20 Questions: Dwight Yoakam

Dwight Yoakam was born 33 years ago in Floyd County, Kentucky. Although his family had to migrate north to Ohio in search of factory jobs, they returned home every weekend. Dwight was thus able to grow up in the local holler and absorb a way of life that is now almost extinct.

He headed for Nashville in his late teens, but he got no further than an audition at Opryland. His music, with its high, drawn-out notes, evokes a reedy sadness. He was told to change it to resemble the bubbly pop music heard everywhere on radios. Instead, he drove to L.A. and found work singing and playing guitar in honky-tonk and cow-punk bars. That was 12 years ago. Since then, his first album, "Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc.," has gone platinum; "Hillbilly Deluxe" and "Buenas Noches from a Lonely Room" have gone gold; and this past fall, he finished "Just Lookin' for a Hit."

Trish Wend met him at his manager's office in L.A. She tells us: "Dwight strode into the room out of breath and a little frayed around the edges. The workmen who were installing his swimming pool had locked him out of his house. He wore ripped jeans, an untucked white shirt and, in a major departure from his publicity pictures, no hat. He still looked great."

1.

[Q] Playboy: Why are so many sad country songs sung so fast and cheerfully?

[A] Yoakam: There really is a dichotomy. It's the same way with bluegrass songs. The up-tempo ones are often about enormous tragedy, whether it's love, a death in the family or day-to-day struggles. It's a way to confront sorrow directly with such energy that you overcome your despair.

2.

[Q] Playboy: What albums would you use to turn someone into a country-music fan?

[A] Yoakam: Listen to some early bluegrass--like Bill Monroe or the Stanley Brothers--and you'll start to have an understanding of where the music comes from in its raw state. It articulates the struggle of a specific subculture in rural Appalachia, the Ozarks and the dust-bowl and panhandle areas. Country music is a white ethnic art form. Its ethnicity is cultural, though, not racial. You should also listen to some early Carter family recordings. Hank Williams, Sr., will help you develop an affection for people like Stonewall Jackson, Johnny Cash and Johnny Horton. And George Jones's early work.

3.

[Q] Playboy: You're on a one-man mission to disprove the notion that country singers are illiterate at worst or self-taught at best. Tell us about the education of Dwight Yoakam.

[A] Yoakam: My early schooling bored me. I became disillusioned with things very easily. I hated math, but geography and history came naturally. I even hid in the library and read encyclopedias. But I was always involved with my music, and that was a big distraction from class time and homework. I had a band in high school called the Greasers, and we did rock-a-billy and old Buddy Holly covers and early Elvis stuff. I played some football, too, but I was skinny and constantly being beaten to death on the field. I've always loved basketball. I was at least built for that.

Then I went to Ohio State. After I moved to L.A., I transferred to the city college here, but my musical career kept interrupting school. If I'd finished, I probably would have majored in history.

4.

[Q] Playboy: When riding your horse, do you concentrate on your horsemanship or on where you're going?

[A] Yoakam: [Smiles] I think about staying on the horse, mainly. Quarter horses have stability and common sense. You need as much as you can get out here; it's very mountainous and hilly, and there's a lot of loose dirt. I didn't want to name him anything that was scattered or emotionally unstable, like Cloud Dancer. I figured that if I was gonna ride him on a trail, he'd better be real nice and level and balanced. So I named him Scout.

5.

[Q] Playboy: There's always a relational problem in country songs; for example, she's cheating, she never loved him, she's being cruel. Take off your cowboy hat, as it were, and give us some real-life advice.

[A] Yoakam: You have to realize that not everybody is meant to be with you. In fact, it takes a while to find somebody with whom you're truly emotionally compatible. And I don't mean romantically compatible, because that's just infatuation. It's more important to be concerned about adjusting to and understanding each other, so that you don't wreck your life on a daily basis.

6.

[Q] Playboy: You once tried to drive your truck through a former girlfriend's house. Was it something she said?

[A] Yoakam: No, it was something she did. She betrayed the relationship. All I could do was get into my truck and start driving up the lawn to her house. Fortunately, a wheel on the grass got caught on the pipe underneath my truck. [Laughs] I tore out the corner of my turn signal, and the shock ended my little reverie. I don't know that I necessarily would have stopped the truck myself. You just have to realize that, hey, if she can't be trusted, then you have to deny her that trust. Just take it back and never return it. No matter what.

