For John Doe, X marks his past and present.

Byline: Carolyn Lamberson The Register-Guard

John Doe is heading to an in-store performance in Los Angeles, where he'll "sell some records, sing some songs, say hello to the nice people.'

En route, the singer-songwriter talks about his latest solo record, "Forever Hasn't Happened Yet," his groundbreaking punk band X, his upcoming tour with Lucinda Williams, which stops at Secret House Vineyard on Tuesday, and life in front of the camera.

Here's what he had to say.

Question: The first song on your latest album, called "The Losing Kind," to me has a Doors kind of sound. Was that intentional, accidental or magic?

Answer: Totally accidental. I was going for something much older. But it doesn't surprise me because I guess subconsciously it must have crept in there.

I was looking for something more like the '60s, like the Animals or even something written from more of a Lightning Hopkins style.

Question: What was it like working with your teenage daughter Veronica Jane on "Mama Don't."

Answer: I was completely choked up. We sort of worked on it together.

I gave her the song and said, `OK now, all you have to do is sing the melody, but high.' And I kept thinking, `She's not really working on this and it might be a disaster.' But then she got into the studio and sang it perfectly the first time.

I was just obviously proud and choked up. It was really nice.

Question: `Hwy. 5,' off the new record, sounds an awful lot like an X song, which makes sense since you and Exene Cervenka co-wrote it. Did X ever record it?

Answer: No. I did a different version of that for a benefit record called `Free the West Memphis Three.' ... Then I sort of rewrote it and simplified it, hoping that that song and the song `Ready' we could record with X.

Then it never really happened and I was doing my own record, and I thought, `OK, well, I don't want to let a good song go to waste, so let's put it down this way.' So I kind of tailored the rewriting of "Hwy. 5' to sound like an X song.

Question: I know that X has in recent years performed a few reunion shows. Are more planned, and is there ever going to be new music from the band?

Answer: Oh, yeah. I don't know about the new music part, but we plan to keep playing, yeah, definitely.

We have three or four shows in Southern California in July. We were going to try to do some more shows, but the Knitters came up.

I'm doing this solo record, then there's going to be a Knitters tour (which stops at McMenamins Grand Lodge in Forest Grove on July 23). There's a Knitters record being released by Rounder in July.

Question: Is this new music?

Answer: Yeah. Every 20 years the Knitters are going to put out a record. It's been 20 years since the last time.

Question: The Knitters is you and Exene and who else?

Answer: Dave Alvin and D.J. Bonebrake and Johnny Ray Bartel.

Question: What's your live set going to be like on this tour with Lucinda Williams?

Answer: We'll play new and old solo songs, and play a few X songs and do a cover now and then. ... The X songs are kind of like cover songs. I try to sort of reinterpret them a little bit.

Question: Do you like to cover the more well known X songs or do you prefer to dive into the ...

Answer: Deep cuts. There are some songs that lend themselves to me doing them.

I wouldn't try to do `Los Angeles' or `Johny Hit and Run Pauline' because they don't translate into a more folky, roots sort of sound. So I do songs like `Burning House of Love," and "White Girl" and "Big Blue House," from a later X record, and "Poor Girl." Just a bunch of songs about houses and girls.

Question: When you were contemplating a solo career, why did you veer so far from punk?

Answer: I was in a really great punk rock band, or am in a really great punk rock band. Made records with a really great punk rock band. It would be foolish to try to out-X X.

For a while, I didn't even play X songs live because I didn't want to come up short. Then I realized that people are more forgiving and if you reinterpret (the songs) in a way and you make them your own, people like hearing a song that's very familiar.

Question: What's in the pipeline for you?

Answer: I've done a couple of independent films that may or may not come out (`The Sand Piper" and "Live Freaky, Die Freaky.') No giant parts that I've played, just different fun roles. Otherwise it's music, music.

Question: Where does acting fall into your life?

Answer: Usually, I do more acting when I've finished working on a record. Last year I did some TV, and a couple years before that I did that show `Roswell' and a couple independent movies. I've done 40-some movies now and some TV shows.

Question: Do you think that doing a show like `Roswell' introduced you to a younger audience? Did it help your music career at all, or give you some cachet among teenagers?

Answer: I don't think (`Roswell" fans) ever really knew I played music or came from X. But I'd do an in-store now and then and there'd be a little clutch of 15 year-old girls. And I would think, `That's odd. What are they doing here?'

And then I'd realize, `Oh, it's `Roswell.' ' And all they want to know was if Jason Behr was good kisser. I'd tell them, `I don't know. I'll ask my TV daughter and get back to you on that.' It was cute.

John Doe also will perform a solo concert Thursday in Yachats to benefit the Village Music Foundation. Tickets are $15 in advance, and are available by calling [phone]. For details, visit www.villagemusicfoundation.org.

CAPTION(S):

John Doe has a solo career, plays with the band the Knitters and does an occasional reunion show with X. And he's an actor, too, appearing in more than 40 movies and television shows. His role in the series "Roswell" introduced him to young fans who don't even know about X. The Associated Press