By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
July 3, 1997
Rhett Miller’s doing all right for someone who got kicked out of piano lessons as a kid. He fronts Old 97’s – a country-influenced rock group with tinges of punk elements. And the band has just snagged a primo spot in this year’s Lollapalooza lineup.
“I don’t think my piano teacher thought I would amount to much of anything musically,” the boyish-looking Miller, 26, said in a recent interview in the band’s dressing room at Metro. “I was one of several 4-year-olds taking group piano lessons, and I’d sing along to songs, even though they were things I didn’t know the words to. I liked doing my own thing.”
Twenty-two years later, doing his own thing appears to be working remarkably well for him. The songwriter, whose parents named him after Rhett Butler in “Gone With the Wind,” has collaborated on projects with Waylon Jennings and Exene Cervenka (from X). And his group’s major-label debut, “Too Far,” has been well received by critics who like their twangy crunch, smart lyrics and snappy rhythms.
“We’ve opened for Wilco and Son Volt, who we’re friends with,” Miller said. “And I think because we’re a little more twangy than the `alternative’ bands, people tend to lump us into the `country’ peg. But I don’t think of us as a country band. We’re more punk in what we do – the way we play our guitars, the way I sing, just the way we are.”
But when they named their group, the four young musicians didn’t name themselves after a Sex Pistols song. Rather, they nicked the name from an old Johnny Cash number. Old 97’s are one of the featured bands at FitzGerald’s 16th annual American Music Festival that ends this weekend. They’ll play Friday on the club’s mainstage.
The Texas-based group played in Chicago just last month when Club Lollapalooza – a mini-tour touting the upcoming full Lollapalooza show – stopped at Metro. They opened for Perry Farrell’s Porno for Pyros.
“(That was) awesome,” Miller said, laughing. “We found out four days (before the start of the tour) that Perry wanted us to play. We loved it and jumped at the chance.”
Old 97’s also are a featured act on the second stage at Lollapalooza ’97 this year. They’re on the first half of the tour, so they’re not scheduled to play at the New World Music Theatre when Lolla stops in Tinley Park on July 25.
“We’ve been doing this for a while now,” Miller said of his four-year-old band. “I’ve been playing since I was 15, and it’s always been my dream to get there on the road and play music for people. I can’t believe how well everything has turned out.”
Miller didn’t even have to break the promise he made to his mother when he quit college after one semester, giving up a full scholarship to Sarah Lawrence.
“I had a pact with my mom that I would go back to school by the time I was 26 if nothing was happening with my band,” he said, chuckling. “We got signed (to Elektra) the weekend before I turned 26. It was fate!”
Asked if he would’ve reneged if the record deal had soured, Miller admitted, “Yes. Probably. I loved school but I wanted to try this before I was too old to do it. I can always go back to school. Now’s the right time for me to be traveling around crammed in a van with a bunch of guys. I don’t know that I’d want to try that when I was 50.”
