Steve Earle.

• Author: Zaino, Nick A., III
• Position: THE PROGRESSIVE INTERVIEW - Interview

Steve Earle has been accused of a lot of things, but being shy isn't one of them. He learned the craft of songwriting from Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt, not exactly shrinking violets themselves. Most everything he works on--including his new album and new novel, both titled I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive, and even the TV series Treme--makes a political statement in one way or another.

Earle has been an ardent anti-death penalty advocate, and he recently donated the proceeds of the sale of his digital single of "Harlan Man" and "The Mountain" to the America Votes Labor Unity Fund to promote fair labor-management relations.

I spoke with Earle by phone as he juggled his year-old son and his Australian cattle dog on his tour bus. Earle was warm and talkative, and tended to answer more than one question at once. We covered a lot of ground about his early life, career, and politics.

Q: Do you feel like your writing has gotten more politically pointed as time goes on? Or have you been writing these kinds of things all along?

Steve Earle: I made two really overtly political records. Jerusalem was my reaction to September 11, and The Revolution Starts Now was me just trying to get certain things I wanted said before the 2004 election cycle was over with. The record came out that September. A lot of us worked really hard to keep Bush from winning a second term. I left for Europe the day after the election. It was good to be out of the country [laughs]. Then I came back almost two months later and began the U.S. part of the tour, and we became sort of a recovery room for people who had gotten their asses kicked. I was OK with that.

Politically, I'm pretty much a socialist. I cut my teeth on Marx and Emma Goldman. I've probably changed less politically than I have in any other respect. I've been an active addict and a recovering addict. And I've been married a bunch of times. The one area where I've changed radically politically is the Second Amendment. Just because of growing up in Texas, I didn't see anything incongruous about having a bunch of guns and being basically a peacenik. I really sort of believed I had them for hunting and for recreation and maybe to protect myself and my family. It took a long time to come around to where I'm at now. I don't have guns anymore. I'm pretty anti-gun, and it's because of personal stuff in my life.

Q: What stuff?

Earle: I got out of jail, got clean, and was handed an out-of-control fourteen-year-old son. I didn't know what I was supposed to do with him. I was just a little over a year clean and barely being able to take care of myself. One of the first things he did is he stole the loaded pistol that I kept under my mattress. He wouldn't admit that he had it. I searched the room and could not find the gun. Finally, me and my brother wrestled him into a car and...