Justin Townes Earle’s Widow Clarifies Concerns with Jason Isbell Song
On Friday, April 12th, the widow of Americana singer and songwriter Justin Townes Earle took to social media to let her thoughts be known about the song “When We Were Close,” written and performed by Jason Isbell on his latest album Weathervanes. The song is meant partly as a tribute, and partly as Isbell processing through the survivor’s guilt of losing someone who he once was close friends with, but was estranged from when Justin Townes Earle passed away from an accidental overdose in 2020.
Jenn Marie Earle explained how Isbell never reached out to her about the song, and has also not reached out or responded to her since the song’s release in June of 2023, despite reaching out to Isbell to address her concerns. Along with other issues with “When We Were Close,” Earle takes special exception to the 3rd verse of the song, which makes reference to Earle’s now six year old daughter Etta.
I saw a picture of you laughing with your child
And I hope she will remember how you smiled
But she probably wasn’t old enough, the night somebody sold your stuff
That left you on the bathroom tiles
According to Jenn Marie Earle, when Etta heard the line, she realized it was about herself and was emotionally traumatized by it. For ten months, Jenn Marie tried to handle the matter privately, only positing about it upon occasion via her private Instagram profile. But when a quote from a recent panel interview with Jason Isbell at Ohio University emerged about the song, Jenn Marie Earle chose to take her grievance public.
On Monday (4-15), Jenn Marie Earle reached out to Saving Country Music to clarify some of the misconceptions about her concerns with “When We Were Close,” and how they’ve been unfairly characterized by some.
When asked if Jason Isbell had ever addressed the matter or answered Jenn Marie’s messages about the song, she confirmed, “Not at all.”
One criticism that Jenn Marie Earle has faced from those who read her statement is why she would even play the song for a six year old child, especially due to the graphic nature of the third verse. When pressed on this point by Saving Country Music, Jenn Marie Earle explained that after being notified of the song’s release via social media, she listened to the song the first time with Etta.
“I started getting tagged on social media, and that’s how I found out about it,” Earle explains. “I wanted to listen to it with her, because I thought it would be beautiful and we love [Jason Isbell] music. When I first heard the song, that’s how Etta heard it. I said, ‘Jason wrote a song about your daddy, let’s listen.’ And Etta’s so incredibly smart. She has her father’s brain. She memorizes songs after hearing them once. She knew right away that the kid that was mentioned in the song was her, and that guy on the floor was him, and she f–king lost it.”
Earle continues, “When she cried about it, I wrote [Isbell] a long message saying ‘I have a little girl in the car crying right now because of your song.” Isbell never responded.
Jenn Marie Earle also claimed in her statements that since the release of “When We Were Close,” she’s felt almost pursued by the song. Despite knowing how she felt about it, Isbell chose it as the opening song of his tour after the release of Weathervanes. He performed it on Jimmy Kimmel in October of 2023, resulting in more people tagging the Justin Townes Earle social media accounts with links to the video, bringing up the issue yet again.
Jason Isbell officially released “When We Were Close” as a radio single, which meant the song would come on often when Jenn Marie Earle and Etta were riding in the car listening to music together.
“It comes on the radio a bunch,” Jenn Marie says. “We would listen to XM because her daddy comes on it. I post about it whenever they play him. And we get to hear Papa [Steve Earle] talk and stuff. And it comes on so much there now. Early on she would say, ‘Mom, I want to listen to that song. I want to hear it again.’ Now, she doesn’t want to listen to this song. She doesn’t like that she was mentioned, and she’s even said that. I haven’t willingly played it for her. She knows how her father died. She doesn’t fully understand drugs, but she knows about him having a disease, and putting something in his body that stopped his heart.”
Some have questioned Earle’s characterization that the song keeps coming on the radio. Isbell tracks like the Grammy-nominated “King of Oklahoma” or the Grammy-winning “Cast Iron Skillet” are considered the more popular songs from Weathervanes. But according to the radio single tracking service CDX and the Americana Music Association, “When We Were Close” was the most-played song on the Americana radio format in 2023, which includes the Sirius/XM Outlaw channel.
According to a press release dated December 13th, 2023 for the Americana Music Association, “Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit top the Americana Music Association’s year-end Top 100 Americana Radio Airplay Charts of 2023. Isbell and the 400 Unit’s album ‘Weathervanes’ secured the #1 spot on the Americana Radio Airplay Albums Chart and Americana Radio Airplay Singles Chart with ‘When We Were Close’ for the most spins for the year. This data reflects records reported to the Americana Radio Airplay Albums and Singles Charts (powered by CDX) during the period of Jan. 10, 2023 through Dec. 12, 2023.”
“When We Were Close” beat of Charley Crockett’s “I’m Just A Clown” to secure the #1 spot in 2023, despite the consumption of “When We Were Close” being less that others tracks from Weathervanes that were not selected as singles. So when Jenn Marie characterized the song coming on her radio “a bunch,” she was not embellishing.
“[Isbell] was well aware of how I felt, and not that I’m the most important person in the world, but if he had any kind of heart and knew that, he wouldn’t be pushing it so hard. And then he submitted it to the Grammys,” Jenn Maire Earle says.
The concern with “When We Were Close” has stimulated deep discussions about creative license, and where artists should draw a line or proceed with extra caution when writing about true-to-life or living subjects. Jenn Marie Earle herself has said on numerous occasions, including in a video she posted shortly after her original statement that “It has nothing to do with me thinking that I should be able to control what he’s able to share. But once he mentioned my daughter and myself in the song, it took it to a different level.”
Jenn Marie Earle did confirm to Saving Country Music that even though Isbell did not reach out to her to either get her blessing to record the song or even a heads up that it was being released, Isbell did reach out to Justin Townes Earle’s father, performer Steve Earle.
“When I asked Steve about it, he hadn’t heard it. He just approved it. I don’t think any of Steve’s family have really full acknowledged this song. I don’t know the specific details, but I do know it happened without [Steve] knowing the actual content of the song.”
When Jenn Marie reach out to Steve, she says, “He told me to leave it and not pay attention to it, that he hadn’t heard the song or the words, but he had given it his blessing.”
Jenn Marie Earle also takes issue with more specific things in the song, saying the details are inaccurate.
“Justin died on a wood floor. But [Isbell] is so on the nose, he probably needed a word that rhymed with similes (the song mentions Earle died on ’tiles’). He didn’t die in the bathroom.”
Jenn Marie also said that Justin Townes Earle never hired anyone to dress him as the song implies. “I think it’s funny that Jason thinks that someone dressed Justin. He rolled out of bed with style. He didn’t need anyone to dress him.”
At the time of Justin Townes Earle’s death, he was living in an apartment in Nashville while Jenn Marie was in Utah visiting her father. The arrangement was only supposed to be temporary through COVID as Justin’s tours kept getting cancelled. It was being cooped up in an apartment when things began to turn dark for Justin, and his issues with addiction once again came to the forefront.
Jenn Marie Earle says that days before Justin Townes Earle was discovered, she knew something was wrong because Earle wasn’t answering his phone and their debit card wasn’t being charged. But since she wasn’t in Tennessee, she couldn’t by law give the order to break down Justin’s door to check on him. When they finally did break down the door, Justin was found dead in the living room. He was 38 years old.
