By Robert Trussell
The Kansas City Star | February 15, 1988
The 29-year-old violinist was earning her bread-and-butter in the house band at the Little Nashville (Ind.) Opry when the word went out that Mellencamp was looking for a fiddle player. Germano knew his drummer, Kenny Aronoff, and before long she was performing on Mellencamp’s “Scarecrow” tour in 1986.
More significantly, her powerful fiddle work on Mellencamp’s most recent album, The Lonesome Jubilee, adds a vital dimension to the record, similar to the contribution made by violinist Scarlet Rivera to Bob Dylan’s 1975 Desire album.
“We would come up with our parts, but he would choose what he thought fit,” she said in a telephone interview from Indianapolis. “With that kind of freedom, you can come up with anything. We all had input, but John definitely chooses what he wants.”
Germano, the daughter of a symphony conductor, began studying violin when she was 7. She enjoys listening to classical music, but didn’t want to continue playing it. She was in a couple of rock bands in Indiana and finally dropped out of music when she was 21.
“I was just really trying to find what else I might be able to do,” she said. “It was a weird way to go about it because I had to make money, so I waitressed and I worked in a bakery and I worked in a health food store. I would take classes in recreational therapy and then the next semester I’d take classes in Italian.
“You know, I just tried a thousand different things and I just really couldn’t come up with anything that I could identify with quite as much as music. Then I heard about this Opry job and it was good money and it was just two nights a week, so it allowed me to spend the whole week doing whatever I wanted.”
The Opry job was a by-the-numbers Top 40 country gig, but Germano met some country stars and gradually fell back in love with music. The turning point came when she met Aronoff, Mellencamp’s drummer, who played at the Opry at one point.
“Once Kenny came out to the Opry, my whole world opened up,” she said. “It was like, this guy really enjoys what he’s doing for a living! I thought, ‘Gee, maybe I could try something else instead of just trudging through.’ ”
No doubt about it, landing the Mellencamp job was Big Break time for Germano. But she maintains a realistic attitude about success in the mysterious world of show business.
“Nobody’s a permanent fixture,” she said. “That would be so silly to say, ‘Yes, I’m always going to play with John Mellencamp,’ ’cause people change all the time.
“I mean, you know, he might get a whole new band next week. I doubt that, but you never know. You always have to keep your options open. I don’t feel secure, like I’ve got it made. I’m sure I’ll have to waitress again some day.”