Restless Heart is out to prove it’s never too late to mend fences.

The country band enjoyed tremendous popularity in the late 1980s and early ’90s with Larry Stewart on lead vocals, and in the later ’90s after an acrimonious breakup and subsequent reincarnation with other members of the band stepping up to the microphone while Stewart pursued a solo career.

After adjusting attitudes and getting their friendship back on track, Restless Heart hit the road this summer on its 25th anniversary tour, and will perform at 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 17, at Kornfest.

The original lineup that spawned such No. 1 hits as “That Rock Won’t Roll,” “I’ll Still be Loving You,” “Wheels” and “Why Does it Have to be Wrong or Right” is recording a Christmas album for release later this year and an album of new material for 2009. It also recently released its “25 and Live” album, featuring live recordings of 14 of the band’s most popular songs.

Stewart answered some questions while driving in Nashville, Tenn., the morning before he and the band gave an evening performance July 29 at the Grand Ole Opry:

Longtime fans are undoubtedly happy to hear the band is back together with its original members. What had to change in order for this reunion to happen?

STEWART: You know, just relationships, burying some hatchets. We didn’t make a lot of good choices back then. I’m not so sure we handled our success as maturely as we should have. Once you live with people for eight years — more than you do your family — one thing leads to another, and it’s time to take a break.

We all just needed to realize that we’re all grown up now, and we did. And that’s why we’re really having more fun than we ever had. That’s all part of the past, you know. It’s real easy now.

What is it about Restless Heart’s music that resonates with fans?

STEWART: Gosh, we’ve tried to figure out why we’ve been so lucky. Some of the greatest songwriters in the world gave us some great songs like “I’ll Still Be Loving You” and “Bluest Eyes in Texas” and “Fast Movin’ Train” and “Why Does it Have to Be Wrong or Right.” You know, we just really got lucky early on and were able to do something that was fresh at the time.

And some of those songs still live on today and are now introducing themselves to a younger audience. It’s so much fun to be on stage and see teenagers and young adults singing all the words to our songs. It’s funny. It’s like, “Isn’t that something?”

What song do you guys do that always gets the crowd moving?

STEWART: Celebrating our 25th year, we do snippits of all the artists that helped us get started: Alabama, Hank Williams Jr., Vince Gill, the Judds, Alan Jackson. We do a medley of all their songs, and everybody just loves it.

Those folks were really instrumental in putting us on their tours, letting our bus follow their bus all across the country, introducing ourselves and our music to their fans. And we got to do it at the height of their careers, playing in front of 15, 18, 19, 20,000 people every single night. It really was big for us to be able to open for those artists, and we like to honor them.

What’s your favorite song to perform?

STEWART: My favorite song to perform, to me, is a song that Greg Jennings, our guitar player, wrote with our producer called “Hummingbird.” It’s kind of a bluegrass kind of burn kind of thing. We do that song about halfway through the show to get it jumpstarted.

What’s different about being on the road this time around versus 15 or 20 years ago?

STEWART: We can really concentrate on us, on our show, on pacing ourselves and doing the best we can, as opposed to, in the early days, it was great having hits on the radio, but you spent a lot of time working for the record label. And it all paid off, but it all took a lot of energy and effort and no time for yourself back then.

You know, we’re very, very blessed to have a career and a past to work from, to have the string of No. 1 hits that we still continue to build from. We don’t have to work for a bunch of other people, trying to make something happen continually. It’s literally being able to relax and do the best show we can and figure out what special project we want to do next and have fun, as opposed to “Hurry up and get in the studio, give us another single so we can get that going and now we gotta do a three-month radio tour and now we gotta do a bunch of free shows for radio, festivals.”

You know, it was just radio, radio, radio, record label, record label, record label. And we don’t do that anymore. That helps our attitude an awful lot.

It looks like you’ve got some comfortable spaces in your touring schedule. What do you do when you’ve got time off?

STEWART: Laundry (laughing)! Well, you know, actually, we just kind of relax a little bit. That’s the beauty of touring Nashville, country music style. You know, like rock tours, pop tours, they’ll go out and do a six- to eight-month tour? We don’t do that. We do the weekend kind of thing.

By and large, we do a couple of days on tour and a couple of days at home. It really keeps it fresh. We’re not gone too long, but at the same time, we’re not home too long to where everybody wants to kick us out (laughing).

You know, that’s the thing, man. When you’re gone as much as we are and everybody (at home) gets in their routine, then you come home and get in everybody’s way.

If music wasn’t an option, how would you choose to make a living?

STEWART: I played college baseball, and my boyhood dream was to play in the major leagues, but obviously I wasn’t good enough (laughing). I would love to have played centerfield with the St. Louis Cardinals, in the Whitey Herzog days. Although Tony La Russa is a buddy of mine, so I would play for him, too.

DID YOU KNOW?

The band’s song “Restless Heart” gave birth to the band’s name. “Coming up with a name for this band was the hardest thing we had to do when we first got started. It took weeks,” singer Larry Stewart said. Restless Heart was a top 10 choice and finally won out because “it had a really neat ring to it that day.”

Stewart listens to such artists as Coldplay, Nickelback, Josh Groban, Aerosmith and Brad Paisley, and then at Christmas time brings out the Bing Crosby and Nat King Cole.

The band’s first decade brought a string of fan-friendly hits, including six No. 1 songs on the country charts. Its 1986 album “Wheels” made it to No. 1, and three of its albums went gold. The band recently released its “25 and Live” album, and is working to release a Christmas album this year and an album of new material in 2009.

KORNFEST AT A GLANCE

WHAT: Kornfest

WHEN: Aug. 15-17

WHERE: Halfway Creek Park, Holmen

COST: Free admission to the Kornfest grounds. Admission to the car show is $4, free for kids 12 and younger.

FRIDAY SCHEDULE

6 p.m.: Carnival and beer tent open

8 p.m. to midnight: Music by country band Trouble Shooter

9 p.m.: Fireworks, Viking Field

SATURDAY SCHEDULE

8 a.m.: 10K and 2-mile fun run, with registration starting at 7 a.m. at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church

9 a.m.: Volleyball tournament

11 a.m.: Parade, with YMCA Dance Team performing afterward

Noon: Corn, chicken, brats and more served

1 p.m.: Bingo

3 to 6 p.m.: Karaoke for Kids

8 p.m. to midnight: Variety music by Double Take

SUNDAY SCHEDULE

7 to 11 a.m.: Biscuits and gravy breakfast at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church

8 a.m. to 4 p.m.: Car show and swap meet at Holmen Middle School

Noon: Phil Wall Classic doubles horseshoe tournament

1 p.m.: Bingo; corn, chicken, brats and more served

2 to 5:30 p.m.: Country music by Trouble Shooter

6:30 p.m.: Restless Heart in concert

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