But the specific details of “When We Were Close” that Jenn Marie Earle broaches are only part of her concern. Aside from posts on her private Instagram account, Earle had kept quiet about her issues with the song for 10 months, trying to resolve it with Isbell privately to no avail.
“It’s a measure of character,” Jenn Marie Earle says. “Can you be decent? Can you be human? And he’s proven over and over again that he just can’t. He cherry picked that song, and I’m the only one who’d said that this bothers me. Nobody else has really spoken out about it. Basic courtesy, basic humanness is all I expect. I feel sorry that I blew it up on social media, but I felt like I had no choice.”
The matter was brought to a head when Isbell brought up “When We Were Close” and the “victims” of the song at the Music Industry Summit at Ohio University on April 10th. You can see the moment at the 6:28:00 mark of the video below.
“That was just the last straw for me,” Jenn Marie Earle says. “When he said, ‘I’ll mention this now because I don’t want it to come back up,’ that just lit me up. You’re the one that just brought it up, and it’s going to come up again. Now I’m going to talk about it because I’ve been biting my tongue, and turning down the radio for 10 months.'”
Similar issues dealing with the creative license of songwriters and how songs can affect others came up recently when the potential muse for multiple Turnpike Troubadours songs named “Lorrie” spoke out. She too felt pursued by the songs, officially deciding to go public after hearing one of the songs being played at a Wal-Mart.
Others have brought up the case of Taylor Swift writing songs about ex-boyfriends, and how it would be unreasonable to expect her to gain permission or to notify these ex’s of the songs.
However, there are instances where lyrics have been altered in future performances or versions. Gordon Lightfoot augmented the words to “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” to make sure the victims of the famous shipwreck wouldn’t be misunderstood as being responsible for it. Taylor Swift changed the lyrics to her song “Better Than Revenge” for her “Taylor’s Version” of her album Speak Now after she was accused of “slut shaming” the subject of the song.
There are other more recent examples of tribute songs about deceased individuals that were well-received by the survivors. In 2018, Brent Cobb released a song called “King of Alabama” about country artist Wayne Mills who was murdered in Nashville in 2013. Cobb co-wrote the song with Adam Hood, and they decided to give Wayne’s young son Jack a songwriting credit on the song, that way Jack would receive royalties from it over time.
Songwriter Pat Reedy recently released the song “Should You Ever” that he wrote for Luke Bell, who similarly to Justin Townes Earle, died of an accidental fentanyl overdose. The song was well-received by Luke’s friends and family.
“I believe if the tables had been turned and Justin had written a song about Isbell’sr passing, it would have been so eloquent and wouldn’t have even mentioned dying and would have gotten the point across without leaving your family members in tears of shock and sadness, rather, perhaps some joy in the beautiful remembrance,'” Jenn Marie Earle says. “And I truly believe that.”
What comes across starkly when speaking to Jenn Marie Earle is that despite the pain Justin put her through during their marriage, she remains loyal to Justin, and sees it as her job to protect his legacy.
“I’ve got a lot of heart, and I’ve got a lot of sympathy for anyone who remained friends with Justin through the hard times, because I know how hard it was. And I actually thought that his death might bring us all together in the end when we could say, ‘Wasn’t he a light?’ While also saying, ‘F–k the dark. That was so hard.'”
Jenn Marie Earles continues,
“You have no idea what it’s like to go through what I went through, and still decide that I am going to stand beside my man because I didn’t want to abandon him. And I didn’t want to give up on him. He put me through hell. But I loved him until the day he died, and I did not give up on him or our relationship. No one else did that in his life, but I did. And Justin knew it.
Justin left me in debt, but I’m not out for money. The only thing I wanted was consideration, before putting out the song, but especially afterwards after it was known how I felt about it. That’s the part that I have a problem with. I don’t expect anything. I don’t want to censor Jason Isbell. I don’t want to control him. I think I’ve made it very clear that’s not what I’m out for, but of course that’s how people make it out.
I’m standing up for my husband who can’t speak for himself. I’m standing up for my daughter and I who are mentioned, obviously not by name, but mentioned in a song that was obviously about my husband. I’m not making something out of nothing here. It is something.
This is my job. I don’t get paid for it, but it’s my job. I married this amazing man, and I will forever celebrate him, forever stick up for him. I’m it, and then there’s Etta. And I will forever celebrate him and stand up for him because I know he wouldn’t appreciate this song.”
– – – – – – – –
Saving Country Music reached out through both management and publicity contacts to the Jason Isbell camp for comment, clarification, or a statement on the matter. Those requests were not returned by the time of this article.
April 16, 2024 @ 12:11 pm
Since Steve came up, it’s worth listening to his Townes tribute song Ft Worth Blues.
Townes’ song Rex’s Blues is also great, though it’s not the same kind of tribute because Rex lived long after Townes. Rex may still live.
Isbell mentioned both of these songs in his song about JTE.
April 16, 2024 @ 12:58 pm
He does more than mention them, he references a different lyric from them in the line immediately following. He’s drawing a parallel between Townes & Steve and him & JTE. Also this is very clearly not a ‘tribute’ song. He’s writing about survivor’s guilt & anger.
I think her anger is misplaced, but I get it. Can’t really judge a person for the way they grieve or the things they’re angry about because of this sort of loss. I do think her issues with the details of the song doesn’t help her case, honestly.
April 16, 2024 @ 5:49 pm
I didn’t call the Isbell song a tribute. I lean a little toward your interpretation of it.
I’m also not sure she’s showing anger.
It’s obviously subjective but I think the Earle and Townes songs are vastly superior to Isbell’s. Interestingly, Rex said he didn’t like Townes’ song for years. Then he said the song nailed him.
April 16, 2024 @ 6:39 pm
My enthusiasm for Jason has waned over the years. I saw him in WI and at the Ryman, some of my best live show memories, but politics and attitude have turned me off. I wish him happiness and success, it is what it is. Long way to explain why Weathervanes hasn’t made it into my rotation, just a once through. After reading the recent posts, I gave it a critical listen. Additional context, I’ve been sober since 2013, sobriety has given me many gifts, including young sons. With this in mind, and some understanding of Jason’s past, I took this song not as a tribute to JTE but as a cautionary tale to himself. I.e., there but for the grace of God goes Jason Isbell—not just a prospect that haunted past Jason, but one that remains as a real threat for future Jason, his loved ones, his daughter. Add to that the context of the personal turmoil he appears to be living right now, and I feel it’s conceivable that may be why he pushes the song front and center—as much for him not to forget the fine line as for the listener to take heed. Now, why the lack of direct response to JME, I couldn’t say. I have no understanding of their actual level of relationship or interaction prior to JTE’s death, there may be more in play than just Jason Isbell acting badly. It’s all unfortunate, to be sure.
April 18, 2024 @ 1:06 pm
“wrecks” is definitely still alive.
April 16, 2024 @ 12:15 pm
This is just sad, that such a private matter ended up becoming public. For the last article, I kinda agreed with her that there was something “off” with Isbell and the song, but as it turns out, he did reach out to Steve Earle. That actually changes my opinion. I think there was some miscommunication or lack of communication in the Earle family, and that’s understandable since they are grieving. Hopefully everyone involved can use this as an opportunity to do some healing. I hope it doesn’t drag out too much more.
