Steve Earle: ‘Shane MacGowan and I probably talked more the night we met than we ever did again’

Resumen detallado

The US troubadour on spending winters in Galway, meeting the Pogues leader and watching his song Galway Girl seep into Irish culture ...

More than people would think. I am not as addicted to being right just for the sake of being right as I used to be.

I’m the oldest of five. In my case, it meant that my siblings had to go through a lot of hell when they got to high school because I had been there ahead of them. It is not the conventional older brother situation in that respect. I was in trouble pretty much constantly.

My middle name is Fain. It is a family name on my mother’s side. I have always been very proud of it. My uncle’s name was Samuel Nicholas Fain IV, but he went by Nick. He was only five years older than me, and he gave me my first guitar. Three of my guitars were hand-me-downs from him. I got my first Beatles, Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan records from him. He called me when I was nine and said, “Whatever you do, don’t miss the Ed Sullivan Show tonight,” when the Beatles were on for the first time. He was my hero.

Then as I got older, his father, who went by Sam, started every 12-step [Alcoholics Anonymous] meeting in northeast Texas. So I grew up with the steps and the Serenity Prayer on the wall. I just ignored it because I had evidence in my life it would work, and I wasn’t done yet. But I knew what to do when I decided I wanted to get sober.

Oh God, I get angry a lot. Probably, watching this Ice situation. I am hoping Ice’s days are numbered as a result of the recent elections.

I am a guitar collector. I am a very serious one at this point in my life. But I had a whole collection before my drug habit took it all away. There were a few that I have not been able to replace or get anywhere near. There is Gibson J100 that Gibson made for me that has my skull and crossbones logo painted on the top of it, and I pawned it. I understand that a Japanese collector bought it years ago, but I wouldn’t mind having that back.

Galway, hands down. When I got into all the trouble I was in, and I got out of jail, and got clean, the first thing I did was a solo European tour that went as far east as Croatia…

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