Steve Earle on Occupy Wall Street, Hank Williams and line dancing

Photo by Ted Barron

Steve Earle in the studio.

For a man who looks like Santa’s burly, biker brother, Steve Earle sure has a soft spot for Harry Potter books.

“I love ‘em. I can’t help it,” the country singer-songwriter said by phone from his home in New York. “I grew up with Tolkien, and it’s the same kind of pure escapism. I don’t get to take drugs any more, so reading and re-reading that sort of stuff takes the place of that in my life now.”

The Harry Potter books also deal with death, which happens to be a prominent theme in Earle’s debut novel, "I’ll Never Get Out Of This World Alive." Set in part against the backdrop of the Kennedy assassination, the book tells the story of a morphine-addicted doctor in Earle’s hometown of San Antonio, Texas, who’s haunted by the ghost of Hank Williams. "I’ll Never Get Out Of This World Alive" is also the title of Earle’s latest album, which last week received a Grammy nomination for Best Folk Album.

The grizzled musician emerged as a songwriting force in 1970s Nashville before breaking out as a solo artist in the ‘80s with hits like "Guitar Town" and "Copperhead Road." And at 56, Earle is as prolific as ever. He’s still an acclaimed Americana artist, but these days he may be better known for his political activism and roles on David Simon’s HBO series "The Wire" and "Treme," for which he also writes music.

Jay Cridlin: I’m reading your book. I’m about 100 pages in. It’s good.

Steve Earle: Oh, cool. Thanks.

Cridlin: I don’t see you as a guy who drags his laptop into Starbucks to bang out chapters.

Earle: Naw. The people that are in Starbucks, I don’t think are really writing anything. I couldn’t do that. I could write at a coffeehouse in Spain, because my Spanish isn’t good enough that I wouldn’t be distracted. Or maybe France. I need a place where there’s nothing else going on. It’s hard enough to shut off the music in my head.

Cridlin: What was your research process like? Hank was obviously a living being, and there are roots of some truth in the Kennedy assassination. I imagine you had to exercise some care to get a few things right.

Earle: Yeah. I’m pretty meticulous.... I’m a big historical fiction fan. The Kennedy thing, all I had to do was go back and look and get the days right, because I was there when Kennedy landed at San Antonio International Airport the day before he was killed. I was 8, and my father was an air traffic controller at that airport. He called my mother and said, “You better keep the kids out of school, because Kennedy’s landing at 10 o’clock.” And we went. We were kept out of school and brought there to see Kennedy land. So that’s an embellished eyewitness account.

Cridlin: Did you ever pick up anything from David Simon about the art of writing, pacing, storytelling, anything like that?

Earle: Well, I never asked him anything directly. But I’ve certainly learned a lot from him. That’s one of the reasons I do what I do. I don’t get a s---load of money from having a small part on an HBO television show. I’ve made a lot of money on "Treme" because of the music. I made very little money on "The Wire." David Simon gave me my first job as an actor, and I’ve worked for David Simon and Tim Blake Nelson. That’s pretty good words to get to go out and say. And you do learn a lot about writing.

Cridlin: Does it surprise you that "Copperhead Road" is still a popular line-dance song in mainstream country clubs? It ranks right up there with "Watermelon Crawl" and "Boot Scootin’ Boogie."

Earle: I’ve never really experienced that. "Copperhead Road" became a line dance in the middle of the line-dance craze, which was at a point where I was pretty far gone from country music. … If I have any experience (with line dancing), it’s peripherally, because I haven’t been played on country radio in a long time. "Copperhead Road" was never played on country radio. I remember the people from my label coming in and hearing it … and I was transferred over to the rock division.

Cridlin: Have you gotten involved with the Occupy Wall Street movement? In your mind, what is it they’re looking to accomplish?

Earle: What they’re looking to accomplish is that people know that they are who they are, and who they are is the first generation to get the door slammed in their face. They’re people with college educations who can’t get a job. They’re people with three quarters of a degree, that there’s no grant money for them to finish their education. They’ve come to realize that it’s a lie, the idea that anyone can be anything they want to be in America. But this generation, these people that are doing this, they’re educated, and they have smartphones, and they have computers, and they know how to ... use them. So they are dangerous.

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