April 16, 2024 @ 12:53 pm
I think it is important to mark that Jason Isbell reached out to Steve Earle, and perhaps he assumed Steve would reach out to Jenn Marie and others. But I don’t know if that changes the underlying issue that Jenn Marie has. Even if she had been notified that a song was coming, she’s still likely to be triggered by the song once she hears it. It seems like the issue keeps boiling down to Isbell refusing to communicate with her directly in a way that could have avoided this issue getting to this point. Isbell also could have reached out to her since Friday when Jenn Marie first broached this subject publicly. He could have sent a statement for this article, apologizing for any hurt the song caused, but standing behind his right as a songwriter to broach difficult subjects. Instead it’s been silence.
April 16, 2024 @ 6:51 pm
This woman married a known drug addict who’d been in and out of rehab his entire life, chose to have a kid with him, and presumably did nothing to help Justin actually get through it leading to him ODing after snorting a giant coke pile.
Seems pretty obvious why Jason, a recovering addict and alcoholic, would want knotting to do with this lady. She bad news and likely a user herself.
April 16, 2024 @ 8:53 pm
Bowflex,
Yesterday you were arguing with me that “When We Were Close” probably had nothing to do with Justin Townes Earle and was probably fictional. Now you’re making wild-eyed assumptions about what the widow of a dead guy did or didn’t do to help her husband, and then claim she must be a user herself. The only reason I’m leaving this comment up is it’s a perfect example of the morally depraved that Jason Isbell has attracted by his holier-than-thou online dunking that looks to cut down anyone they don’t like instead of trying to have meaningful conversations about important topics.
April 19, 2024 @ 7:41 am
Not so fast, Trigger – suggesting that the “Bowflex” comment is in some sort of way related to Isbell’s outspoken politics is garbage on the surface and you know it. People who “agree” with Jason Isbell’s politics, or his social media posturing, are not the folks who condemn drug addicts, or believe in the absence of a redemptive arc, or anything of the sort. Read the comment again, and ask yourself “who typically makes broad condemning statements about people’s shortcomings and makes up false narratives to support their point?”
This is a ridiculous overstep. So Isbell invented holier-than-thou? He’s the obvious inspiration for all moral superiority? Did Isbell inspire then-real estate mogul Donald Trump to place a full page ad calling for the executions of the “Central Park Five” (who were later exonerated) in 1990? Do those comments sound more like Isbell, or “Only criminals and bloodsuckers reward bad behavior” Ted Nugent? Does it sound more “Cumberland Gap” or “Try That in a Small Town”?
Rapists and Criminals, Trigger. But yeah, Isbell is the source of inspiration to all who look to “cut down anyone they don’t like”
I get that you have spilled gallons of pseudo-ink on this website castigating Isbell for his ivory tower, and I can even get it sometimes. I recognize that you are good at separating art from artist, and obviously still admire his art while his outspoken politics leave a bad taste in your mouth – not because you disagree or agree, but because you believe you shouldn’t have to choose what musicians to like based on their electoral opinions. Obviously Isbell disagrees.
But I would bet that he would be as disgusted by the Bowflex comment as you and I are. Pretending Isbell, or his politics, invented moral superiority isn’t just disingenuous and factually incorrect – it’s pandering.
April 19, 2024 @ 8:03 am
Hey Mac,
Clearly I was not claiming that Jason Isbell is the inventor of holier-than-thou rhetoric or perspectives, simply that he’s cultivated this kind of activity through his social media presence, previously on Twitter, and now on Threads. Obviously, others in greater positions of power proceed him, and also engage in this practice more frequently.
April 17, 2024 @ 7:39 am
You’re making wild assumptions here that you know nothing about. Jenn Marie fought like hell for Justin and dealt with a mountain of pain in the process. Not only is she certainly no user (she is a sobriety activist, actually) and is currently building a foundation in Justin’s honor for people like her who have lost their spouses to addictions. She has talked about this numerous times on Justin’s socials. The fact that you keep spewing this in multiple comments is why I am here addressing this. Trigger, can something be done about this? Their statements are untrue and wildly unfair.
April 17, 2024 @ 8:18 am
Jesus, dude, wtf? Totally uncalled for no matter how you feel about the situation.
April 17, 2024 @ 11:42 am
You win the “I KNOW NOTHING OF WHICH I SPEAK” award.
April 19, 2024 @ 7:45 am
Is that a real award
April 17, 2024 @ 11:41 am
The fact that Isbell reached out the Steve Earle was kind of surprising to me. I first started listening to JTE almost 15 years ago, when Harlem River Blues had come out. I learned way back then that JTE was pretty estranged from his father. I find it… interesting… that Isbell would have reached out to his father, as far as I am aware, they never really reconnected (the Earles).
Personally, I love Isbell’s music, but I only sat down to listen to When We Were Close when this situation began, thanks to your reporting. I wouldn’t have made the direct connection with this song and JTE, but then, I’m sure that Erle’s family would see things differently than I do. But when I listened to it, it seemed to me to be more of a reflection of Isbell and his regrets in regarding his failed friendship. I don’t know…
While only tangentially related, the Ghost of Paul Revere have a wonderful tribute song, JTE, off of their most recent and final album. I would highly recommend it, and the rest of their music to anyone who wants likes Justin Townes Earle, or other folk music.
April 17, 2024 @ 5:35 pm
Justin talked to go dad the evening he died. This interview, originally published by the NYTimes, gives necessary perspective.
https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/music/steve-earle-on-his-son-justin-townes-earle-i-ve-never-loved-anything-in-this-world-more-than-him-1.4449768
April 16, 2024 @ 12:19 pm
If I were the parent of a child and knew about a song referring to their deceased dad, I would have listened to it first by myself and decided if it was something my kid should listen to or not.
April 16, 2024 @ 1:16 pm
Hindsight is 20/20 I guess.
I’m not sure why Jenn Marie would think a tribute song would need to be prescreened. And if it did need to be prescreened, perhaps all the more reason for Jason Isbell to reach out to her directly before the song is released, or perhaps respond to one of her text/messages with a simple, “Hey, I apologize that this song was traumatic for you and your daughter, that wasn’t my intent.”
Isbell’s continued silence, even in the face of Jenn’s statements and a dozen media reports on the matter at this point seems to verify his carelessness about this issue.
April 16, 2024 @ 1:29 pm
Who said it was a tribute song?
April 16, 2024 @ 1:47 pm
That was my question too: who said this was a tribute to JTE? It may have been a ode to various friends lost to addiction, etc., a subject Jason knows plenty about.
April 16, 2024 @ 2:23 pm
I mean, I think it’s clear that it’s about JTE and not an amalgamation of people Isbell knows/knew. But as I said elsewhere, it’s a song about survivor’s guilt & anger, not a tribute song. Isbell’s been criticized pretty heavily for not saying anything at all about JTE regarding this one, so I’m not sure where the tribute thing is coming from.
