32 Facts About John Hiatt

John Robert Hiatt was born on August 20,1952 and is an American singer-songwriter.

John Hiatt has played a variety of musical styles on his albums, including new wave, blues, and country.

John Hiatt was working as a songwriter for Tree International, a record label in Nashville, Tennessee, when his song "Sure As I'm Sittin' Here" was covered by Three Dog Night.

The song became a Top 40 hit, earning John Hiatt a recording contract with Epic Records.

John Hiatt was born in 1952 to Robert and Ruth John Hiatt, the sixth of seven children in a Roman Catholic family from Indianapolis, Indiana.

John Hiatt learned to play the guitar when he was 11 and began his musical career in Indianapolis as a teenager.

John Hiatt moved to Nashville, Tennessee, when he was 18 years old and got a job as a songwriter for the Tree-Music Publishing Company for $25 a week.

John Hiatt, who was unable to read or write scores, had to record all 250 songs he wrote for the company.

John Hiatt wrote and performed two songs on their second album In Season.

John Hiatt performed live in many clubs around Nashville with White Duck and as a solo act.

John Hiatt met Don Ellis of Epic Records in 1973, and received a record deal, releasing his first single "We Make Spirit" later that year.

That same year John Hiatt wrote the song "Sure as I'm Sitting Here" recorded by Three Dog Night, which went to number 16 on the Billboard chart in 1974.

In 1974, John Hiatt released Hangin' Around the Observatory, which was a critical success but a commercial failure.

John Hiatt received a few good reviews for these albums by critics in the Netherlands.

John Hiatt performed at Paradiso in Amsterdam for the first time in 1979 and came back often and built a solid fan base.

John Hiatt was signed in 1982 to Geffen, where he recorded three diverse albums from 1982 to 1985.

John Hiatt began making "critics choice" lists and building a large European following.

John Hiatt recorded a duet with Elvis Costello, a cover version of the Spinners' song "Living a Little, Laughing a Little", which appeared on Warming Up to the Ice Age.

John Hiatt finally came into success in 1987, when he released Bring the Family.

The Jeff Healey Band covered the John Hiatt-penned song "Angel Eyes" and took it to the top five of the Billboard Hot 100.

John Hiatt recorded Perfectly Good Guitar with members of alternative rock groups School of Fish and Wire Train in 1993.

John Hiatt recorded the album with producer Matt Wallace, who had worked most prominently with Faith No More, a band that John Hiatt's 15-year-old stepson had recommended for him.

John Hiatt received his first Grammy nomination in 1995 for his album Walk On.

In 2000, John Hiatt released his first independent album on Vanguard Records, Crossing Muddy Waters, which saw a heavy influence of bluegrass in his music.

In 2002, Hiatt performed several songs for the soundtrack of the Disney's The Country Bears movie, again with Johns producing, representing the voice of the lead singer.

The album was produced by Jim Dickinson, and John Hiatt was backed up by the bassist David Hood and several members of the North Mississippi Allstars.

On February 12,2008, during a concert with Lyle Lovett at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, Ontario, John Hiatt said that his new album would be titled Same Old Man.

John Hiatt appeared as a performer in The House of Blues in the sixth episode of the second season of Treme, with the episode title taken from his song Feels Like Rain.

John Hiatt presented an Americana Lifetime Achievement Award to Bonnie Raitt on September 12,2012.

On July 15,2014, John Hiatt released Terms of My Surrender, his 22nd studio album.

On October 12,2018, John Hiatt released The Eclipse Sessions, an LP via New West Records.

John Hiatt recorded the album as part of a trio of guitar, bass, and drums.