Hiatt's suite disorder

by Russell Baille

November 1995, Real Groove Magazine, New Zealand

Russell Baille checks in with John Hiatt about his new album, new label, Tonya Harding, and live behind the do not disturb sign

John Hiatt is in a hotel room in Amsterdam. Kind of appropriate really as it was in just such faraway but room-serviced spots where many of the songs on his latest Walk On album emerged as he extensively toured his last Perfectly Good Guitar. That record - his rowdiest, rockingest, loudest yet - turned out to be the last Hiatt recorded for the A&M label which he left, disgruntled with the company's efforts to turn some of that respect he has earned as a great American singer-songwriter into wider recognition.

Now signed to Capitol Records (his sixth label in his 21 years of recording) Hiatt's new album is an often folky affair of songs possessing the tenderness and wry humour we've come to expect from the man who says he is visiting in February to test out the acoustics of a few local hotel suites. Oh and play a concert or two...

If you're on the road how do you avoid writing about hotel rooms and room service?
Ha ha ha. We are looking for contrasts... that's why the old guitar comes out ultimately the tedium of touring is such that you become desperate for some contrast. I think that is why these songs came out why they did. Folk songs I guess. We were rockin' every night. The songs were written in that mid part of the day when you've gotten in from your overnight bus trip and you are twiddling your thumbs... some of them were written in dressing rooms.

How then does Walk On relate to Perfectly Good Guitar?
I don't know if they are even connected. The albums tend to go the way the songs go for me. Perfectly Good Guitar was a batch of songs I had written over a period of one or two years. We had just moved out to the country and I remember being thrilled that I could turn my amplifier up real loud and nobody would complain so a lot of those songs were written on guitar. And also I was listening to a lot of new bands and stuff with my stepson so they were definitely inspired by that. These songs again were borne out of a need of a little reflection and a little quiet time on this ongoing and endless world tour. Maybe that's the connection - it's the other side of that kind of stuff.

The first line to the track Ethylene refers to "sitting on the toilet with the sunglasses on"... care to explain?
There you are in your hotel room. You never know what is going to happen.

So it's one of those things you do in hotel rooms because you can...
Exactly, there you go.

The song title - a chemical formula or a woman?
It's a woman. That name came from...I don't know if you have it down your way but in the states they have this programme called adopt a highway and apparently what you do is pay some money or you agree to take care of a little stretch of highway of two or three miles long and as a result you get your name put up on a little plaque on the road. That was where I founf this name. It was this womand and her husband. I forget his name but her name was Ethylene. I just thought it was a beautiful name.

How about the river in The River Knows Your Name? Same river you've written about before or a different on?
Different river. That was written down in Austin, Texas so the inspiration was the Colorado River which runs right through town there. Beautiful river, beautiful town. It's not as big as it is when it gets out west but it's still fairly impressive.

Presumably some of these songs with American settings weren't actually written in the USA.
Yeah. You Must go was written in a hotel room in Paris right at the start of a tour. I remember one day I was out on our farm in Tennessee and the next day I was in Paris, France and I remember being kind of struck by how odd that is. So that song was borne out of that.

How about Shredding the Document... about the old contract with A&M?
No actually it was inspired by the wealth, the wealth of talk shows we have back home and the sort of general... I don't know invasion of privacy. It's not even an invasion. People are dying to go on those things and tell their life story and I guess that is what it came out of. These are not people that we know. I have never met these people. I don't know where they come from. And I guess I was inspired by Tonya Harding. Her whole going to the Olympics kinda rubbed me the wrong way...

There aren't so many character-driven songs on the album but neither does it sound as personal as the trilogy of albums that started with Bring the Family.
No, not as many. It's more sort of just narrative. They are as personal but just not as introspective. There is not as much navel gazing going on if you will. On Bring the Family I was much more at a point in my life where it was a period of fairly heavy self-assessment. "Taking stock" as my father used to say. "Son you've got to take stock, take stock of your inventory once in a while"

Why the change of record labels?
I asked to be relieved of my contractural obligations to A&M because I felt we were working at odds with each other. They viewed me in one light and I viewed myself in another. A much bigger light. They had me in a small pool of light and I saw myself bathed, positively drowning in it.

Were they saying "Here's another John Hiatt album and we'll do what we can"?
Not even "we'll do what we can". That attitude I could have lived with. Their attitude was you should be happy with where you are at and my whole attitude was why? I want to expand my audience and we're doing it but not through any help of yours. There were three four lables that came out of the woodwork and Capitol was saying all the right things - lies though they may be, The honeymoon isn't over yet. No I feel real good about the label... I like where the company is and they are enthusaistic and a little of that goes a long way.

As a respected songwriter, given the opportunity would you have traded the respect for more outright success?
Ha ha. What a question. Probably. I have enough self-respect... Yeah sure I would because I feel.. I wouldn't have traded anything that has happened. It's all just right to be honest with you. I am right where I need to be. If I had been successful earlier on, who is to say that I might not have gone completely whacko and totally off course and been totally corrupted and absorbed by it? Who knows? And success does strange things to people. I've had ongoing success that has been building. It's been nice. I am just where I need to be.

But it sounds like you are still quite ambitious
Oh absolutely. I don't hide it. I think my best work is in front of me and not behind and that is what keeps me doing it. If I thought I had done my best work I would knock it on the head.

So what do you look for in a hotel?
24hr room service

I take it staying in Hyatts could get confusing?
That was the other side of the family.