April 16, 2024 @ 2:38 pm
This seems like a strange point of contention. My guess is the people who were calling it a tribute song were the folks that were tagging Justin’s social media accounts, alerting Jenn Marie to the existence to the song. This is how it came into her universe. As I said in the description of this article, and in my review of “Weathervanes,” it’s part tribute, part Isbell dealing with his survivor’s guilt. I don’t think Isbell would even argue this point. Even if you don’t want to consider it a “tribute,” it is written in tribute to Justin Townes Earle.
As far as folks continuing to say that the song is not even about Justin, or only partly about him, or that they didn’t know it was about him—which I have seen strangely often in these discussions—get boned up on what’s being discussed. It’s about Justin, period.
April 16, 2024 @ 2:51 pm
The song recounts the times they spent together and the recurring theme throughout the song is that Jason admired JTE and often didn’t feel like he measured up to him.
“But you played so heavy, and you always let me sing a couple
Even though you were the star”
And with regard to Justin’s death, Jason questions why the Lord (or fate) took Earle, rather than him!
“I was the worst of the two of us
But Rex’s Blues wasn’t through with us
You were bound for glory and grown to die
Oh, but why wasn’t I?
Why wasn’t I?”
Sounds like a tribute–and a very nice one–to me!
April 16, 2024 @ 3:02 pm
Re Trigger: Tribute has a definition. This does not, in any way, fit that definition no matter how many times or in how many different ways you or anyone else call it that. I don’t understand why you’d presume Isbell would agree with you either.
April 16, 2024 @ 9:00 pm
This is the stupidest fucking argument of this entire fucking episode. Most Jason Isbell fans are screaming at their screens that “When We Were Close” is a loving tribute and it’s bullshit that anyone would ever take issue with it. And then there is this extremely strange thread here of people demanding it not be seen as a tribute because they want to win an online argument revolving around semantics. I didn’t even call it a tribute. I went out of my way to say it was partly a tribute.
But sure, it’s not a tribute. You win fucking nothing, because there’s no point in this argument, and were all dumber for participating in it.
April 17, 2024 @ 4:31 am
Wow, anger issues Trigger? You said, “I’m not sure why Jenn Marie would think a tribute song would need to be prescreened.”
BECAUSE IT’S NOT A TRIBUTE SONG.
“I’m not sure why Jenn Marie would think a coping song would need to be prescreened.”
Do you see the difference? It’s pretty obvious if you’re not raging mad at your computer screen over internet comments that disagree with you.
April 17, 2024 @ 4:46 am
“Most Jason Isbell fans are screaming at their screens that “When We Were Close” is a loving tribute and it’s bullshit that anyone would ever take issue with it.”
In other words, you’re not actually reading (or comprehending) what any of them are actually posting. Shocking update.
April 17, 2024 @ 7:10 am
@JC He’s nicknamed Trigger for a reason.
April 16, 2024 @ 3:03 pm
“Hindsight is 20/20 I guess.”
You don’t need hindsight to screen a song like that, knowing their history and the way Isbell writes songs. Isbell didn’t make her daughter cry, she was exposed to material she wasn’t ready for. If she wasn’t told this is a song about her father, she never would have put it together, and her hearing it on the radio would never be a problem.
Yes, it’s sad that this little girl is dealing with this, but that’s all the more reason to screen anything about her dad that she is intentionally shown, at least at that age.
April 16, 2024 @ 9:57 pm
Careless? Don’t think so. JI used artistic license to write a sing based on his experiences and insights ; which is his right, personally. Details aside, JI wrote a piece of music with a message he wanted to tell in his way. And in this day and age no one should be shocked or surprised by provactive lyrics or anything else like that – especially family members of celebrities.
This whole thing reminds me about the Oliver Stone Doors movie. He took a lot of liberties making the film. It did though, portray the rock star lifestyle and it was directed well. Manzarek hated it, so what.
You’re in the public eye, truths come out, you can’t stop it, so do the best to prepare for it.
April 24, 2024 @ 8:48 am
“Most Jason Isbell fans are screaming at their screens that ‘When We Were Close’ is a loving tribute and it’s bullshit that anyone would ever take issue with it.”
Maybe you and I are reading different comments, but that argument doesn’t seem very prevalent to me. I’ve been seeing a lot more “this song is about Jason and his processing of an estranged friend’s overdose” comments.
Either way, it’s strange to me that you’re referring to the characterization of a “tribute” as “the stupidest fucking argument,” when you yourself are repeatedly pointing out that JTE died on hardwood and not tile or that he didn’t have someone dressing him. I also think pointing out how Isbell frequently opened shows with the song is similarly dumb.
April 17, 2024 @ 6:20 am
i think the allowed repeat listenings really drive home the poor decision-making.
your kid likes dinosaurs so you put on jurassic park, they get scared, you turn off jurassic park and don’t let them watch it again. you have a conversation with them to make them feel better. you don’t keep putting on jurassic park.
April 17, 2024 @ 9:04 am
I think there a lot of details to this story that make it exceptional when people argue back and forth on whether this song should be considered problematic or not. One of those details is how a song that based on consumption was the 6th most popular song on Isbell’s “Weathervanes”—let alone all the other songs that were released or promoted as singles to the Americana format in 2023—became the most-played song on the entire Americana radio format in 2023. That speaks to the ubiquity of a song that when it was released as a single, the Jason Isbell camp knew there was a controversy behind.
This is what created a situation where each time Jenn was in the car with Etta (or otherwise), the song felt like it kept coming on, because it did. Your kid may not like being scared by dinosaurs. But if each time you turn on the TV and there’s Jurassic Park and they say they want to watch, it creates the kind of scenario Jenn Marie found herself in.
April 17, 2024 @ 9:11 am
believe it or not, you can tell your child no and change the song. as a parent, you can take additional steps to remove your child from this situation. as drastic as it may seem, you can listen to a different station, play music on your phone, a cd, etc.
keeping your child safe and happy is pretty much the most important thing as a parent and this is just so easy to navigate.
April 17, 2024 @ 10:19 pm
Let’s set this song aside for a minute. I’ll take it one further…..
You’re walking with your child on the street and you both witness a calamity (an act of violence, a horrible car accident etc). Ypu have no choice in seeing ot or controlling it. You dont place “blame”, you do what ever is necessary to help your child process it.
At least, with the “ubiquitousness” of this song, there was no surprise, don’t play victim. This situation you can control; shut the radio and stop placing blame.
April 18, 2024 @ 8:37 am
I guess the issue I would take with this hypothetical is that in this case, Jenn Marie and Etta aren’t just witnessing a calamity. They were participants or victims of it. Remember, this whole episode started with Jason Isbell talking about how he’s made “victims” through some of his songs, then bringing up “When We Were Close” and the “victims” it created. He was speaking about Jenn Marie and Etta specifically. So as many are arguing back and forth of whether Jenn Marie should feel like a victim of the song, Jason Isbell is admitting himself that she’s a victim. Jenn Marie and Etta were already victims of the accidental overdose of Justin. Now the song makes them relive it again.
All that said, I understand what you’re saying here that you shouldn’t make a conscious choice to revisit a crime scene. But there is a reason both sides of the highway slow down when only one of them experiences a wreck.
