The Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum will feature singer-songwriter John Hiatt in the next installment of its in-depth interview series Poets and Prophets. The series features songwriters who have made significant contributions to country music. The program will take place on Saturday, Aug. 10, at 2:30 p.m. in the museum’s Ford Theater and is included with museum admission.
Throughout his 50-year recording career, Hiatt has established himself as one of the most acclaimed singer-songwriters of his generation, as well as a hit composer for country and rock artists alike. Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Country Music Hall of Fame members Emmylou Harris and Willie Nelson are among the artists who have covered his acerbic, soul-stirring songs.
Hiatt began his professional songwriting career at age 18, when he moved to Nashville to work at Tree Publishing. Over the next two decades, his songs became hits for Rosanne Cash (“The Way We Make a Broken Heart”), the Desert Rose Band (“She Don’t Love Nobody”) and Three Dog Night (“”Sure as I’m Sittin’ Here”). Hiatt found success as a recording artist with his landmark 1987 album, Bring the Family, which featured “Have a Little Faith in Me” and “Memphis in the Meantime,” among other enduring songs. In its wake, he went from earning cuts to being covered by some of music’s biggest names, including Bonnie Raitt (“Thing Called Love”) and B. B. King and Eric Clapton (“Riding with the King”).
Following a stint in Los Angeles, Hiatt returned to Nashville in the mid-1980s and has continued to write, perform and record. He has released more than two dozen albums, most recently 2021’s Leftover Feelings, a highly regarded collaboration with the Jerry Douglas Band, recorded at historic RCA Studio B. In 2008, Hiatt was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and received a lifetime achievement award for songwriting from the Americana Music Association. In 2019, he became the third recipient of the BMI Troubadour Award, which recognized his work as a songwriter.
The interview will be moderated by museum writer-editor Dave Paulson and will be accompanied by vintage photos, film and recordings.
The program is included with museum admission and free to museum members. Seating is limited, and a program ticket is required for admittance.
Previous subjects of the museum’s Poets and Prophets series include Pat Alger, Al Anderson, Bill Anderson, Matraca Berg, Bobby Braddock, Gary Burr, Wayne Carson, Buzz Cason, Jerry Chesnut, Hank Cochran, Roger Cook, Rodney Crowell, Sonny Curtis, Jackie DeShannon, Dean Dillon, Bob DiPiero, Tom Douglas, Kye Fleming, Jerry Foster, Dallas Frazier, Luke Laird, Red Lane, Dickey Lee, John D. Loudermilk, Shane McAnally, Bob McDill, Lori McKenna, Roger Murrah, Paul Overstreet, Dan Penn, Gretchen Peters, Curly Putman, Mike Reid, Allen Reynolds, Liz Rose, Mark D. Sanders, Don Schlitz, Whitey Shafer, Allen Shamblin, Billy Joe Shaver, Red Simpson, JD Souther, Jeffrey Steele, Mike Stoller, Sonny Throckmorton, Sharon Vaughn, Jim Weatherly, Jimmy Webb, Billy Edd Wheeler, Norro Wilson and Craig Wiseman. Videos of previous Poets and Prophets programs can be found here.
