Mike Wanchic (left), Stuart Warner without a hat

At least Warner grew up with someone famous

Going to high school with someone who later becomes famous is kind of fame by proxy. I know how it feels.

When Paula and I were in The Villages, Florida I ran into the daughter of Roy Williams, Jerry West’s coach at East Bank High School before Mr. Clutch became WVU’s best basketball player ever and the NBA logo for his years with the Los Angeles Lakers.

I figure I shook the hand that was rocked in the cradle by the hand that once rested on Jerry’s shoulder and told him how to play basketball.

Close enough for me.

For Stuart Warner, the Mad Hatter in his BJ and PD days and now in Arizona, has a tale akin to that. He went to Lafayette High School in Kentucky with Mike Wanchic.

Doesn’t ring a bell? If does if you’re a John Mellencamp rock fan because Wanchic has been Hellencamp’s lead guitarist for 35 years.

Their 23rd studio release is “Plain Spoken.” Their first was “American Fool” in 1976. They are about to begin another concert tour.

Stuart remembers Wanchic as “captain of our terrible football team.”

Wanchic said “I made my first record with John in 1976, about 10 minutes out of school for both of us, and utterly naive. Over the years we've just sort of learned the art of recordmaking, songwriting and arranging.”

As Wanchic describes it, Mellencamp “comes in with an acoustic guitar and plays a song for us in folk-fashion. From there, we try to feel out what's important. [We attempt] to feel out what's in the song and try to make the arrangement around what the song is about, how it's supposed to feel.” The result is another studio album.

Being from Kentucky, Wanchic plumbs from Appalachian music, folk music and Motown.

The latest Mellencamp tour will begin Saturday, June 6 at the Embassy Theater in Fort Wayne, Indiana. After traipsing through everywhere except Ohio, including Canada, the concert tour will end Tuesday, Aug. 4 in Indianapolis, Indiana.

The Detroit Opera House Wednesday, June 10 is as close as Mellencamp and Wanchic gets to Ohio.