Without repeating the details, over the years, John Hiatt has assumed the status of legend in LTA lore....go back to episode 100 if you need a refresher. His life story is the focus of episode 160 of the show. Is this episode any good? Have a little faith......
Welcome to episode 160 of Love That Album.
My friend of many years and fellow Hiatt fan Geoff Smith joins me as we welcome radio announcer and author Michael Elliott to the show. He has written the first ever biography of John Hiatt called “Have A Little Faith: The John Hiatt Story”. The book looks his life and work. The first half of the book tells the story of a talented songwriter who has faced adversity through family trut broken, substance abuse, and personal tragedy. In the 21t century, it' also unthinkable that an artist would go through three major labels before finding some public success at the fourth. His circumstances would have weakened many....but through his own determination, and the respect of his peers, Hiatt found his way.
Michael has written a wonderful book that while never salacious, doesn't shy away from the hardships of Hiatt's early life. We speak about how he tried many musical styles before he settled on what was true and honest artistically for him. We speak about songcraft, humour, the connection to David Bowie, why Emmylou Harris makes everything better, and many other topics around Hiatt's life and Michael's book.
My gratitude to Geoff for coming up with some great questions for Michael and bringing in his own experiences with John Hiatt. Also huge thanks goes to Michael for providing an entertaining discussion around his biographical subject.
If you feel so inspired to grab a copy of Have A Little Faith, you can find the links to any number of book stores at https://michael-elliott.com/. The site also has links to numerous articles Michael has written over the years for a variety of publications about all manner of musicians. If you live outside of the US, just walk into your local book store and tell them to order you a copy pronto.
Download this episode of LTA from your podcast app of choice. The wider back catalogue of episodes can also be found at http://lovethatalbumpodcast.blogspot.com
Love That Album is proudly part of the Pantheon Podcast network. Go to http://pantheonpodcasts.com to check out all their great shows.
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You can download episode 160 from here.
