John Hiatt sounds like a happy guy, despite having "a few less brain cells, a lot less hair," as he sings in the title cut of his latest album, "Same Old Man."
It wasn't always that way, but the 55-year-old singer-songwriter has a lot to be happy about these days. He will receive the Americana Music Association's lifetime achievement award for songwriting this fall, but before that, he'll bring his catalog of award-winning tunes to the Atlanta Botanical Garden on July 11.
We talked to Hiatt recently about the award, his popularity with fellow musicians (his songs have been covered by many artists, including Chaka Khan, Jimmy Buffett, Bob Dylan, Paula Abdul, Conway Twitty, Bonnie Raitt and Steve Earle) and his bumpy career.
Congratulations on the Americana award. You're joining an amazing group of previous honorees: Willie Nelson, Guy Clark, John Prine, Rodney Crowell...
That's awful nice of them. That's pretty tall cotton. I'm not sure I belong there, but I'll gratefully accept the honor.
You've managed to thrive (or at least survive) outside the musical mainstream? Has it been difficult?
It was early on, but it all played out the way it was supposed to play out, I reckon. It just took me a while. I'm a slow learner, but I'm tenacious. It just took me a while to hone in on what it was I wanted to do. In my younger years, I was a little confused. Then I kind of started getting things together around the middle '80s. Then finally, I'd say right around [1983 album] "Riding with the King" I started getting a musical path going, but I had such alcohol and drug problems that I couldn't sustain it much. Then finally I got sober in '84 and I started to be able to focus on the music.
So this was a little before "Bring the Family" [the 1987 album many consider his finest]?
"Bring the Family" was really the first record where I could use all my faculties.
How has the support of fellow musicians played a role in your career?
I'll tell you, man, I've been so lucky in that way, that people have recorded my songs... It's just been a real positive thing that's happened over the years, that these various singers have recorded my songs. It's been a privilege to have them do so. I've never really written songs for other people, that's the thing. I've tried a few times and failed miserably. I'm not really a good "write-to-order" kind of writer. It definitely kept me afloat, especially in the earlier years, when I really didn't have much going on.
Tell me about the shows you're doing these days and your band, the Ageless Beauties.
We're out all summer and into the fall. I've got two of the guys from the "Same Old Man" sessions, drummer Kenny Blevins and bass player Patrick O'Hearn. Luther Dickinson [guitarist on "Same Old Man"] couldn't come, he's a Black Crowe all this year. He's a guitar hero, so he couldn't come with us, but we got a great guitarist from Nashville, Doug Lancio, who's played with a bunch of people, including Patty Griffin for a lot of years. So it's a little quartet and we'll mix it up, A lot of old stuff, the new album, a lot of acoustic stuff. Pat plays upright bass quite a bit. It mixes my more solo stuff, with rockin' stuff, so it's both things together, which I've never really done.
Back in the '70s, did you have any inkling that you'd still be doing this 40 years later?
No. Where I'm at now, 22 years married to the same woman, deeply in love; three great kids all grown and out and doing their thing, just wonderful people, inspiring; and playing the music and loving it more and more each year, that's beyond my wildest dreams.
Before I quit drinking — I was about 31, I was 32 when I got sober, I think — I went to see a doctor and he said "you know, if you keep this up, you're going to be dead by the time you're 40." And at the time I thought "well that's just about all the more I can stand, about nine more years of this [stuff] is about all I can take." So I've come a long way, is what I'm trying to say. Things are pretty terrific.
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