As for the radio component, one of the reasons it was important to underscore just how ubiquitous “When We Were Close” was is to verify Jenn’s claim that she felt pursued by the song. Some people said or implied that she must be crazy. It was an album cut, and not even considered one of the most popular songs on “Weathervanes.” The data proves that no, it was being played on Americana radio like crazy, dramatically increasing the opportunities for Jenn to have to drive by the same calamity, increasing the trauma, even if you turn your head.
April 16, 2024 @ 12:28 pm
Isbell can write about any damn thing he wants. That is his artistic license. Jenn Earle can get pissed about it all she wants. That’s her right too. Oh well.
But let’s recognize that this is really all about one person putting her guilt and grief on a guy who did nothing more than write a great song (and one that even now, reading the lyrics, I would have no idea had anything to do with JTE, nor would most people I bet).
Also, maybe it’s JTE who was really Lorrie?
April 16, 2024 @ 12:31 pm
For a guy who likes to virtue signal about being a champion of women, it seems odd to reach out to the “patriarch,” and not even reply to her message, no? He even has a young daughter himself. I mean I don’t necessarily think that way, but he’s supposed to be the virtuous one.
Again though, it’s a song. It’s a bit unflattering but Jason didn’t make it up or slander him, he’s describing what happened. The guy was in fact an addict who bought stuff and overdosed. No amount of “standing up for” or “celebrating” him will change that.
April 16, 2024 @ 12:54 pm
*mostly described what happened. Some of the facts are wrong. Granted, it isn’t a documentary.
April 16, 2024 @ 1:38 pm
I think it’s weird that she thinks every line in the song that isn’t someone’s biography should accurately reflect details that have nothing to do with what the song is about. The line about someone picking out clothes likely reflects fame, not literally that someone was dressing him. It’s just a weird focus of trying to make the song something that it isn’t. I get that she’s coming from a different place but her hyper focus seems misplaced. And a conversation with Isbell isn’t the help she needs.
Curious about the wellness check laws in TN. Doesn’t sound right that a spouse can’t call from another state and get action. I haven’t seen many wellness checks, but I’ve never seen one denied.
April 16, 2024 @ 4:51 pm
From the very beginning folks have missed the underlying concern of this issue. It is false that Justin died on tiles. It is false that Justin had people dressing him like Jason Isbell does (see the GQ spreads). But those are just minor, tertiary concerns. This isn’t even really about the song.
The deeper concern is that we have a widow, a fatherless child, and a single mother that is part of our music community that feels slighted by this song, and the author who seems that on a point of principle, refuses to attempt to try and resolve an issue that clearly hurt them, whether any of us think the underlying concern is fair, or not.
A few months ago, the Los Angeles Times published an article talking about the “radical empathy of Jason Isbell.” This is the persona that has been built for Isbell from dozens of think pieces that don’t bring an ounce of scrutiny to his personal life or career, and in fact turn a blind eye to issues like this and others.
Jason Isbell is constantly passing judgement on other on Threads and other places. He admits in the Ohio University interview that “When We Were Close” created “victims” (his words). For the love of God, step up, be the bigger man. Even if you think the issue is petty, you’re Jason Isbell. You’re the guy constantly being lauded. You’re the one with spreads in GQ flying around in private jets. Reach out. Show some heart, and empathize with someone you hurt. It seems to me that’s exactly what the Jason Isbell the press is constantly selling us would do.
Or don’t, and hear about it in the public.
April 16, 2024 @ 6:24 pm
Oh the drama! Nothing will resolve this. She knows it and you know it.
April 16, 2024 @ 6:43 pm
“Do you work with anyone to accomplish your look?
Yeah, Billy Reid [who was formerly based in Deep Ellum] has been making my suits for a couple of years now. I still have some vintage stuff, and some things I pick up from other designers, but Billy Reid’s my main guy for my suits, and for a lot of my every day clothing. He’s from Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and he actually just won the GQ Men’s Designer of the Year and the Vogue Fashion Designer of the Year award. We’ve talked a lot about my suits, and he helps me out with a lot of that. It’s very much a partnership in making my suits, and it’s a lot of fun.” https://www.dallasobserver.com/music/extended-qanda-justin-townes-earle-on-the-importance-of-fashion-on-stage-7047267
April 16, 2024 @ 9:07 pm
First you mock the “drama” of it all. Then you go scouring the internet for counterfactuals, while others say Jenn must be jealous of Amanda Shires? What kind of People Magazine, Real Housewives bullshit is this? Go touch grass, Liza. And nothing in that article said that he had people dressing him. It says he worked with Billy Reid to design clothes, which verifies Jenn’s claims that Justin dictated his own fashion. Go find somewhere else on the Internet to shit on people just so you can feel better about yourself.
April 16, 2024 @ 7:06 pm
She chose to marry and have a kid with a known drug addict. She chose to not go to therapy and to play a song about her husband’s death for a six year old. This has nothing to do with Isbell. She s and parent who made poor life choices and is trying to blame other people for her own mental health issues.
April 16, 2024 @ 9:15 pm
I have never once mentioned Amanda Shires, anywhere or any time. You are the one spinning tales, Trigger.
April 17, 2024 @ 7:39 am
“But those are just minor, tertiary concerns.”
Those shouldn’t be concerns at all. It’s artistic license. Songs aren’t biographies. She is clearly angry, but she just tried to pile on complaints. The way you’re lashing out at people is really sad to see. Maybe you should go touch grass instead, Triggerman.
April 17, 2024 @ 8:11 am
Okay then don’t worry about them. I’m not worried about them. But if I’m going to approach this issue with depth and nuance, it’s going to get brought up that parts of the song are factually incorrect, adding to the argument that Jason Isbell did not properly vet and consider this song before going public with it.
April 17, 2024 @ 8:22 am
It seems to me the argument about the semantics of the word “tribute” is equally as dumb as the argument about whether Justin died on tile or wood floor.
April 17, 2024 @ 9:12 am
I 100% agree.
All of these arguments are distractions from the bigger issue here, which is that in a recent interview, Jason Isbell unilaterally broached the subject of making “victims” from his songs, and brought up “When We Were Close” specifically, admitting that the song had “victims” (Jenn Marie and Etta), but that these victims were necessary because the song had to exist to help prevent other victims. Jenn Marie is a “victim” of the song, not in my estimation, not in Jenn Marie’s estimation, but in the estimation of Jason Isbell. That victim has now spoken out, and it seems to me that perhaps we should listen, and perhaps, show at least a little bit of empathy and kindness, even if we don’t agree with everything she says. This is an important topic to music, has come up now numerous times in the last few months, and deserves nuanced and thoughtful discussion, not cut downs and accusations, which both sides are engaging in in unhelpful ways.
April 17, 2024 @ 10:07 am
Why are you assuming that the “left you on the bathroom tiles” line is a reference to his death? It very well could refer to a different incident that JTE survived.
April 17, 2024 @ 10:47 am
From the very beginning of this issue, a frustrating majority of people have been focusing on completely superfulous, downstream concerns from the primary ones that Jenn Marie Earle broached with this song. Whether the “tiles” line is true or not might not even be in the Top 10 of the concerns that Jenn Marie raised. It was simply an observation that the song conveys information that is likely false. But again, it’s not a documentary, and we all, including Jenn Marie, believe that Isbell should have creative license to write a song in the manner that he chooses.
