Country-rock icon Steve Earle is bigger than ever. The maverick guitar-vocalist has released seven records in as many years – all to critical acclaim – and his latest, “Transcendental Blues,” is up for a Grammy in the Best Contem-porary Folk Album category.
Earle was once touted as country’s answer to Bruce Springsteen. But he has taken a few tumbles in his personal life, including drug addiction and incarceration.
“Everything that an average junkie does, I did,” confesses Earle, 46.
It’s only been recently that the hardened guitarist has had a chance to regroup. In 1995, the eight-time Grammy-nominated artist got clean and shed his tough-guy persona. He co-founded a record label, E Squared, and fought back to take Nashville by storm while embracing a multitude of influences, including bluegrass and Celtic.
“I really feel like a new person,” he says.
His sister, Stacey Earle, a talented singer-songwriter in her own right, agrees that her big brother has made a turnaround, and she’s looking forward to opening for him at the Beacon Theatre on Saturday.
“This is a healing tour,” says the 40-year-old Stacey, who saw Earle through some of his darkest hours. “It’s a chance for us to have fun together. I like the new Steve. I hope to get to know him.”
The new Earle is a political activist who opposes the death penalty and spends most of his free time writing – not songs – but prose. He recently finished a book of short stories entitled “Doghouse Roses” due in June from Houghton Mifflin, and is penning a play about Karla Faye Tucker (a double murderer executed in Texas in 1998).
“He has this image of being a hard-ass, but he’s got an introspective side not everybody sees,” asserts Ray Kennedy, Earle’s partner in the production team they call the “twangtrust.”
Earle had nurtured that image as long ago as the early ’80s, when he released “Copperhead Road” and “Guitar Town” – both of which secured a loyal following among country and rock fans looking for twang with some edge.
But by the late ’80s, Earle’s rough stage persona was creeping into his personal life. He’d been married and divorced five times and was arrested in 1989 for aggravated assault. In 1991, his record label, MCA, did not renew his contract, and Earle developed a cocaine and heroin habit that spiraled out of control.
“[His drug problem] was like a tornado – it took everything in its path,” says Stacey Earle.
Earle hit rock bottom and was arrested in 1994 on drug charges. He was sentenced to a year in prison, though he only spent three weeks behind bars and a month in rehab. Finally, Earle shed his abuse.
“There’s a laundry list of stuff I did I’m not proud of, and [getting hooked] is one of them,” says Earle.
Inspired by his prison experience, Earle has since been involved with the Journey of Hope From Violence to Healing (an anti-death penalty organization) and the Tennessee Coalition to Abolish State Killings.
He wrote the song “Over Yonder (Jonathan’s Song),” which appears on his latest record, in the voice of real-life murderer Jonathan Nobles. Earle befriended Nobles and was present at his execution in Texas in 1998. (A video of the song can be downloaded at http://www.steveearle.com.)
Coming face-to-face with the specter of death, on more than one occasion, Earle knows what’s important in life. “I’m happy just to be playing music that I love for a living,” he says.
