Steve earles biography

Still showered with accolades a decade after its release, the work blended an old-time country sound with a rock and roll sensibility. His career began to head downhill. Personal problems — drug use, several tumultuous marriages, brushes with the law — combined with a sharp tongue helped undo what some felt was assured crossover stardom in country and rock.

Almost miraculously, Earle reappeared in with a new album. Earle was born in Virginia in but grew up just outside of San Antonio , Texas , the son of an air-traffic controller. Seduced by music at an early age — Earle claims he remembers seeing Elvis Presley on television at the age of three — he dropped out of school at fourteen and eventually moved to Houston.

He had already begun playing guitar, as well as experimenting with controlled substances, and by the age of sixteen he was performing in local coffeehouses. It was during these early years that he befriended Townes Van Zandt, the legendary Texas singer-songwriter who would become a mentor of sorts to Earle and, himself a heavy drinker, a bad influence.

Steve earle son john henry

Earle left Texas around to follow Van Zandt to Nashville , Tennessee , the creative and business hub of the country music industry. In between construction jobs, Earle hustled to make an inside industry connection; by he had become a staff songwriter for a record label. He penned countless songs, though few of them ever made it onto vinyl.

By the early s, however, some of his songs had been recorded by artists like rock and roll pioneer Carl Perkins.