It’s impossible to fault Vince Gill for sleeping in and calling a reporter 45 minutes late.
The singer, songwriter, guitarist, producer and philanthropist recently wrapped a 2-month acoustic tour with Lyle Lovett, was inducted by Joe Walsh into Guitar Center’s RockWalk in Los Angeles and even spent his 59th birthday earlier this month performing at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s annual benefit concert.
Over the past four decades, Gill has performed on 500 albums, collaborating with Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton and Bonnie Raitt to the Doobie Brothers, Alice Cooper, Zac Brown and Kelly Clarkson. And he makes time to consistently support new talent, whether it’s assisting on songs, producing their albums or hosting a contest such as Guitar Center’s OnStage, a national search for undiscovered guitarists with the winner earning cash and an opening gig on one of his upcoming tour dates.
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But a big ego doesn’t seem to go hand in hand with all the accolades for an artist who received the BMI Icon Award already two years ago – at an age younger than his greatest influence, Merle Haggard — and considers his own talent a continuing work in progress.
“I’m flattered,” Gill said by phone recently from his Nashville home — after apologizing profusely for his tardiness — of his icon status and other awards, including 20 Grammys and 18 CMA awards.
“I made my first record 42 years ago,” said Gill, who sang with Pure Prairie League and landed his first Top 10 single in 1985 with the Rosanne Cash duet “If It Weren’t for Him.”
“I’ve been at this a long, long time. I didn’t do it because I wanted to be famous. The real reason I ever wanted to do this was to connect with somebody else. With music all you try to do is have somebody be moved by what you’re doing.”
Love – and its highs and lows that move us all – is the somewhat unintentional focus of Gill’s 18th studio album “Down to My Last Bad Habit,” which features vocals by his two daughters and an ode to wife Amy Grant titled “Me and My Girl” plus appearances by Little Big Town, Sheryl Crow, Alison Krauss, Ellie Holcomb and Kim Keyes, guitarist Sonny Landreth and jazz trumpeter Chris Botti, and songs co-written by Richard Marx, Leslie Satcher and Ashley Monroe (whose two albums Gill produced) plus newcomers Cam and Jillian Jacqueline.
His tour in support of the album kicks off Thursday at Joliet’s Rialto Square Theatre, where he filmed the video for “I Still Believe in You,” the title track from his 1992 album that, along with “When I Call Your Name,” “Look at Us” and “Go Rest High On That Mountain,” made him the only songwriter to earn the CMA Song of the Year Award four times.
“I love that old theater,” he said of the Rialto, where his set will be sure to include the new bluesy song “Make You Feel Real Good,” the “funkiest thing” he’s ever recorded.
“Chicago’s obviously famous for a lot of great blues music and I have a lot of great memories there with the Crossroads Guitar Festival in 2007 and 2010. We had the best time ever and ate a lot of Lou Malnati’s pizza.”
Aside from “Sad One Coming On (A Song for George Jones),” Gill’s latest album is not an ode to country like his last release, the Haggard and Buck Owens tribute “Bakersfield” (2013) with steel guitar whiz Paul Franklin.
“I just wrote songs and recorded the ones I liked and it wound up as love songs,” he said. “I think all songs are based about or around love. I’m not ever going to be the guy who rants about politics or telling people what they ought to do.”
Nor will he be the guy who sings about testosterone-fueled nonsense. As Rolling Stone put it in its album review: “In a world of macho-posturing country bros, it’s surprisingly refreshing.”
“I’m not out there trying to advocate anything to anybody about how it should be,” Gill said of new country versus old. “At end of day, I just like what I like and when you see something you like and it’s slowly disappearing you want to stick up for it a bit. As much as I love and respect traditional country music, I like all kinds of music. All I’m trying to do is something good. If it’s blues, make it blues. Just honor whatever it is you’re doing in an authentic way. I’m just a lover of traditional music.”
Gill, who also plays dozens of gigs each year with the Time Jumpers, a Grammy-nominated honky-tonk/swing ensemble based in Nashville and is a regular at the historic Ryman Auditorium where bluegrass began, said collaborating with undiscovered or rising artists is a way to preserve traditional music, especially when Haggard, Glenn Frey and other greats have passed away recently.
“My heroes played such a pivotal role in how I learned to do what I could do,” said Gill, who performed at George Jones’s funeral in 2013 and sang several songs on the album Haggard was working on at the time of his death weeks ago. “As they pass on, I guess it does kind of make you reach out more than you normally would to generations coming after you. As more time passes and all of my previous generations’ heroes pass, little by little, I’m going to become that old guard.”
While Gill has accomplished plenty for any lifetime, he feels room for improvement always exists.
“It’s not like an athlete who can’t hit the curve ball anymore or run as fast as he used to. With being creative there’s no reason why you shouldn’t get better,” he said, adding that the addition of a home recording studio has boosted his musicianship. “I feel like I’m doing my best because I’ve been at it as long as I have and slowly I’m figuring stuff out. I write better than I used to. I’m not at the top of the charts and being played on radio, but I see progress in me so that’s inspiring to do what I do.”
Vickie Jurkowski is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
Vince Gill
When: 8 p.m. Thursday, May 5
Where: Rialto Square Theatre, 15 E. Van Buren St., Joliet
Tickets: $42.50 to $110
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Information: 815-726-6600 or www.rialtosquare.com