Touring Is Hot for Hoyt, but He Likes Writing Songs the Best of All

“I’m like an old tractor,” says songwriter-actor Hoyt Axton with a hearty laugh. “It takes me a while to get there, but I just keep plowing away. There’s always a place in this world for a good song--and that’s the reason I’m still able to keep going.”

Over the years, Hoyt Axton, who checks into the Crazy Horse Steak House in Santa Ana on Monday, has written some of the best. Among the many pop and rock hits that have come from his pen are “Greenback Dollar,” co-written for the Kingston Trio in 1962; “Joy to the World,” for Three Dog Night in 1970, and “The Pusher,” which made its way into Steppenwolf’s repertoire in the late ‘60s.

Though he enjoys the success, Axton regards having hits as “the icing on the cake. For me, the real enjoyment comes from the writing.”

With a mother like Mae Boren Axton, who wrote “Heartbreak Hotel,” Axton’s fondness for writing should come as no surprise. He recalls what drew him to writing: “I just saw how much fun she was having, writing those songs. Then I saw the royalty checks come rollin’ in, and I thought, ‘Whoa--This isn’t that hard. . . . So, I decided to do that--even if it took me 30 years.”

“I figured I’d go into it for the long haul, because this was something I wanted to do,” says Axton, who turned 50 in March. “Within two years, I’d co-written . . . ‘Greenback Dollar,’ and I was on my way.”

Since then, the Oklahoma-born performer has been balancing writing his world-weary tales with his acting career. During the ‘70s, he recorded several country-tinged albums, including “Less Than the Song,” “Southbound,” “Snowblind Friend,” “Road Songs” and “Rusty Halo.”

If the hits haven’t exactly been piling up like June bugs on a bumper since then, the burly Axton is still content to hit the road whenever he is not on the set of movies like NBC’s recent “Desperado: Avalanche at Devil’s Ridge” or the soon-to-be-released “Waitin’ for Salazar,” which co-stars Lou Diamond-Philips, Corbin Bernsen, Fred Gwynne and Ruben Blades.

“I like everything about touring,” Axton says. “I like the traveling, the cheeseburgers and the french fries, the starry nights and rolling out of town in the dark.

“After all, I can’t complain. I’ve always been treated very well. I think what it comes down to is that I’m no big deal. I don’t sell gold records, and I don’t pack concert halls. I’m a guy who can fill clubs--and that’s OK.”

Part of the reason for Axton’s success is the fact that he clearly enjoys what he is doing. “I’m working on stage with material I like and people I like, and I think that comes across,” he says. “Besides, people like to see people work hard for their money--and believe me, when I get on stage, I work.”

Axton’s attitude is echoed in his commitment to helping others. He regularly plays benefits for causes as diverse as Save the Wolves to trying to help indigent victims of disease. But it is the prison benefits he plays periodically that are especially close to his heart.

“It may not sound like a benefit, but it is,” Axton says in his growly, gravelly voice. “I’ve had the captain of the guard at a couple prisons tell me that for months after we’ve played, the tension decreases noticeably. It’s scary in a way because you’ll be talking to one of the inmates and ask, ‘How long you in for?’ and they’ll look you in the eye and say, ‘All day and all night because that’s what life in prison’s all about.’

“I used to play ‘The Pusher Man’ in prisons and watch 200 of ‘em walk out because they don’t like hearing you cuss ‘em out. But, I think it’s something they really enjoy, and it’s certainly something I’ll keep doing because it makes them feel good and it makes me feel good, so everyone ends up a winner.”

That is not all that is going right for Axton these days. He has recently written a song called “Cowboys on Horses With Wings,” which has provided him with a reminder that songwriting hasn’t lost its kick.

“The freedom of (songwriting) and the spontaneity is wonderful,” Axton says. “And sometimes I laugh out loud when some of these lyrics come rolling out. There’s a certain blending of melody and lyric, there’s a harmony to it that just strikes a chord, and that’s what I really like, that contact with heaven, having your battery recharged.”

Axton is getting ready to take a brand new batch of his songs, songs he refers to as “literate country,” to Nashville to record. Once that is done, he will shop his tape to various independent labels.

Though he has already accomplished much, there is still one thing Axton would like to achieve: “I’d like to have a No. 1 record as an artist. I had a No. 1 record in Canada with Linda Ronstadt called ‘When the Morning Comes.’ But I’d still really like to have one on the country charts here.”

Meanwhile, Axton is content to be rolling into town for yet another evening of storytelling, done his way.

Hoyt Axton sings at the Crazy Horse Steak House, 1580 Brookhollow Drive, Santa Ana, Monday at 7 and 10 p.m. Admission: $23.50. Information: (714) 549-1512.