John Hiatt may not be a household name in every home, but his songs -- songs like "Have a Little Faith in Me," "Riding With the King" and "A Thing Called Love" -- have become a part of the fabric of American music of life. And artists ranging from Bob Dylan to Iggy Pop, from Willie Nelson to Bonnie Raitt have performed John Hiatt's work. Now, Mr. Hiatt offers up his latest collection, The Tiki Bar is Open, 11 electric rock songs that reunite him with the band The Goners.

Q: The time has come. The Tiki Bar is Open, as the title of John Hiatt's new album tells us. John, your last album was "Crossing Muddy Waters," that was an acoustic record. The new album begins with some strumming, but then all hell breaks loose.

A: Kerblammy...

Q: ...You start rocking. What made you plug back in and reunite with the Goners?

A: Well, I got back together with those guys … summer of '99. I called Sonny on a whim. And I said, "You know, the century's coming to a close here, Buddy. Should we give it another go? Either knock it on the head or play some more." And they were all up for it. So we got together, did a couple of shows. And it was like a -- you know, it was like riding a bike, getting back on a bicycle. You know, so wonderful, the feeling. And that summer, we started recording this record.

Q: But you really only made one album with the Goners, "Slow Turning," and yet they've kind of become mythical in your discography, if you will. Tell me who the Goners are and what makes this band different from other bands you've played with, like the Nashville Queens.

A: The Goners are Kenny Blevins, on the drum kit. Dave Ranson on bass. And Sonny Landreth on slide guitar and singing. And it's one of those magic quartets, the four of us together. We just make a certain kind of racket that you can't get anywhere else.

Q: I want to go inside The Tiki Bar and listen to the first single, which is called My Old Friend. Great rock and roll references in this song. Your best since you had that line about "yelling at the kids in the backseat 'cause they were banging like Charlie Watts." When I heard the song, I thought that maybe reuniting with an old friend reminded you that you like to see the world through music-colored glasses. Is that --

A: Well, that was sort of the idea. I think it had a lot to do with my kids. And they're getting into their teenage years now. And I've watched them kind of progress through music much the way I did. They started out with whatever was on the radio. Then they discovered Rock and Roll. And my daughter Lilly who's 17, I mean, she's -- she listens to everybody from Pearl Jam to Bob Dylan, Neil Young. She's getting into the blues a little bit. I just see how important music is to them. And it just kind of reminds me of how it's -- you know, there's always been a soundtrack running to my life.

And also, I'm always running into these people, you know, from the old days. And inevitably, these women, even though they're in their 40s now, they look fabulous or else they're very successful or married well or whatever. And I always feel like the same old schmo. And so it's a little about that, too, I guess.

Q: With references to Jethro Tull and Neil Young and the song's friendship theme, I think My Old Friend is going to strike a chord with a lot of people. When you wrote your most popular songs, did you have an inkling at the time that they were the ones that would have staying power?

A: Not at all. I mean, when I'm writing, I'm never -- it's all…all about the work. You know, the results I'm never even -- I'm clueless, really, as to what's even going to happen to these things. I get so involved in writing the songs and then making the records, that I don't really … It's great when they connect. It's great when the audience says, "Man, I love that song." Or "This song means so much to me and my wife," or whatever. That's the payoff. I think if you start thinking about that, you know, how somebody's going to take something, it's kind of like when you're in the studio and you start thinking about what you're playing. The next thing you know, you're not really making music, you're showing off.

Barbara Misle, LBJS's Jeff Carrol, Vanguard Records' Art Phillips, John Hiatt, KGSR's Jody Denberg, Barbara Koonce

Q: What about when Riding With the King, which was almost 20 years old, suddenly became the title track to a double platinum-collaboration between Eric Clapton and BB King? Did it make you feel like your songs have a life of their own?

A: Getting that song recorded after all those years, I just kept remembering what my mom said: "Hang in there. Don't ever give up." You know, all the old cliches. Because it's true. I mean, that's a great example for any of you kids out there writing songs or struggling with your music, hang in there, man. It will come to light. It pays off. If you just put the effort in. That was a real thrill to get that thing recorded. I got a platinum award, you know, double-platinum record award for that record. And I've gotten a few. I got one from Bonnie Raitt and a couple of other people. And I've never put one up on a wall anywhere. But this one I got, I put up in my race shop because I was pretty proud.

Q: Isn't it odd that there's been more than 100 versions of your various songs and yet you said you don't sit down to write for other people?

A: I've tried to write for other people and the results have been pretty bad most of the time. Yeah, I just write, you know. I think that that's what the other artists connect with. They know they're just getting a John Hiatt song, whatever my particular skew is, you know, musically or my slant lyrically you know.

Q: Yeah. Because I wondered what makes them feel they can get inside your songs. Maybe because they're universal but they're personal at the same time?

A: Well, I think they're simple. You know, I've always tried to be simple. I'm always looking for that, that little sick twist, you know. I mean, that's sort of what appeals to me. So I'm always looking for a little, just a little twisted way of saying the same old thing, really.

