FILE – In this July 31, 2011 file photo, singer-songwriter Justin Townes Earle performs at the Newport Folk Festival in Newport, R.I. (AP Photo/Joe Giblin, file)By CHRIS TALBOTT
AP Entertainment Writer
NASHVILLE – In the days following Justin Townes Earle’s arrest last September in Indianapolis, he slipped so deeply into a cocaine psychosis it began to change his personality.
Gone was the brash, cocksure young singer-songwriter who against the steep odds of addiction and a tough upbringing had transformed himself into a true artist with the critical acclaim to prove it. In its place was a 150-pound wraith haunting the East Village in New York City with an overriding paranoia brought on by an eight-ball of cocaine and a half-gallon of vodka every day.
The continuous binges were destroying his talent and making his intense live shows occasionally forgettable. They were destroying his friendships one by one. Nearly six years of sobriety, all gone during an increasingly tight downward spiral over a year’s time.