Dwight Yoakam is a Honky Tonk Man, but He’s Also a Corvette Man

Lately, I’ve been listening to a lot of Dwight Yoakam – and learning. I already knew he was the guy a lot of people love to hate in the 1996 movie “Sling Blade” (and that some people call it a kaiser blade) and the unusual voice behind songs such as “Guitars, Cadillacs,” “Little Ways,” and the remake of “Suspicious Minds.”

Eventually, I came across the following video, “Saw You Comin’,” which documents the making of Yoakam’s 2012 album, “3 Pears.” That’s when I learned that he liked the sixth-generation Corvette for more than just its styling and engine. The Kentucky-born singer would get in his black C6 convertible and listen to rough tracks and mixes of his songs – at skull-cracking volumes. In fact, he played them so loud for his band mates, engineers, and fellow musicians that album collaborator Beck wasn’t even able to hear himself think.

Yoakam certainly could, though. He used the ‘Vette as a lab in which he determined which sonic elements his songs needed more or less of. To Yoakam, the interior of his C6 was “the final resting place for voting, … the precinct that casts the deciding ballot.”

In many of his interviews, Yoakam seems to be a down-to-earth sort of guy and the documentary below reinforces that image. He not only trusts the sound system of America’s sports car, but he also judges the quality of his own sound where a lot of his fans have for the past 30 years: in the driver’s seat.

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