The deeper point is that in a recent interview, Jason Isbell personally broached the fact that some of his songs have created “victims.” He then went on to name “When We Were Close” specifically, and acknowledged that the song had created “victims.” Those victims are Jenn Marie Earle, and Justin’s child Etta. As a victim of one of Jason Isbell’s songs, Jenn Marie Earle is speaking out on behalf of herself, her child, and as the keeper of the Justin Townes Earle legacy.
I don’t think that anyone is disputing that the “tiles” line refers to Justin Townes Earle’s death. But whether it is or isn’t, focusing on these side concerns misses the deeper point. The only reason these minute details are being scrutinized is because a Pandora’s box was opened about this song from Isbell’s approach to releasing it, and his continued refusal to in any way address the “victims” it created.
April 17, 2024 @ 6:13 am
he didn’t reach out to the ‘patriarch’, he reached out to a musician to see how he felt as a musician about someone writing a song about a deceased person they knew.
April 17, 2024 @ 8:07 am
Maybe he should have reached out to the people he references in the song.
What a lot of folks are missing here is that by reaching out to Steve Earle, this signals that Jason Isbell knew that it probably would be important in this scenario to check with the bereaved before publishing the song. Jason Isbell just didn’t check with the right people. I will say though, I can understand how perhaps Isbell assumed Steve would run it by the rest of the family, which never happened, at least in the case of Jenn Marie.
April 17, 2024 @ 9:17 am
perhaps, and i mean, just maybe, he was checking with someone he could most relate to as another songwriter going through the same loss. would that songwriter think this is ok?
the pearl clutching by the fuck your feelings crowd here is immense.
April 18, 2024 @ 10:51 am
Why?
Does he know them?
Do they have any specific insight about the ethics of a musician writing a song about their reaction to a friend’s passing?
She has every right to find the song upsetting, but Steve’s was pretty clearly the right approach…right down to not listening to it.
April 17, 2024 @ 1:06 pm
I think we agree on that (why he reached out to Steve). The stance and behavior I described would be a petty, oversimplified, and opportunistic way to blow something out of proportion and be a white knight about it. Which is why I’m surprised Jason didn’t do it.
That dig and my personal feelings about him aside, and though I understand Trigger’s point, I don’t think he did anything wrong here. And he certainly shouldn’t have done a fact check about what kind of floor he died on ahead of time.
April 17, 2024 @ 11:20 am
That is because Isbell practices the “do as I say, not the do as I do” religion.
It wasn’t like Steve Earle was on the closest terms with his son and his son’s family.
April 16, 2024 @ 12:52 pm
Why is it so hard for some folks to criticize Jason personally? It’s not about his music, it’s not about his words; it’s always been about his character. You hear why he got kicked out of DBT and how he treated Amanda while off the wagon. Then you see he is the first to cast stones on Twitter about other people’s beliefs. Then you watch the documentary and see how much of a child he is, and then you hear how he handled this JTE situation, and it’s clear he’s a selfish prick. I could see defending him if his actions matched his words, but they don’t.
To me, his only worth is his music. Once he’s done with that or regresses lyrically, I won’t care to hear another word about this man.
April 16, 2024 @ 2:15 pm
There are only so many ways to say someone is a selfish prick and this site has pretty much covered them all. If you need to see more, try Facebook.
April 16, 2024 @ 4:02 pm
And your point is? You realize that some people may have thought Jason was a genuinely good person and now are taken aback by this newest development.
That describes me perfectly. I ignored a lot of the hate about him and chalked it up to his loud-mouthed political stuff on Twitter. Now, I feel different after this situation. People can sit here and try to explain away and justify his actions, but the reality is he just isn’t a good person.
April 17, 2024 @ 4:07 am
Good=/=Nice.
It’s always been clear that Jason views himself as a Capital-A “Artiste.”
The song comes first. Everything else, including personal relationships, comes second.
I’d say the extent of his growth on that front is that now his kid comes first, the song comes second, and everything else comes third…which is why he checked with Steve, but didn’t bother with the civilians, who he knew wouldn’t get it.
I’ve been a massive fan of both Isbell and JTE for over a decade – pretty much my entire adult life…but I’ve never mistaken the former for someone I’d get along with, not least because he’d probably make fun of me for that dangling preposition.
Do you know who IS a lovely person and only gets guff here because of his political views?
BJ Barham…and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that he lacks Jason’s extra gear as a lyricist.
April 17, 2024 @ 11:13 am
BJ and I couldn’t be farther apart politically, but BJ is great, I love his music, see AA whenever I can and always chat with him over some random topic. You know what BJ is? A happily married man, a great dad who also doesn’t treat his fans like shit. I’d rather be that a million times than have some asshole in GQ touting me as the greatest thing ever and believing every word they say.
April 18, 2024 @ 6:42 am
I agree with almost all of that!
BJ’s one of the nicest guys on the planet, even if I don’t share his enthusiasm for the Wolfpack, haha.
…but I disagree with the implication that Isbell’s doing it “for some asshole in GQ.”
He’s doing it for himself, because he wants to be great and very good isn’t good enough.
I still think about that interview he gave when Reunions was released, where he’s pretty open about the fact that the only thing he’ll put in front of making the best possible record is his kid’s happiness, because Shires “[is] an adult.” and “She can handle it.”
Dude sounds exhausting to be friends with…but I don’t have to be, haha!
I just get to enjoy the fruits of his relentless pursuit of greatness.
April 20, 2024 @ 3:28 am
I’m just assuming you are his manager and got tired on Reddit having users banned.
April 16, 2024 @ 1:13 pm
I didn’t have the impression that she wanted anything other than an apology when I read her written statement. Having finally watched her video, where she mentions royalties at least twice, it seems to me that it is about money, at least in part.
If her communications to JI mention anything about royalties, etc.., then perhaps he didn’t respond out of an abundance of caution and/or on advice from his legal team.
Absolutely lovely that Brent Cobb gave Jack Mills songwriting credit. Was that before or after the song was released?
April 16, 2024 @ 1:23 pm
The Jack credit was attributed when they wrote the song and before it was released. I wrote an article about it at the time:
https://savingcountrymusic.com/brent-cobbs-king-of-alabama-includes-writing-credit-for-wayne-mills-son-jack/
Jenn Marie insisted to me that this wasn’t about money. And I am not saying that I think Isbell needs to convey royalties to Jenn Marie in this instance, though if he did, it would probably go a long way to resolving the concern. I brought up the Brent Cobb/ Wayne Mills example, as well as the Taylor Swift examples and others to point out that there are some pragmatic ways to potentially solve this issue for the future, or to have avoided this issue at all.
I think that we all agree that demanding Isbell craft his songs the way others want him to is a a bad idea and a slippery slope. But we should also all be able to put ourselves in Jenn Marie’s shoes and try to see the humanity of the situation. This issue could/should have been solved well before the media got involved.
April 17, 2024 @ 11:42 am
Thanks for the link. That’s a great story and I bought Providence Canyons with pleasure.
April 16, 2024 @ 1:20 pm
Isbel talked too much–not too little. The song is fine. He should let it speak for itself. His talking and hand gesturing about “How many victims if I tell the truth…or if I don’t” and the sont “having to be written” doesn’t add a thing and comes off as overbearing.
