Dan Quayle walks out of Mellencamp concert

Former VP miffed about anti-Bush comment before ‘Walk Tall’ song

J. Scott Applewhite / AP file

Former Vice President Dan Quayle walked out of John Mellencamp concert on July 14 in Lake Tahoe, Calif., after an anti-Bush comment Mellencamp, however, said he had no regrets.

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updated 2:19 p.m. ET July 23, 2006

LOS ANGELES - Don’t expect Dan Quayle to attend another John Mellencamp concert.

The former vice president, miffed about a comment made by Mellencamp about President Bush’s administration, walked out of the singer’s July 14 show at Harvey’s Lake Tahoe Casino in Stateline, Nev.

Mellencamp, unaware that Quayle was in the audience, introduced the song “Walk Tall” by saying, “This next one is for all the poor people who’ve been ignored by the current administration.”

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Quayle, who was in town for a celebrity golf tournament, then made his exit, deciding “enough was enough,” his spokesman, Craig Whitney, told the Los Angeles Times for Friday’s edition. “He wasn’t going to sit there and listen to this.”

Mellencamp, however, said he had no regrets.

“I still feel there are many people left behind by this administration,” he said in a statement to the Times. “Not talking about problems doesn’t make them go away. It’s kind of telling that he chose to walk out as I was doing a song about tolerance.”

On Friday, Mellencamp’s spokesman, Bob Merlis, said the singer did not want to exploit the incident by speaking further about it.