John Hiatt (born August 20, 1952 in Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.) is an American rock guitarist, pianist, singer, and songwriter. He has been nominated for eleven Grammy Awards. John Hiatt's sales have never quite matched his reputation. Hiatt's songs were covered successfully by everyone from Bonnie Raitt, Ronnie Milsap, and Willie Nelson to Iggy Pop, Three Dog Night, and The Neville Brothers, yet it took him 13 years to reach the charts himself. ...show more

John Hiatt (born August 20, 1952 in Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.) is an American rock guitarist, pianist, singer, and songwriter. He has been nominated for eleven Grammy Awards. John Hiatt's sales have never quite matched his reputation. Hiatt's songs were covered successfully by everyone from Bonnie Raitt, Ronnie Milsap, and Willie Nelson to Iggy Pop, Three Dog Night, and The Neville Brothers, yet it took him 13 years to reach the charts himself.

Of course, it nearly took him that long to find his own style. Hiatt began his solo career in 1974, and over the next decade he ran through a number of different styles from rock & roll to new wave pop before he finally settled on a rootsy fusion of rock & roll, country, blues, and folk with his 1987 album Bring the Family. Though the album didn't set the charts on fire, it became his first album to reach the charts, and several of the songs on the record became hits for other artists, including Raitt and Milsap. Following its success, Hiatt became a reliable hit songwriter for other artists, and he developed a strong cult following that continued to gain strength into the mid-'90s.

While he was growing up in his hometown of Indianapolis, IN, John Hiatt played in a number of garage bands. Initially, he was inspired by the Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan, and the music of those two artists would echo strongly throughout his work. Out of all the bar bands he played with in the late '60s, a group called The White Ducks[/artists] was the one that received the most attention. Following his high-school graduation, he moved to Nashville at the age of 18, where he landed a job as a songwriter for Tree Publishing. ...show less