Richard Thompson has been staging a quiet folk-rock revolution for almost 40 years.

BY FRED SHUSTER >MUSIC WRITER

The soulful, sometimes electrifying and frequently brilliant musician has been acclaimed, covered and revered by fellow artists, audiences and public radio stations in every corner.

Thompson, who got his start as a teenager in 1967 with the seminal British folk band Fairport Convention, has released dozens of albums over the decades, among them such classics as "Shoot Out the Lights" with then-wife Linda Thompson, and his own four-star "Hand of Kindness." Along with top songwriting, he's one of the most inspired and distinctive electric guitarists around.

Following his 2006 concert at UCLA Live that strove to span "1,000 years of popular music," the often-acoustic troubadour returns to Royce Hall on Friday with his electric band to perform songs from his recent album, "Sweet Warrior," in which one song, "Dad's Gonna Kill Me," draws on the language of soldiers who call Baghdad "Dad."

We reached Thompson the other day between gigs.

Q: Can we expect the usual RT audience - the infirm, the mentally unstable and deeply depressed - on Friday?

A: Yes, it's the usual bunch. But funnily enough, a lot of them won't come out for the acoustic concerts, but then just as many won't come for the electric ones. It's not easy being a cult figure.

Q: What did you think of that 90-track box set on you last year?

A: It's completely mad, isn't it? You have to be a fanatic to wade through it. I've put out plenty of albums as it is, then they do this enormous thing ("RT: The Life and Music of Richard Thompson") of unreleased stuff and live tracks and ... well, I'll never play it. But I'm quite proud of it, actually. I mean, they did a remarkable job. And the fans seem to quite like it - the ones that can manage to get off the settee to put a record on.

Q: In your guitar playing, did you intentionally sidestep the blues early on?

A: I loved the blues and still do, but in the mid-'60s in London I saw where it was going with people like Eric (Clapton) and Peter (Green) doing that style incredibly well. I played that stuff at the time but I decided that if I wanted to last a while as a musician, I had to come up with something a bit different. But I used to listen to all that - Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, and all the jazz players. I was just trying to do something I could call my own. I still don't know what I do, not really. It just happens.

Q: What's the story on that "Dad" song?

A: I've always been interested in language and how it's used in different ways for various reasons. So, I was intrigued by the jargon used by troops in Iraq and tried to write a song with this language. I tried to bring home the reality of what it's like there from the viewpoint of a soldier who's having to live through it. The reaction has been mixed, but mostly positive, including from soldiers who are there.

Q: The son of your friend Loudon Wainwright III is doing well in music and so, too, is your kid Teddy.

A: I'm in direct competition with the Wainwrights to see who has the most talented offspring.

Fred Shuster (818) 713-3676 fred.shuster@dailynews.com

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RICHARD THOMPSON BAND

>Where: UCLA Live, Royce Hall, UCLA campus, Westwood.

>When: 8 p.m. Friday.

>Tickets: $22 to $46. www.uclalive.org.