how guarded he's been able to remain while talking a mile a minute…

May 29, 2020 9:05 AM

Tall Tales With Dwight Yoakam: An intimate night of conversation and tunes with the hard-charging, mile-a-minute pioneer of honky-tonk himself (GQ)

At one point our conversation spirals from Merle Haggard to the Maddox Brothers and Rose to a particular shot from the Amazon Prime series Patriot to the underdiscussed formal impact of Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio on the modern novel to David Bowie. Dwight met Bowie in the '90s and asked him about Elvis Presley, because Bowie and Elvis share a birthday—which is the kind of thing Dwight knows—and Bowie told him that six months before Elvis's death, the King had called Bowie and asked him to produce his next record, because apparently Elvis loved “Golden Years.” Bowie said he'd do it; then every time he tried to call Elvis after that, some Memphis Mafia guy would pick up and say, “He can't come to the phone right now, man.” Dwight's never forgotten anything and everything reminds him of something, is the point. Sometimes it's like talking to Doctor Manhattan.

posted by not_the_water (5 comments total)

His performance as the warden in Logan Lucky is one of the highlights of that film for me. The bit where they're arguing about whether or not the new Game of Thrones book is out yet or not is even more hilarious three years on, when it's still not out.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 9:58 AM on May 29, 2020 [1 favorite]

Wow, I actually dipped into this thread to post that quote about Bowie. Blows my mind.
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:47 AM on May 29, 2020 [1 favorite]

His contribution to “ Charles Portis, The Greatest Writer You've Never heard Of” is also very nice.
posted by drowsy at 3:42 PM on May 29, 2020

"Dwight grew up in the church, abstains from everything—the author of “This Drinkin' Will Kill Me” has never touched a drop—but you've never had a conversation this digressive with someone who does not get high. You ask a question, then he's off, parkouring from subject to subject, and before you know it Dwight Yoakam is saying things like “I would even point to the Spanish-American War” or “And that begins, to my way of thinking, with Northern and Western Europe throwing off the yoke of theocracy, and the writings of John Calvin, and Martin Luther, going back centuries earlier, and that's what leads us…” in response to a question along the lines of “So how long have you had this office space?”"

That was a fun read, thanks!
posted by MonkeyToes at 3:57 PM on May 29, 2020

When Johnny Carson retired there were 837 people vying for a shot at that time slot. Whoopi Goldberg had what I thought was the best. She's warm, she's smart, she knows everybody. I'd record it on VCR (remember those?) then binge watch, skip commercials etc and etc.

Yoakam was on that show, and until reading this interview that was the most I knew of him, aside from loving a few of his CDs. On her show I found him thoughtful, cool, smart as hell, hugely talented. One hell of a show.*
*Unreal. I just found that show on youtube. Give yourself the gift of spending 20 minutes with Yoakam, Goldberg, and Jerry Peters on piano.

Whoopi had the best guest list and she had conversation with the people she hosted, no audience, no bells nor whistles, just good television. Yoakam, Lyle Lovett, and Patti Davis (Reagan's daughter) stand out strongest, they made the deepest impression on me, Yoakam and Lovett because they're such great musicians, Patti Davis because I wanted to marry her and stuff.

It was of course too good to last on US TV, they offered us choice of yawners, Letterman or Leno -- I passed.

This was a great read. Thx for posting, OP.
posted by dancestoblue at 1:00 PM on May 30, 2020 [1 favorite]