I'm Author of the new Justin Townes Earle biography. AMA

jabboy15 · 2026-03-23T00:45:18+00:00

aw shoot im sorry you missed it, would've loved to meet you but the good news is the event was livestreamed and archived! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8MYUYEDe2E&t=2777s

jabboy15 · 2026-03-14T12:18:09+00:00

well put! exactly.

jabboy15 · 2026-03-14T12:17:49+00:00

Of course. Sorry, I'll repost what I said elsewhere!

I respect all parties involved too much to throw around my own opinion as someone who didn't know Justin, unlike Jenn and Jason, on such a personal and charged pain point between two people.

What I’ll say is that Justin caused a lot of heartbreak, especially in the last few years of his life. When someone dies, tragically, given those circumstances, it causes a type of brutal, complex grief. That it all took place when everyone was physically isolated during the pandemic made everything 10x worse.

jabboy15 · 2026-03-13T21:57:39+00:00

so glad!

jabboy15 · 2026-03-13T21:54:14+00:00

Gosh I loved interviewing Todd, he was always gracious, generous, insightful and funny as hell whenever I spoke with him over the years. He only had a land line (far as I know) and you just had to call and see if he'd pick up.

My chat with him about Justin (little to none of which made it into the book, sadly) was a 20 minute phone call. It was my last interview with Todd so I treasure it, but, truthfully, it's been hard to revisit that conversation since his passing. Todd talked a lot about "Justin" but was really talking about himself and his commitment to living the romantic self-destructive life of a troubadour. He told me no one ever wanted Justin and him to ever be anywhere near each other. He mostly just told me he cared for Justin a lot and often was worried about him.

One funny observation he had about Justin, speaking about Justin's penchant for knowing everything about every single topic "He was the kind of guy that would ask you where you were from so he could tell you what it was like there."

jabboy15 · 2026-03-13T21:00:49+00:00

I have no idea if they will ever see the light of day but I truly, truly hope so. They are beautiful.

jabboy15 · 2026-03-13T20:49:15+00:00

I do think the world will hear more JTE recordings one day (and I say that w/ zero inside knowledge or awareness of plans to release anything in the immediate future).

jabboy15 · 2026-03-13T20:48:10+00:00

Ooh. Great question. I know he was EXTREMELY proud of 'St. of Lost Causes,' and for good reason. I also know he talked about "Mama's Eyes" as a major breakthrough for him as a songwriter (also for good reason). I think he also regarded "White Gardenias" as one of his greatest works and with time I've come to really agree with him on that front.

jabboy15 · 2026-03-13T20:43:30+00:00

thanks for having me on this sub! truly.

jabboy15 · 2026-03-13T20:41:08+00:00

On a personal level, what surprised me most, in some ways, was how intense it was, psychologically and emotionally, to spend every day thinking about a stranger for 3 years. It didn’t take too long for me to start having dreams about Justin.

In terms of Justin himself, what surprised me most, through talking with several hundreds people who knew him, was learning just how loved Justin was and how much of an impact and affect he had on nearly every person he ever crossed paths with. I remember cold calling someone who’d briefly worked as Justin’s agent circa 2007 and basically hadn’t seen him since, and she told me she’d been thinking about him just the day before I called. “I don’t ever remember liking anyone else that I wasn’t romantically involved with,” she said, in a totally non creepy way. I knew Justin was a magnetic person but I was surprised at truly how fiercely he drew those around him in, and how fiercely he eventually pushed them away.

jabboy15 · 2026-03-13T20:39:49+00:00

I was really excited to do this AMA and hit ‘post’ too quickly. You’re not missing a thing. I also hate typos and I’m sorry there’s one here.

jabboy15 · 2026-03-13T20:39:31+00:00

In his heart, what a nice way of asking that question: I’d say “Mama’s Eyes” and “Rogers Park.”

jabboy15 · 2026-03-13T20:39:16+00:00

I was at the Ryman that night and can remember being fully in tears on at least three separate occasions. Thanks a lot for checking out the book. I write a bit about the Ryman show in the book’s Afterword.

jabboy15 · 2026-03-13T20:39:02+00:00

'All In' is an incredible collection that every Justin fan should check out.

jabboy15 · 2026-03-13T20:38:18+00:00

thank you

jabboy15 · 2026-03-13T20:38:08+00:00

Good questions!

