John Mellencamp (!).

John Mellencamp started out as, well, John Mellencamp. His early management (Tony DeFries and Mainman - who, of course, worked with Bowie, among others) died his hair black, gave him a pompadour and changed his name to a snappy Johnny Cougar. Later, in what one would assume was an attempt to be taken more seriously, he changed it to John Cougar. Then John "Cougar" Mellencamp.(I worked with a guy, around this time, who insisted the singer's name was John "Cougar" McCulloch...) Eventually, he went full circle and became John Mellencamp.
Whenever I hear "Pink Houses" I think of that line where somebody tells the guy in the song "Boy, you gonna be president. But like everything else, those old days and dreams just kinda came and went..." When I was a kid, I would always score highest on all of the big tests - like aptitude and comprehension. I had a teacher tell me something very similar: "You could be the president one day." Oh, if she could see me now. A 49 year old nuthin'!
They really set me up for a big fall.