Fairfax Media chatted to the rock and blues legend ahead of his Diesel Lit Up tour, a show that marks 25 years since his first album, Johnny Diesel and the Injectors. It was an album that spawned hit singles like Don't Need Love, Soul Revival and Cry in Shame.

And it is the singles that Lit Up will be celebrating. "It's all about the sparks," Diesel says. "Which is, I guess, where the title came from."

Spanning a 13-album career, "I think its 37 singles. So obviously I can't play them all. That would take a very, very, very long time. But I'll get to a lot of them."

The tour is an opportunity for him to dust off some of the tracks that have been left on the shelf; tracks that he might have played a lot when they first came out but were pushed to the side to make way for another album or single.

"You just kind of drift off and for no particular reason you just don't play that single again. Maybe you got a bit worn out on it at the time, just momentarily. You're like, 'I'm sick of that song, I've just played it ten times this week and I had to go into every radio station and play it,' and you just get a bit over it for that moment," he says.

"I guess when you start accumulating records like I have, it is impossible to have them all out in front of your lobe at any time. There is just too many. So it's kind of like dragging them back into the spotlight."

Leading up to the show, which the singer-songwriter will play solo, he is keen to make sure people know that a Diesel solo show isn't exactly a sitting on a stool, crouched over a guitar kind of affair.

"Not that there is anything wrong with that," he says. "[But] my show is not quite that. I play all different types of instruments in the show. It gets loud at times."

Yes, he doesn't mind making a little well-structured noise.

"I've heard people say to me, 'I've had a hard time believing it is just one man on stage. There is just so much sound coming out,'" he says.

Playing solo also allows him to explore "every nook and cranny" of what the guitar can do. "I've got this massive, massive piece of canvas to work with, which is pretty cool," he says.

As one of the hardest working men in Australian music, getting out on the road is something that is in Diesel's blood.

"It's become my office. It really has," he says. "It's a different kind of office, but it's kind of cool. I kind of like that feeling. Not everyone gets to do that every day."

Despite the romantic impression this conjures up, "it's not a holiday," he says. "It doesn't have to be horrific, but it is not the holiday that people might think it might be."

Of course, after a 10-kilometre run and a hot shower, the payoff is the show at the end of the day. "It's just then that suddenly you realise, 'Well that was why we did that today. That's why we watched the white lines for eight hours or whatever it was.'"

Who: Diesel
When: 8pm, Friday, September 19
Where: The Street
Tickets: $55 - thestreet.org.au / (02) 6247 1223