Been there, done that, doing it again.

That's the outlook for the Steve Miller Band, a rock 'n' roll survivor from the 1960s and '70s, which performed in the first Diamond Head Crater Festival three decades ago. On Saturday, Miller returns to headline the Crater Celebration in front of a blended crowd of younger fans and original followers.

"We brought a new culture to town," he said of his first foray into outdoor rock inside the crater of the extinct volcano. So he's happy to rekindle the memories of the past as he hurtles the format into the present and, perhaps, the future.

In April, the Steve Miller Band will release a 30th-anniversary retrospective pegged to a remix of the group's biggest hit, "Fly Like an Eagle," and other faves. The disc recapitulates the Miller life, then and now.

"There will be a mix of interviews, outtakes and a DVD of a concert we did at the San Francisco Shoreline Amphitheatre last September. It's not an over-produced video with a big light show and all that. It's the essence of what I do, and a credit to my record company — and it captures who we really are, like a reality show."

He looked at his past as he answered Five Questions:

Question: What memories do you have of the first Diamond Head Crater Festival?

Answer: "You know, it was an exciting time; we were very young. That was (our) first big outdoor rock 'n' roll concert and it was very questionable, so everybody was nervous. It was a big deal then; we had to deal with how to do it right with the PA system for that many people — in a sense, it was cutting-edge, a vast outdoor show with a lot of technical challenges. Now, everyone plays big outdoor arenas and stadiums; it wasn't like that 30 years ago, so we feel like we were pioneers, which was a big part of the fun."

Q: To borrow from the title of your hit song, you've been flying like an eagle for more than three decades. Is it easy to keep up and maintain your pace in today's changing rock climate?

A: "Oh, yeah, it's much easier now than then. We have a very large following, which allows us to tour 45 to 50 cities every year, where we play lots of festivals, including lots of outdoor sheds. Our average attendance is 12,000 ... and we have a very creative and active band, so we keep the music interesting. Our audience now ranges from 10 to 70 in age."

Q: How do you assess the rock scene now — when hip-hop is so prevalent, and some songs are mostly repetitive?

A: "It's partially an age thing, partially mass media — the 'corporate-ization' of everything. MTV pretty much has created this world, where much of the music is vulgar. It started in the 1980s, when people started making videos — there were no budgets to write or develop good music, so the intent was to make a video that was visually interesting, so the acts put a gun in a girl's mouth, put her in underwear, throw in some bling-bling. It's absurd, of course, but that's what corporations create. That's not to say there isn't some great music around, but even radio sucks. The bosses are often a bunch of white guys at Time Warner who decide what gets released."

Q: You've had key people in your early life who helped nurture your career in music. How valuable is it to start young, to have supportive parents and to have a Les Paul encounter as you did?

A: "It's most important to start young, especially if you have some talent. Whenever people come to me and ask, 'Steve, can you tell me what kind of a guitar to get for Junior?' I always say get a good instrument, not a cheapie. I'd invite a kid to a show, walk him backstage, get the feel.

"At 5, you will absorb and remember this. I did. I met Les Paul (the inventor of the electric guitar) when I was 5. He was doing multitrack recording (one of Paul's conventions, too), playing an electric guitar, making records; he was issuing singles, he was mailing out postcards, he was on TV regularly. He showed me my first chords. My dad, who was a doctor, was a friend, so (Paul) visited our house (in Milwaukee) regularly. At 9, my dad got me a good guitar and I learned to play from T-Bone Walker. I was musical, I had it in my genes, but to get this early exposure made the difference.

"If you were 5 and watched Picasso paint, you'd think you can be a painter, too. Parents should encourage their talented kids to play, to pursue their dreams. Too many don't trust their kids to make a living artistically, because the odds are that many won't make it; but I know some unbelievably talented kids who became motorcycle mechanics instead of a pianist."

Q: If you could reinvent yourself, what would you do differently?

A: "I'm very happy the way it has been, so I wouldn't change anything. I have a normal life, where I can play jazz, blues and rock, with a very supportive base that shows up whenever we perform. It's extremely cool to be creative and yet have this normal life, which allows me to go out and not be mobbed. I mean, I can walk into your office, and you wouldn't know it's me, compared to a superstar who would be mobbed and who wouldn't want to go anywhere.

"We continue to play, because the folks continue to come out and enjoy the music. And we'll play until it's not fun — but we're having a lot of fun now."

Reach Wayne Harada at wharada@honoluluadvertiser.com.