7.

[Q] Playboy: What are the three danger signs that a relationship's over?

[A] Yoakam: [Grins] Empty closets, all the furniture gone, phone ripped out of the wall. That might tell you the relationship's on its way out the window.

8.

[Q] Playboy: People have written that your hat seems to be sewn to your forehead. And fans at your concerts hold up signs saying What's Under the Hat, Dwight? Why do we never see you without one?

[A] Yoakam: I wear my hat because I started performing in it, and I feel comfortable that way. And now it's become part of the image. But you're seeing me without a hat. And a lot of people see me without one. It's just that once you put one on, you don't usually take it off, because it mashes your hair down. My hair's thin, so a hat doubly messes it up. I'd be less than honest if I said I didn't want to try to look good; so once I wear it, I don't want to take it off.

9.

[Q] Playboy: Would we ever find you in a pair of Nikes?

[A] Yoakam: No, I'm a Converse man. But that's just for playing basketball. I've worn boots ever since I got out of high school. I just (continued on page 148)Dwight Yoakam(continued from page 125) got real comfortable in them. God, I guess I must have seventeen or twenty pairs by now. I don't really have any favorites. I like these ostrich boots I'm wearing right now, and I really like my calfskins. They're all custom-made by Austin Hall in El Paso, Texas, and by Paul Bond in Nogales, Arizona. The ones I wear on stage are made from kangarooskin, and they have sterling-silver tips on 'em.

10.

[Q] Playboy: Give us a tour of one of your outfits.

[A] Yoakam: My clothes are made by a fella named Manuel. He's Nudie's son-in-law. Nudie was a big cowboy tailor out here for probably forty years, and Manuel worked with him. Manuel has been on his own since the Seventies and continues to make clothes for every country superstar, including Hank, Jr. I've been very fortunate in dealing with him, because he sets aside his own ego and indulges mine. He sketches things I describe--the embroidery and the patterns--and by the time I'm done, we've created a jacket.

11.

[Q] Playboy: What will Ralph Lauren never know about the country look?

[A] Yoakam: First of all, he's an astute designer. But he gets carried away with all that merchandising. I've got to commend the guy for at least picking up those elements of American style that have been abandoned by other companies. He used to make some real nice one-hundred-percent-cotton, pearl-buttoned Western shirts, but you can't buy them anymore. Unfortunately, the Western look's been cheapened by companies like H Bar C, which used to make great wool-gabardine jackets, and by Panhandle Slim. They make everything in polyester now.

There's always been a market for well-made jackets that genuinely reflect the Southwestern culture. That's why Manuel and I are going to make a line of them together. They're more traditional than the ones I wear on stage. This is the stuff cowboys might put on to go out on a Saturday night. You know, a dark-blue or khaki jacket that's piped on top in an arrowhead motif. We're calling it DY Ranch Wear.

12.

[Q] Playboy: Your jeans are bleached and torn and seem to accommodate standing room only. Where do you get them?

[A] Yoakam: I get 'em off the rack. They're Levi's 517, size twenty-eight, thirty-six, with nothing done to them. It's the saddle-and-boot jean, what they call a slim cut. Except they don't make them long enough--I like 'em way down over the heel--so I let them out and put a false end on them. Then I just wash them over and over, hot water and hot dry. No other brand looks the same--Levi's has a secret formula for its indigo-blue dye. Other jeans don't fade the same and their denim weight's lighter. Now, Levi's orange label and red label are different, too. The red-label jeans fit better in the yoke of the pants, in the seat and the pockets. I'm neurotic about this, if you can't tell.

Now, about those rips: The best jeans are old jeans, but they start to give out in the seat, by the pockets or in the knee. [Puts leg on desk and examines rip in knee] I tried five times to stitch over this knee. See, this is actually a patch underneath the fabric. But I don't like the look of patches. So I finally decided I wasn't going to worry about sewing up my knees anymore. It became a nuisance. Maybe it's also because the look became acceptable. Whew! If that's all you want to know about my jeans, I don't blame you!

13.

[Q] Playboy: One last jeans item: We overheard one of your roadies say that they'd all be out of a job if you couldn't fit into your jeans. Is he still with you?

[A] Yoakam: [Grins] He's probably my manager.

14.