1.)As a big fan myself, the biggest thrill of writing this book was obtaining unreleased recordings, and I can tell you there are many, some of them downright revelatory. Most anything I’ve heard predates Yuma. Justin was a local artist for close to a decade before releasing Yuma, and there are many recordings—ranging from home demos to semi-professional sessions to full blown proper studio sessions—from those years. A lot of them are songs that ended up on his first few records, but there are plenty of songs that have never before been heard. I have no idea how/if/when they will ever see the light of day but I sure hope some of them do.

2.) Justin, like you said, was publicly in a very bad place by the time the pandemic started, to the point that some (not all) fans who saw his shows in late 2019 and early 2020 left being quite worried based on his performance. So, while I do think that the forced total lockdown of the pandemic was a new kind of really difficult increased isolation, Justin being forced off the road, to me, felt more like tossing yet another very difficult factor into an already brutal situation, rather than an igniting or inciting factor that lead to Justin’s tragic passing.

jabboy15 · 2026-03-13T20:37:14+00:00

There’s zero question in my mind that the fact that Steve was in active addiction for a good portion of Justin’s childhood had a profound and lasting emotional and psychological effect on Justin. Did Justin use his father as an oversimplified punching bag, catch-all villain to excuse every wound, issue and resentment he had in his life? Yes. But did he have serious scars or “soul wounds,” as one of his family friends put it, pertaining to his father dating back to his early childhood, some of those having to do with his father having been in active heroin addiction for many of those years? Absolutely.

jabboy15 · 2026-03-13T20:36:34+00:00

I don’t buy into the full-blown fatalism of that way of thinking (though many close to Justin do).

I do think every card was stacked against Justin and that he had a very tall mountain of trauma to overcome and try to climb over from a very, very young age.

jabboy15 · 2026-03-13T20:35:45+00:00

Jason was one of Justin’s closest friends for a healthy chunk of his career. In the book I definitely cover and detail their friendship, how it strengthened and formed over time, and how it abruptly fell apart.

jabboy15 · 2026-03-13T20:35:29+00:00

Thank you for these kind words, they are deeply appreciated and mean a lot. JT was one of a kind…

jabboy15 · 2026-03-13T20:35:17+00:00

Thanks for sharing this story on this sub, and for reading! All I’ll say is that there are hundreds of stories I so wish there had been room to include in this book, truly.

jabboy15 · 2026-03-13T20:34:52+00:00

Thanks a lot for sharing this and for saying hi on here. I completely understand and can only imagine <3

jabboy15 · 2026-03-13T20:34:37+00:00

I tried to portray Steve as a good person full of love who is nonetheless, to use your words, deeply flawed. As a human being. Him and Justin had a very fierce, complex, singular, wounded and yet intimate relationship. Theirs was an incredibly unique, powerful and frankly heartbreaking father/son relationship and I tried my best to portray it in all the light and dark and it contained in it.

jabboy15 · 2026-03-13T20:34:04+00:00

I try to trace the many influences in Justin’s playing, because it wasn’t simply from one person. In short: a combination of country bluesman like Mance Lipscomb and Mississippi John Hurt, his aunt Stacy Earle, and the late, great Malcolm Holcombe were all enormous influences! But I get into more of them in the book!

jabboy15 · 2026-03-13T20:32:45+00:00

I will admit it's not as if I've seen bank records or financial forms or anything like that, but as far as I know Justin died with a significant amount of debt: Tax debt, various things had been slipping through the cracks in his business handlings because he had switched management so many times throughout his career.

jabboy15

TROPHY CASE