Q: There's a sonically smashing number that opens The Tiki Bar: Everybody Went Low. Now, that phrase must have some twist to it, because I don't know what in the heck you're talking about.

A: I just remember when I was a kid and we'd sit around talking about life and stuff. There was a phenomenon that I started to notice. That if you got a certain group of people together, they could talk each other into being bummed out. You know what I mean? And so it was kind of like talking about that, I guess. Just that phenomenon. And then by the end of the song, lyrically, you know, the girl's pulled through it and the guy wants to jump in the same lifeboat she's in and get the heck out of there, you know…get tired of being bummed out by all this stuff.

Q: Everybody Went Low begins "The Tiki Bar is Open". And we are inside the Tiki Bar with the man himself in his adopted hometown of Nashville. And John, you actually live outside of Nashville. Does that rural existence smack of where you grew up in Indiana?

A: You know it doesn't. I'm a city kid. I was born and raised in Indianapolis. But when I was a kid, my granddaddy had a little cinderblock cabin up on a lake. About 70 miles north of Indy. And we went there every summer when I was a kid. And my daddy would stay in town and work all summer. And he'd send mom and the seven kids up to the cabin. And man, I just loved it up there. And it was just funky. I mean, it was cinderblock. One room. I mean, I'm talking pretty rugged. But I just loved it. And so I've always sort of been drawn to the woods and greenery. I guess that's what I -- what drew me to Tennessee back so many years ago.

Q: Still you're close enough to be here in Nashville on a regular basis. What does it mean to you as a musician to be in Nashville?

A: I just fell in love with this town the first time I slept in a park here when I was 18. The first couple of nights I spent in Nashville, I slept in Centennial Park under a park bench. Came into town with a buddy of mine. And I was going to get some kind of somethin' going musically, you know. It just has a great feel. And it still does, even as much as the town has grown, you know, in the last 30 years.

Q: What does it mean to you to be so close to Nashville and the "music business"?

A: Well, I'll be honest with you. I don't get too involved in the business here, you know. I just like it more just for the feel of the place. And there's always been a music scene, a musical subculture in Nashville. And it's still here you know. There's all these great players that -- you know, kind of the underbelly. They're not the top A-line session guys making the -- whatever that is they're making on music row these days. And there's a scene -- there's always been a scene within a scene here. And I think it's just a great place.

Q: Well, when you came here, you were sleeping in the park, like you said. Eighteen years old. I think we're talking about 1970?

A: '71, yeah.

Q: Did you ever think you would be a lifer?

A: A: music lifer?

Q: Yeah.

A: I must have because -- I mean, I picked up a guitar when I was 11. And man that's all she wrote. I mean, I -- ever since then, it's been the thing I do. So I think I had a sense that I was in for the long haul, even back then.

Q: In your first job, you were working for a music publishing company. What was your first hit song?

A: Well, the first thing that made any noise -- well, the first cut, which was a big thing for me... it wasn't a hit. But Tracy Nelson did a song of mine called Thinking of You. And it was a song I wrote the year before I moved down here. So I think I wrote it when I was about 17. And so that was exciting, just getting, you know, a song that you wrote, getting the record. You know taking it home, putting it on. "Oh my God, it's my song." The first success was a song called Sure as I'm Sitting Here, which I had recorded on my first album on Epic. And Three Dog Night, apparently, heard it and cut it and had like a top -- I think top 15 hit with it.

Q: I Know A Place reminds me of when I see you on stage and John Hiatt's in total abandon. Your face and body are getting' twisted up. I mean, God John, you get the blues in a real way. Are you sure you're not an old blues guy from Chicago in the body of a singer/songwriter?

A: Well, you know I've always connected with that music. And I've never thought you have to be a certain color or from a certain place or even to be a certain style of music to understand the blues. So I think it's pretty universal. But I really connect with that particular structure, that music structure. Three chords and something to get off your chest or off your mind or out from under or something that's been breaking your heart. And that whole -- that cathartic kind of quality that singing the blues has, I subscribe to that wholeheartedly.

Q: After hearing I Know a Place, I now know why you're a part of B.B. King's Blues Festival this year. 'Cause I was thinking at first that, okay, B.B. King, Buddy Guy, John Hiatt. Seemed like an odd pairing.

A: I just accepted the invitation because I'm going to be the youngest guy on the tour. And that's unusual.

Q: Would you play a different set on this tour than you ordinarily might?

A: No, I don't think so. I mean, we've only got about an hour, I think, so it's going to be compact. You don't have to go deep into my catalogue to find a bunch of stuff that certainly draws from the blues, if not is the blues outright. And so I see the connection personally. I mean...

Q: So who gets to sing Riding with the King?

A: Yeah, well, you know, my dream, of course, would be that we get to sing it with B.B. . Buddy, B.B. and myself. I mean, who knows if that's going to happen. But that's my fantasy.