Mellencamp Adds to an Enjoyable Open House Tradition

Brantley Gilbert

Classic rock ‘n’ roll has always been a key source of entertainment for the annual Elkhart RV Open House, today’s leading national-scale RV trade show that’s slated for next week (Sept. 26-30) in and around Northern Indiana’s RV-building hub of Elkhart.

We were all reminded of that fact last week when Forest River Inc., which first launched the “Open House” as a privately held “Expo” in 2009, announced that it planned to feature legendary Hoosier rock star John Mellencamp, a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee and Grammy Award winner during its 2022 Dealer Expo on Tuesday, Sept. 27, in an entertainment building at Forest River’s new Open House location at 29861 Old US Hwy 33 on Elkhart’s southwest side.

Plans also call for multi-platinum-album country entertainer Brantley Gilbert to take the stage the next night at the company’s private dealer party.

Meanwhile, the whole industry awaits a related announcement from THOR Industries Inc., which had not released its party plans as of mid-day Tuesday, although it’s rumored that the public held, multi-divisional RV manufacturer has rather exciting plans in the works.

And not to be outdone over the years, Grand Design RV plans on featuring rocker Sammy Hagar at its Monday night dealer party at LCI Industries Inc.’s new headquarters, the former Furrion facility, just west of the RV/MH Hall of Fame.

All things considered, Forest River CEO Pete Liegl agrees, nostalgic rock ‘n roll pretty much seals the afterhours deal for thousands of visiting RV dealer personnel from coast to coast who converge on Elkhart to review new model offerings each year at about this time.

“Very definitely,” said Liegl. “And the whole thing is to have a good time with dealers, to learn more about them and have them learn more about us as a total company and how we can be better partners, how we can do things better to make life easier for the dealers. You know, we’re here to learn, and it should be fun. It should be easy and just very laid back with us asking what we can do to make their lives better. It’s just that damn simple.”

Of course, that’s been the case over the years for Liegl’s company, a unit of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. which has hired classic Open House bands over the years like Daughtry, Trace Adkins, Foreigner, Kid Rock, Styx and Big & Rich. But it was still a major surprise for many industry people when Forest River last week announced that it would kick off the Open House revival after a two-year pandemic hiatus with a talented rock star of the magnitude of Mellencamp.

No lightweight by anyone’s measure, Mellencamp has been nominated for 13 Grammy Awards, winning one, and has sold over 60 million albums worldwide. He was inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame in 2008 and the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2018.

So, again, as the RV arena seeks to resume its Open House habits next week, classic tunes will still play a key role as U.S. and Canadian dealers converge on the 2022 Elkhart RV Open House, which, according to Liegl, bears certain similarities to the original “Expo,” a private affair that took place at Forest River’s corporate headquarters on the west side of town.

“It was tough times back in 2009,” he added, “and it was just a matter of getting together and communicating in an effort to overcome as a group problems in the economy. And same thing today. We don’t have any serious problems today, although things are a little slower today than what they were six months ago or three months ago. But again, we’re tracking at basically 2019’s pace. And 2019 was a phenomenal year. And, so, we just want to get together and thank the dealers for what they’re doing for us, buying our product, keeping us in business and helping us figure out how to keep that going, to keep the dealer happy in giving him the product that he definitely wants.”

Source: https://rvbusiness.com/mellencamp-adds-to-an-enjoyable-open-house-tradition/