Guilty pleasures: Dwight Yoakam

NICK DERISO: Dwight Yoakam, even if you don't like country music, is cool.

Here's why:

BECAUSE he not only dated Sharon Stone (should be enough, right?), but also got his best song out of her leaving him, "Fast As You." He turns heartache into a room you don't mind checking into for a while, if only for the dark humor.

BECAUSE he's local, two times removed: The first hit off of Dwight's first album was "Honky Tonk Man," actually an old song by Johnny Horton - a long-time resident of Shreveport and frequent guest on the Louisiana Hayride there. Follow along, now: Horton shared a manager, one Tillman Franks, with West Monroe country legend Webb ("Hello Walls") Pierce. There you go!

BECAUSE, in the late 1980s, country music was crap - until Dwight's shattering debut CD, "Guitars, Cadillacs, etc. etc." He returned the music to its best mid-century influence, Buck Owens and the Bakersfield honky tonks. This was so new sounding then that the so-called "alternative rock" stations on college campuses, like the defunct KNLU, played it.

BECAUSE, the more you know about Dwight, the more that makes sense: He used to appear at the same L.A. clubs as X, the Dead Kennedys, the Butthole Surfers, Los Lobos and the Blasters. His fans, a hybrid of theirs, were called Cowpunks.

BECAUSE Dwight's version of Elvis Presley's "Suspicious Minds," and this never happens, is better than the original. It was a one off, for some movie a while back. Still sounds like heavy freight rumbling through your speakers.

BECAUSE, despite being as bald as the moon under that cap, Dwight is the best country-singing actor (two words: Jerry Reed), and I mean ... ever. Well, except Kris Kristofferson.

BECAUSE his version of "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" was a country hit - then after being featured in a GAP commercial, became a minor pop hit, too. Crazy, indeed.

BECAUSE, in "Slingblade," Dwight's villian asks Billy Bob Thornton's character: "What are you doing with that blade there, Karl?" Old Karl answers: "I aim to kill you with it, mmm hmm."

Then. He. Does.

BECAUSE somebody, somewhere FINALLY put a song on a country album called "Fair to Midland." Guess who?