That aside, Jenn Marie Earle has the right to say whatever she wants, but I simply do not believe her account of listening to the song with her daughter and being unfavorably suprised by the lyrics. How would she not be expecting a song about a young man who died from a drug overdose to be raw and possibly hurtful? Also, her complaints about the inaccuracies in the song are trivial. Justin actually died on a wood floor, not a bathroom tile floor? Wow! So if
Isbel had said “wood floor,” the song would have been less traumatizing for her and her daughter? And she has a problem with Jason noting, somewhat admiringly, that Justin was a sharp dresser? Enough.
Frankly, I think Isbel’s doing the smart thing now in clamming up or not responding to the latest controversy. There’s nothing to be gained by rehashing this stuff.
April 17, 2024 @ 4:34 am
Nailed it.
The song’s very clearly about how he felt when he heard.
“Shit that could have been me -> Shit why wasn’t it me -> Shit he had a kid -> Shit, now we’ll never get a chance to sort our issues.”
The speaker of the song doesn’t know the what, how, or where of the OD…and Isbell is the type to care far more about that than how the subject’s widow and his kid will feel when they hear it.
Which both makes him a dick and makes him very good at writing songs.
April 24, 2024 @ 8:38 am
Yeah, it boggles my mind that Jenn Marie Earle would hear there was a song written about her husband that overdosed by Jason Isbell–someone notorious for brutal, honest lyrics and someone with a fractured relationship with her husband–and not stop to think “hey, maybe I should take a few minutes to listen to it first or scan the lyrics.” It’s an unfortunate situation all the way around, but come on. She set her daughter up to fail there.
April 16, 2024 @ 1:21 pm
Its just publicity seeking really the albums been out long enough for her to have expressed all this before its a bit of a delayed reaction from her and playing it to a six year old kid no matter how bright they might be is bad parenting . I do not believe shed have heard the song by accident on the radio that just shifts the blame really, if youve played a song about her father to his kid your responsibie for causing that hurt to her not Jason because youve been very stupid. To deliberately do this youve got to be a bit unstable yourself as a parent.
April 16, 2024 @ 1:26 pm
The timing issue has been rehashed ad nauseum here. I knew about it 10 months ago. I didn’t make a big deal about it for the same reason Jenn Marie didn’t. Using that against her is to completely misunderstand the situation, and not giving her credit for trying to resolve the matter privately first, and giving no credit to Isbell for bringing up recently in his Ohio University interview.
April 16, 2024 @ 2:04 pm
Resolve how?
April 16, 2024 @ 2:43 pm
By reaching out to Jason Isbell with a private message that he never responded to. He had opportunities to resolve this. He mentioned the “victims” of the song (Jenn and Etta) in the Ohio University interview, so he knows this is an issue. He brought up the song, not the interviewer, not Jenn, not me, not anyone else.
Sometimes a simple, “I’m sorry” goes a long way.
April 16, 2024 @ 3:06 pm
That’s what she said to you? An apology would resolve this for her?
April 17, 2024 @ 6:04 pm
The way I heard ‘victims’ used by Jason Isbell, was first that there absolutely were victim, first and foremost a daughter. I don’t believe he’s sociopathically forcing this song eveywhere revictimize a little girl.
“How many victims if I do, how many if I don’t?” I think this refers to the power of song and the wide reaching impact it could have. Let’s say it makes one person change their ways, saving a child from losing a parent and all the agony that would come in the wake. I’d argue that would be a good thing coming out if terrible situation and that’s what he meant by more victims. And, if he doesn’t say anything, it would be a crime of omission. IMO.
Would it change the calculus if everytime he played the song, in every interview, make note that ‘Hey, this song is about Justin” and used JTEs celebrity to bring attention to it and himself? It’s fair to say most people were not aware this was about JTE, myself included, until recent days, and made the song more true.
Again, I’m not an Isbell apologist, he can be a divisive asshole that should have responded to an email and also have written a song that caused some number of people to take second look at themselves, make some of life course correction and reduce the number of future victims of overdoses, direct and indirect.
April 16, 2024 @ 8:06 pm
She’s figured out that Amanda Shires gets to single-parent *her* little girl on a WillCo estate with horses and chickens and fat child support checks from a still-alive daddy. That’s gotta sting.
She needs counseling and probably some better friends.
April 16, 2024 @ 9:09 pm
Great illustration of the steething, ad hominem, holier-than-thou moral depravity that persists in the environment Jason Isbell has cultivated for himself while professing moral high ground. Take this weak shit somewhere else.
April 16, 2024 @ 1:22 pm
Jason, Isabell reminds me of that movie, you know the one, in which Santa Claus, the Easter bunny, and the tooth fairy have to team up to save the world. But someone ask them. When was the last time they actually hung out with children, and Santa responds that he spent so much time bringing happiness to children that he doesn’t have time for children.
I think a lot of great humanitarians, writers, philosophers, can get so caught up in the message, the meaning of what they’re trying to preach, that they lose sight of the people they are doing it for.
I can’t speak for Jason is Bill personally, he may just be a complete jerk, but I almost get the vibe from watching all of this, but he’s gotten so caught up in the message, trying to save people, trying to reach people, that it’s become more about the message them about the people for whom the message was intended.
It shouldn’t take a big man to realize that some thing you did, whatever the intentions, or crossed some line, cost some suffering, and at least apologize, or find a better way to tackle the subject.
The earls must be going through a tremendous, and presumably, long-standing family crisis, But whether or not Isabel has every legal or artistic right to do it, we have to at some point acknowledge the effect that it’s having on the people whom it was ostensibly for
It must be very difficult to walk around with that kind of Spectre over your shoulder, some great personal tragedy, continually being played out in the public eye, some grand stage drama immortalized for all to participate in it, and then to effectively be trimmed from the vine of your own world experience, a bystander in your own story, watching your own life become an institution, As if it were a work of fiction, and you a concept therein, Forced to watch other people drink deep of the story of your life, as though it was theirs, As if by drinking from the well of your own life, somehow, your life becomes more real to them than you are
People like to say that thoughts and prayers are worthless, and demand action, but what action is there in this scenario? There is nothing that any of us as a random music fans on the Internet can do in this situation.
I think in many situations, thoughts and prayers, correctly, put to service, our societies greatest weapons.
Understand that as people there is no action any of us can take that can do anything for anybody. We should not just mindlessly let someone else’s tragedy crossed our minds, nor pray to God, as if cleansing our hands of it, that he should step in and do something, absolving us of any responsibility, except directing him to do it.
I think that sitting and truly trying to empathize with people, and then leading what we think about guide, our actions moving forward, realizing what has happened to people, what could happen to us, and letting it changes, letting us become the kind of people who would not stand for it in the society of our own, making, is how humanity can move forward.
That is to say, we can all do justice by the memory of JTE, By becoming as people, a society in which people who have demons don’t suffer in silence without help.
A society in which we don’t need songs to save the world, nor need those left behind to scream into the void that they are suffering just to make it known, in a world that Dramatizes their suffering like an emotional, three ring circus.
The earles have had their loss trotted out before a crowd, the ringleader shouting ‘behold, grief!’
April 16, 2024 @ 1:37 pm
Such shit. The guy wrote a song addressing Earle and talks about what he thinks and feels. This is what songwriters do.
