It took a while, but John Mellencamp finally figured things out: He doesn't have to do anything he doesn't want to do.

Seems like an obvious revelation for the man who wrote The Authority Song, but it wasn't until the past few years that he's finally taken himself off the album-tour-album schedule and done exactly what he wanted to do.

"I really thought that's the way I've always done it, but I guess I didn't," he says with a laugh from his Indiana home. "Back then I was always in a hurry."

He's lately spent time on things like painting, race cars and his free, secret acoustic tour last year. The plan: Forget the amphitheaters, forget the tickets. Just show up in a park with a guitar and play.

"That's the way touring really should be. Unannounced shows are really interesting," he says. "In Philadelphia, we didn't tell anybody. All of a sudden we were just in this park playing. But by the time we got to Chicago, people knew we were doing it. We showed up and there were 20,000 people there."

He's at Red Rocks tonight with Trisha Yearwood in a more traditional concert setting, but he relishes last year's surprise shows.

"Woody Guthrie used to go out and play in the fields for the workers," he says. "They're not working the fields anymore. So where do we go? We have to go downtown, around these office buildings, and let these people come out and have a moment of 'I can't believe this guy is doing this.' "

The tour never made it to Denver and ran into trouble in places like Detroit, where the mayor threatened to have Mellencamp arrested if he played.

So now he's here with the Cutting Heads tour, the same name as his new album. One problem: The album isn't finished.

"We're still working on it. I'm not very good at this strategy stuff," he says. "I don't even know when we're putting it out. Maybe in the fall, maybe after the first of the year."

"This is my 20th album, and I'm trying to make a record that you haven't heard from me before. It's not 180 degrees away from what I do, but it's different." The title cut is a duet with Chuck D of Public Enemy, just for starters. He's doing five unreleased new songs in concert, a move many major artists won't do these days for fear of the music's leaking out.

"If someone thinks enough of my songs to steal them and try to make money off it, let them go ahead," he says. "I could see where Napster would be a nuisance for people. But as far as people taping a song from my show and taking it out and selling it, who cares?"

Whether the album is that big a departure remains to be seen. One thing is for sure: Tonight's show will be unlike any he's done.

"There are six percussionists onstage, which I've never done before. It really changes the sound of these songs dramatically," he says. "All the songs have been rearranged. It's a little scary for me."

He's also doing songs he's never played live, such as When Jesus Left Birmingham, and dropping some staples, including Hurt So Good, Lonely Old Night and Cherry Bomb. Don't worry; many of his biggest hits will still be there.

Despite legendary live shows, he's never put out a concert disc.

"The live albums I've bought? Bad! Bad!" he says. "I will put out a record called Nothing Like We Planned that'll be an anthology that will include a lot of live stuff."

One of the odder bits of Mellencamp news in the last year was the revelation that he's doing a musical with famed horror writer Stephen King.

"It's definitely happening. I've got time carved out, and so does Steve, to sit down and finish this thing," Mellencamp says. "Steve is a very witty, very funny guy. I enjoy his personality, but what I was really intrigued by was his ability to take three or four stories and bring them all together. He's already written the story for the show. We've had the story for almost a year now. It's unbelievable. Now he's just gotta write the (dialogue). I have four songs written, and I need about 12. We're getting together in February to do that."

Contact Mark Brown at (303) 892-2674 or brownm@RockyMountainNews.com.