For Mellencamp, the concert is the third stop on a Midwest and East Coast trek that is an offshoot of last year’s Words & Music tour.

“I didn’t really intend to go out and play this spring at all,” he told The Associated Press. “But when this NCAA thing came up a couple months ago, I said, ‘Look, if we’re gonna have to go to all the trouble of rehearsing, just book us more shows.””

The Final Four show is a natural fit for Mellencamp. An avid college basketball fan, he often attends Indiana University basketball games, and his “R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.” is featured in commercials promoting this year’s NCAA tournament.

He agreed to perform during Final Four weekend largely because of his relationship with former IU president Myles Brand, who now heads the NCAA.

“Myles asked me for the last three or four years, ‘John will you come and play on that day off?’ and I’ve always had something scheduled, or you know – somethin’ – so Myles, kind of, he made the game in Indianapolis. I can’t say no!”

Brand said he had been hoping for a few years to get Mellencamp, who donated $1.5 million to IU for an indoor sports facility, to play on Final Four weekend.

“It always seemed like a good idea,” he said. “And it turned out this year, it worked.”

Bob Schultz, director of communications for the Indianapolis Convention & Visitors Association, said visitors can expect a “Times Square environment” at downtown’s Monument Circle throughout the Final Four weekend. The area will be surrounded by massive video screens that will show Mellencamp’s concert and the games between Florida and George Mason and Louisiana State and UCLA.

“I’ve never really seen an event like this, other than Simon & Garfunkel playing in Central Park for free. So I’m kind of excited about it,” he said.