[Q] Playboy: In your Little Sister music video, we see women in cages snarl, pace and paw at the bars. What did they do to deserve that?

[A] Yoakam: Well, I'll tell ya, that was a communication failure between the director, me and the people who built the props. That song has a real Sixties rhythm, and so they thought of go-go cages, the old ones that sit on pedestals. It ended up with the dancers looking more like something out of Women in Chains. Very odd. When we got to the set that day, I kind of raised the eyebrow and thought, We'll see how this ends up looking on film. Because of budget and time constraints, we couldn't just tear down the set and start all over. At least the gals who were dancing didn't object!

15.

[Q] Playboy: Girls always do you wrong in your songs. Have you ever been wronged and later realized that she was right?

[A] Yoakam: There have been times when I've wanted to have a relationship with a woman and she hasn't, and later I realize that she was absolutely correct. We just weren't right for each other. And I guess I've been callous about my girlfriends' feelings a couple of times. One of them gave me an emotional slap in the face that I justly deserved.

16.

[Q] Playboy: Do you have any favorite guitars that you play at home but never record with or take on the road?

[A] Yoakam: The best-sounding guitar is an early Seventies Herringbone Martin D28 that I've used the past three years of road work. It's suffered a bit, but it's still a glorious-sounding guitar. I wouldn't want to use a guitar on the road that didn't sound as good as the ones that I have at home. I've worn a hole in the finish of my Herringbone Martin by slapping rhythms on it--sometimes very hard--but I cherish it.

A good guitar that resonates properly is the most beautiful thing in the world. I have two electric and six acoustic guitars. They all have different personalities, even genders--no two sound alike--but I've never gotten to the point where I've given them names or anything.

17.

[Q] Playboy: What other kinds of music do you like?

[A] Yoakam: Among the current groups, I've got INXS, Smithereens and a lot of Aretha Franklin tapes. I love all the Atlantic Records hits. And I love James Brown. I like the Staple Singers a lot, their early stuff, and Jimi Hendrix. I listen to Stevie Ray Vaughn. The Thunderbirds and the Georgia Satellites are favorite bands of mine. I've played with them. They're good guys and their music's real simple and straight-ahead. I like Steve Winwood's current music. And Los Lobos always makes me smile. They're very uplifting. I like early Led Zeppelin and Marvin Gaye. I've always been a Rolling Stones fan, because they are basically doing a raw interpretation of the blues.

18.

[Q] Playboy: In Nashville, country singer Steve Earle once scrawled Dwight Yoakam Eats Sushi on an elevator door, in reaction to what he saw as a contrived country pose. What are your thoughts on sushi versus Sashimi?

[A] Yoakam: Sushi I hate. I've had it two times in my life--the first time was just to try it and the second time was to prove that it was just as repulsive as I'd remembered. And I don't even know what sashimi is.... It's cold, dead fish, without even rice? Ugh! If somebody can't afford a stove, they ought not to be in the restaurant business.

19.

[Q] Playboy: You say you've never had a drink. Have Jerry Jeff Walker, George Jones and Hank Williams, Jr., drunk your share?

[A] Yoakam: I'm sure they've had barrels and barrels of liquor, but I don't think that drinking heavily is a prerequisite to becoming a country singer and songwriter. It would be the same thing as expecting a blues singer to be a junkie. I'm always shocked that people take note of my abstinence. There's no moral issue involved. I don't think I'm any better for not drinking and I've never wanted to make an issue out of it. I was raised in an abstinent household and it's just carried into my adult life.

20.

[Q] Playboy: In your photographs, you look a tad petulant. Tell us the secret of a good pout.

[A] Yoakam: That's not a conscious thing I do. In one of my first reviews, in 'Eighty-three or so, the word stoic came up all the time. And that trait had never even crossed my mind. I didn't realize I looked like that. Perhaps it's just my unconscious attempt to maintain composure. I'm not an animated person. I'm also kind of reclusive, in terms of intimacy and feelings. It's not important that everybody like me.

I've let photographers know up front that I'm not gonna be this smiling face, you know? It's just annoying to have someone you don't know tell you to smile. "I'm happy. I'm ecstatic. [Deliberate monotone] Right this moment, I'm delirious. I mean, if I get much happier than this, you'll need to put me on medication."

hollywood's teetotaling cowdude on tarts, cheatin' hearts and what to look for in a sensible pair of blue jeans