To Hoyt Axton, Life’s a Song . . . or Perhaps a Movie : Personalities: At 55, the country-Western songwriter and actor doesn’t take life--or himself--too seriously.

At 10:30 a.m., Hoyt Axton was jolted awake by the telephone in his Los Angeles hotel room. He fumbled with the receiver and emitted a few curious, grunting sounds before finally managing to snort: “I’ll call you back later.”

At 1:30 p.m., good ol’ Hoyt was true to his word and full of apologies: “I keep getting to sleep at 6 in the morning in this damn town. I always get into trouble down here. I know it’s wrong, but I can’t help it.”

Classic Axton.

He’s a regular, eminently likable kind of fellow whose self-effacing wit, down-home yarns and stubborn refusal to take any subject too seriously are essential elements of his unpolished appeal. He is a rumpled, life-loving bear of a man, quick to disrupt the flow of a serious conversation with a joke:

“D’ya hear they’re all mad at Hillary in the White House? She keeps leaving the toilet seat up. Haw!”

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Many people are familiar with Axton’s work as a songwriter and an actor even though they may not be realize it. A number of his tunes (such as “Joy to the World”) have been hits for other performers, and his comfortable, lived-in countenance is recognizable instantly from numerous TV and film appearances. He’s a familiar character player, with the accent on character.

Born and raised in Oklahoma, Axton, 55, came to prominence as a folk singer during the early ‘60s, but over the years he has become more of a country-Western artist. He plays the Crazy Horse in Santa Ana tonight.

“I grew up listening to Webb Pierce, Johnny Cash, Ernest Tubb and Hank Snow,” he recalled. “My mother worked as Hank Snow’s publicity manager in the early ‘50s and I was exposed to a lot of musicians through her, too.”

Mother Mae Axton is a noted tunesmith in her own right, having penned Elvis Presley’s first hit, “Heartbreak Hotel,” among other songs. She still is going strong today, an active participant in the Nashville music scene.

“I’ll tell you something--that woman is 78 and I can’t keep up with her,” Axton said proudly. “No one can. She still has her public relations firm and she does quite well.”

Mae’s connections aside, Axton says he was ill-prepared early on in his career for the harsh realities of the music business. In 1962, the Kingston Trio’s recording of “Greenback Dollar” became the first of his songs to top the charts--and served as an ironic introduction to the sharks.

“I got hammered right between the eyes on that song. I had a crooked publisher and I only ended up making $800 on a No. 1. But I couldn’t do anything about being cheated because No. 1, I was young and naive. No. 2, how can you get greedy and sue for money on a song where the whole premise is that you don’t give a damn about a greenback dollar? I mean, I wear the mantle of the hypocrite very comfortably now, but back then I was young and proud. Now, I don’t mind admitting that I’m a known liar.”

Actually, ’62 was a banner year for Axton: He also made his acting debut, on an episode of the top-rated horse opera “Bonanza.” He went on to perform on a number of television shows and to star in a handful of films, “The Black Stallion,” “Gremlins” and “We’re No Angels” among them.

“On ‘Bonanza,’ I played a singing bad guy who got killed by Pernell Roberts. Then, in ‘66, I did my first feature film, called ‘Smokey.’ Again, I played a singing, no-good character, the brother of Fess Parker.

“And I’ll tell you what--fellows who play shady characters throughout their careers will find that the police tend to pull them over a lot in real life, because they recognize them. They may not recognize them as actors; they just know they’re bad guys.

“I got tired of always having to explain that I’m an actor, not a bank robber. So I started to look for different roles and through the late ‘70s to early ‘80s I ended up playing fathers. I have five children, so I can do that well. You just look confused and worn-out. It’s not complicated.”

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On the music front, he wrote songs throughout the ‘60s and ‘70s that became hits for others: Steppenwolf’s “The Pusher” and Ringo Starr’s “The No No Song” join Three Dog Night’s “Joy to the World” as the best-remembered.

Axton remains active as an actor with three feature films and a television pilot in the can. As a musician, he continues to write, record and tour sporadically, and says he is no fan of the current crop of country music pretty boys.

“It looks like this country music thing has gone to these bubble-butted, flat-tummied, long-haired kids. That’s all right; I had my run, and I can’t deny them theirs. I don’t want to end up sitting on a park bench somewhere, talking about the Civil War and calling myself ‘the Colonel.’

“I’m from the Chuck Berry school of songwriting,” he added. “It doesn’t have to make sense as long as it rhymes.”

* Hoyt Axton sings tonight at 7 and 10 at the Crazy Horse Steak House, 1580 Brookhollow Drive in Santa Ana. Tickets: $26.50. Information: (714) 549-1512.