middle of the "Cuttin' Heads" sessions, Cristy took
a crash course in Mellencamp 101. The Oak Ridge, Tenn., native didn't know a
single song of his repertoire -- aside from a cover of Van Morrison's "Wild
Night" she sang along to in the shower. But that was on a mix tape, and
Cristy didn't know it was him.
The Mellencamp episode of VH1's "Behind the Music" helped her catch up, and
she was a quick study in the making of a major-label recording.
Tour rehearsals, however, presented another challenge for someone who'd
never attended a rock concert -- let alone performed onstage.
"Move your hips" was the advice from veteran vocalist Pat Peterson. Cristy
found it disorienting to sing in front of an amplified monitor. Drums blared
in her ears, her hands were sore from playing the congas and she knocked her
mouth into the microphone more times than she'd care to remember.
Better days -- the actual tour of amphitheaters and arenas -- were ahead.
"By the sixth show, it's in your brain," she says. "You're singing in your
sleep, doing the conga beats with your toes. That's when you start dancing
around and having more fun with it."
To miss tonight's show
No audience member can miss the fun that Cristy has. She's a vibrant force
who motivates her boss. Unfortunately, illness has sidelined her for
tonight's Mellencamp show at Verizon Wireless Music Center.
"When she's in front of an audience, she's very comfortable," says IU
swimming coach Dorsey Tierney.
Regarding the competitive streak in an all-American swimmer who participated
in Olympic trials in 1996 and 2000, the 23-year-old says it's always been
self-contained.
"I pick on myself," she says. "When I won races, I'd say, 'That's not fast
enough, Jenn.' Now I just try to be better than I was yesterday."
Tierney -- who coached Cristy as a sophomore, junior and senior -- agrees.
"She was very good at preparing herself mentally for a competition," Tierney
says. "She liked to win, but like many high-level athletes she had the
ability to focus on what she needed to do. In most cases, she would be
completely oblivious to her competition."
Cristy, engaged to be married later this year, is seeking label interest in
her own music -- which is an intriguing mix of New Age lightness and hip-hop
beats produced by Mellencamp keyboard player Moe Z.
"I just enjoy doing it," she says. "If no one likes it, I really can't do
anything about that. I'd like for people to like it, and I'd like to get a
record deal."
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