John Waite Arriving in Edmonds Unplugged

A few years ago, when John Waite was recording a CD of covers and new interpretations of his hits, he arrived at the beast in the room: “Missing You,” his No. 1 pop hit from 1984. Why not a duet? He prodded his manager to get in touch with Grammy Award-winning bluegrass singer Alison Krauss. She said yes, and the song was one of the highlights of Downtown: Journey of a Heart.

It almost didn’t get recorded. While on his way to rendezvous with Krauss at a Nashville recording session, Waite dodged a car near the studio. It was Krauss.

“I could see the headline,” said Waite with a hearty laugh. “‘Missing You’ singer killed by bluegrass songbird.’”

Waite will certainly be performing “Missing You” on Saturday when he takes the stage at the . It’ll be an unplugged version, however, when Waite joins another guitarist and a bassist.

The audience will also hear selections from a new CD Waite released earlier this year, Rough and Tumble, which features original tunes and one cover. He wrote much of the material with Matchbox Twenty guitarist Kyle Cook, who will be joining Waite for a European tour in April and May.

“We starting writing it four years ago,” Waite said. “We had a few songs, and I thought it would be an EP. But management wanted a full CD, so I threw some songs together that I had, wrote some new ones with my guitar player, and recorded a Tina Turner song.”

The result is one of Waite’s favorite projects, as all songs were performed with minimal fine-tuning in the studio. “I like idea of flying by seat of pants,” said the British-born singer who now lives in Santa Monica, CA.

Waite, who is most influenced by the blues and country music, has always acknowledged his roots influences, even as he debuted in the mid-1970s with the Babys, who scored pop hits with “Isn’t It Time” and “Every Time I Think of You.”

Waite then moved into his solo career, becoming a seminal voice of the 1980s with “Missing You,” one the decade’s top songs. Waite wrote the song about his ex-wife while alone and living in New York. He was inspired by two songs, “Wichita Lineman” by Glen Campbell and “Catch a Train” by Free.

“I was thinking of those images in my head,” Waite said. “Distance, a desert highway, night coming down, a train in a station. The song is nothing like those two songs; that would be cheating. But I was aware of this almost claustrophobic sense of space. It’s like somewhere you’d rather not be, and what you want most in the world is a thousand miles away. It’s a song about denial, the silence after what happens after someone leaves. I love that song. I always sing it like it’s my last day on earth.”

In addition to “Missing You,” Waite became a familiar face on 1980s MTV with songs like “Change,” “Every Step of the Way,” “These Times Are Hard for Lovers” and “If Anyone Had a Heart,” the latter spotlighted in the movie About Last Night…

In 1988, Waite helped form the group Bad English and had a big hit with “When I See You Smile,” written by award-winning songwriter Diane Warren.

Waite said he will mix up his show in Edmonds with songs from his entire career.

“I’ll do a few hits to start off, then a new song, then back into the catalog for some more of the obscure stuff,” he said. “Every three to four songs we’ll give them a hit. I know fans love it, but they also seem very attentive to the songs that are new. If I were in a band that had to come out and just play the hits, I’d probably just stay home. Some people do that. The big arena rock bands come out and blah, blah, blah. You buy a very expensive light beer, grab a T-shirt and go home. It’s like a mental vacation; it’s unchallenging and everybody’s happy. But I’m going for something else. There’s more edge in this, it’s darker, it’s not about being competitive in a super-commercial world. Maybe that’s one of things that’s kept me back. But it’s the way I operate—I prefer something that sounds real.”

John Waite performs 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Edmonds Center for the Arts, 410 Fourth Ave. N, Edmonds. Tickets are $15-$40. For more information, call 425-275-9595 or go to the venue’s website.