So what did you accomplish over the last three years? Dwight Yoakam starred in a movie (The Newton Boys), wrote and recorded an album (A Long Way Home), published a book of song lyrics, directed his first feature film (South of Heaven, West of Hell, which he also wrote), recorded a few new songs for a greatest hits album, went on tour, popped up in a third movie (The Minus Man), was nominated for a Grammy for a spiffy, Gap-sponsored honky-tonk update on a classic Queen song, cut an acoustic album, went on tour again, co-wrote a song with his hero Buck Owens, made another album (the just released Tomorrow's Sounds Today), and landed a role in director David Fincher's upcoming thriller The Panic Room, which is filming as you read this.

Impressed? Don't be. Busy as he's been lately, it's all just a drop in the bucket compared to Yoakam's artistic achievements over the last fifteen years of his career. He's produced some of the best genuine country albums of the modern era, almost single-handedly preserving the grand tradition of the "Bakersfield Sound" as it was established nearly half a century ago by the likes of the aforementioned Owens and Merle Haggard . "It's really for me the California country sound," Yoakam clarifies. "But I'm proud to be part of that community and still making music here, and hopefully we're keeping that kind of West Coast country style alive into the twenty-first century. It's the twenty-first century version of it." In other words, Yoakam's modus operandi isn't tomorrow's sounds today; it's taking yesterday's sounds into the future.

You've got to be one of the world's greatest multi-taskers. With so projects on your mind at once, how'd you manage to write a new album so fast?

While I was making The Newton Boys three years ago and had begun to write for A Long Way Home, I realized I wasn't going to be able to take a month and a half to set aside as I had previously just to write the melodic material for the album. So I began to keep tape recorders scattered about my hotel and trailer, and a couple of guitars in places that I could grab at a thought's notice and put down even thirty seconds to a minute of a melody. I ended up with a satchel full of cassettes that are just stream of consciousness ideas for melodies and songs ideas. That's really what kind of led to all of the material on this album. And I think, knock wood, I'm going to keep doing that, because it really felt as though the album created itself. Though once we got into rehearsal, the guys had to deal with me digging through this satchel and pulling out tape after tape and going fffffrp -- rewinding through four other melody ideas going, 'Here it is! This is the one!'

Buck Owens pops up a few times on Tomorrow's Sounds Today. You've got a real knack for drawing him out of hiding.

Well, sometimes. "Sad Side of Town" is the first and only song I've ever written with Buck Owens. Over the years, I'd say, "Buck, when we gonna write a song?" And he'd say, "Dwight? Dwight's not old enough. I've got underwear older than you." And finally New Years Eve he said, "We haven't written a song together, have we?" And I said, "No, we haven't. I guess I'm either real old and/or your underwear is ancient at this point." But it was a real joy and I'm extremely proud of it, because to me it sounds like a Buck Owens song. When he came down to hear the track, I said, "I think we rub up against the shoulder here of 'Cryin' Time' and 'Together Again' maybe." And he listened to it, and his eyes lit up and he said, "Dwight, could be a cousin!" [Laughs]

Your cover here of Cheap Trick's "I Want You to Want Me," like your Queen cover, really sounds likes a classic Yoakam track. Did both of those come about as afterthoughts?

The Queen thing was totally an outgrowth of the Gap advertising people coming to us and saying they wanted to use "Honky Tonk Man" at the beginning of 1999. And then a couple of months went by and it and I got a call from my manager and he said, "They want you to maybe cut something [instead]." I said, "What?" He said, "Just listen to this. Hear me out -- Queen's 'Crazy Little Thing Called Love.'" I guess he thought I was going to jump out a window. I said, "I dig that." In fact, it had come up in conversation a couple of years earlier with a friend, because for me, when I heard it for the first time, I thought of it as Freddie Mercury's homage to rockabilly. So it came full circle. We've had a ball with it in concert.

The Cheap Trick thing I had had in my head for a long time. I had been singing that one at home forever. I've always loved that melody -- I think it's one of the most poignant melodies ever in rock & roll. I told Pete a couple of years ago, "Someday I want to cut that Cheap Trick track." So we went in and got ready to do this album, and I said, "You know what? Let's cut that." And we worked up an arrangement, and I think it takes hillbilly pretty good.

Last time we talked, in '98, you said you were "off to see the wizard" on your western movie, South of Heaven, West of Hell . . .

Yeah. Man, I saw him and then some. I saw the wizard, I saw the seven dwarves, I saw some big pink elephants. But it's done. TriMark has just acquired all the North American rights to the picture.

Considering how well you write a straight-up honky-tonk song and all the years you've spent in Hollywood, is it true that you've never had a sip of alcohol, taken drugs or smoked a cigarette?

Yeah, it's true. It's never been an issue with me. I was raised in a very abstinent environment, in a very devout family. So as an adult, I never really had the desire or a leaning in the direction of any sort of substance abuse. I figured I had enough hurdles to overcome without giving myself something else to wrestle with. Hey man, I've been around all of it. I've been in and out of every bar there is, every juke joint serving up everything from peppermint Schnapps to lighter fluid. And I just never had the desire. And as a singer, smoking never even crossed my mind, because I really felt that my voice was something I should try to respect because it was just as much a gift as it had anything to do with any kind of effort. So I just never chased cigarettes or booze. I used to always figure, why start when I hadn't bothered at that point?

What about other vices? Do you at least enjoy a nice steak every now and then?

No, I quit eating red meat a long time ago. I'm a vegetarian, but not by a moral issue or any kind of stand. I still eat dairy. And I quit eating sugar about the same time I quit eating red meat, but I eat fruit.

What about Dwight's Bakersfield Biscuits?

They're good, they don't have any sugar in them. Fructose. When Buck opened his restaurant, he was teasing me about having to do something special for it, and I happened to mention it to a guy who knew a guy who owned a bakery. I said, "You know what I should do is bake a dagnumb biscuit for Buck's restaurant. I'm gonna call it Dwight's Bakersfield Biscuit and send it to him." Well, they liked them! So we still sell them in Buck's restaurant, and we sell them on the Internet, and they're in stores at different times and different places. Very fun, almost tongue in cheek. It is a hillbilly way of life, a biscuit. That and squirrel. I've had my share of squirrel and biscuits and gravy in my life. Coming out of Kentucky, I've ate some squirrel.

RICHARD SKANSE
(November 4, 2000)