I guess Isbell addressing a real event is somehow worse than what actually happened. For fuck sake such outrage over nothing.
April 16, 2024 @ 7:09 pm
Yep, meanwhile this woman did apparently nothing to stop her junkie deadbeat husband from snorting a giant pile of cocaine and dying. That’s the real issue.
April 17, 2024 @ 2:42 pm
You’re both missing the point and have obviously not read anything either Kyle or Jenn Marie have said. She agrees that Isbell can and should write whatever he wants however he wants. All she was looking for is a heads up or, now that that ship has sailed, maybe a phone call to talk about it. Isbell being the giant man-child he is, refuses to even acknowledge her. His right as an artist isn’t being questioned, his reaction as a human being is and, as usual, he’s shown his true colors.
On a separate note, Bowflex, take a little time off from that self righteous bullshit you’re spewing and cultivate some empathy. I’m sure your own house is not as in order as you’d like it to be,
April 20, 2024 @ 5:05 am
Weird, because I see the widow of a man who died of an overdose also being a shitty parent and letting her 6 year old listen to a song about her shitty dad without even given it a cursory listen. Oh and then I see Trick post about it twice in as many days to make veiled snide remarks about a songwriter whose politics he doesn’t agree with. Again.
April 20, 2024 @ 7:18 am
What is this comment, and the comments of others talking about Jenn’s “jealousy” for not being in Lieper’s Fork, and how “she’s probably a user too?” You can defend Jason Isbell without passing judgement upon three separate people in your comment, including a dead guy and a widow for being “shitty.” Jason Isbell wrote a song about Justin Twones Earle, and even though there is some disagreement about the content, I can’t imagine Isbell referring to Justin as “shitty.” Isbell knows as much as anybody how hard addiction is.
How about we attempt to navigate this complex issue without passing severe judgement on the character of others?
April 21, 2024 @ 7:57 am
You are being intellectually dishonest, Trig. I called them shitty parents not shitty people.
Shitty parents die of overdoses.
Shitty parents let their children listen to songs about it.
April 21, 2024 @ 3:28 pm
Honestly, I know excellent parents who wouldn’t say no to a bump of coke on a night out.
And I have friends whose bump of coke wasn’t coke…and it killed them very fucking quickly.
As someone who thinks that Jason covered his bases by asking Steve and that Jenn Marie should have screened the song before playing it for the kid…I really don’t think that moralizing about drug addiction provides any value in this conversation.
April 27, 2024 @ 4:33 am
Think all you want about it. But you and I both know that this is not about an innocent line of coke on a Friday night.
April 16, 2024 @ 1:57 pm
“Earle continues, “When she cried about it, I wrote [Isbell] a long message saying ‘I have a little girl in the car crying right now because of your song.” Isbell never responded.”
Who would respond to that? A little girl is crying because her daddy is dead, not the song. Sometimes silence is its own form of kindness.
April 16, 2024 @ 3:26 pm
Anything Jason Isbell says or does at this point is going to be a dogpile of, “not enough!” ” too late!!” ” wrong!!” “selfish!!” and the regular complaints one gets when a coerced apology is elicited.
I was initially quite sympathetic to Jenn Marie, but the more I’ve thought and come to know about the situation and the deeper I’ve delved into the song itself with its references to “Rex’s Blues” and “Fort Worth Blues,” along with the fact that Jason reached out to Steve Earle beforehand, my view has shifted substantially.
April 17, 2024 @ 11:12 pm
Agreed Lucciolina. “A child is crying over the loss of her father, not a song” . Blaming JI looks so small , vain and is infact “selfish”, set your needs aside, ignore this and focus on the child.
Blame is draining, prolongs agong and accomplishes nothing, as does emotional blackmail.
JI wrote this song. Schmuck or not, I doubt it was written with malicious intent.
Outsiders who don’t know the backstory of this song may be moved by its message. (Especially if you have been touched by the issue as I have as an advocate at a major hospital).
Maybe in time, instead of blame, maybe speak out to advocate for those so situated.
April 24, 2024 @ 8:43 am
Well said. The best thing I’ve learned in the 12 steps and recovery in general is to focus on my side of the street. Instead of projecting my problems outwards, I need to look inside and focus on what I can control. I’m not always the best at doing it, but man, it makes life so much easier when I’m not always looking for someone or something to blame.
I hope Jenn Marie can heal and see with time that Isbell and/or this song aren’t really the issue (at least to the extent she seems to think they are).
April 16, 2024 @ 2:16 pm
I sympathize with her, but I really don’t understand what she’s looking for, or what reasonable thing Isbell could have done to solve it. I could be wrong, but I don’t see how just having a conversation about it is going to help. And I don’t really think it’s reasonable to say the song can be on the album, but shouldn’t be a single. I guess he could have said less in that interview. Is that really all we’re talking about here?
April 16, 2024 @ 6:48 pm
She’s looking for a handout. It’s painfully obvious. She keeps mentioning her kid and making up stories about how affected her kid is in hopes that Isbell is gonna gift her some bullshit college tuition savings or some shit off of the albums earnings.
April 16, 2024 @ 3:12 pm
Ah, that made me cry. Can’t even imagine the catastrophic devastation and loss Jenn-Marie has experienced. Thanks for reporting on this with kindness and compassion, Trig x
April 16, 2024 @ 4:21 pm
I’ll admit it’s my bias against Isbell the person shining through, but if the shoe was on the other foot how long do you think Isbell would keep it quiet before he bitched and moaned on social media? A week, maybe two? The hypocrisy that is Isbell once again shining through.
April 16, 2024 @ 6:11 pm
Right, Trigg should have titled this article “Jason Isbell’s Radical Hypocrisy”
April 16, 2024 @ 8:34 pm
If the shoe had been on the other foot, who would have written a tribute song about Isbell? JTE? Doubtful. Patterson? Well, he kicked him out of Drive-By, so, nah. Shonna? Hell, no! Sturgill? Ryan? Taylor? It seems Jason is actively trying to vote himself off the island, but the major media (GQ, Rolling Stone, late night TV, etc.) keep propping him up.
April 17, 2024 @ 6:34 am
Himself.
His ego is so big that his corpse would write a tune.
April 17, 2024 @ 9:22 am
how you holding up, ck? gotta be hard weighing your distain for a musician “junkie” putting his family in this situation and your distain for isbell? hang in there.
April 17, 2024 @ 9:38 am
Not at all, buddy.
It is quite easy. They both stink as human beings. I dislike both equally.
April 21, 2024 @ 3:54 pm
Fair point:
Any attempt at a tribute would pale in comparison to Live Oak.
After all, they wouldn’t do nearly as good a job at eviscerating Isbell as the man himself.
The amusing truth of the anti-Isbell mob on SCM is h that they breathe through their mouths as heavily as they foam at them.
It causes a level of oxygen deprivation that results in their writing frenzied rants about his lack of self-awareness that essentially repeat songs Isbell wrote about himself.
It only crosses the line from funny to actively harmful when a member of that crowd decides to turn a grieving widow’s reaction on social media to one of his songs into “content,” and then continues to platform her following an interview clarifying that most of the claims in the initial post were either fabricated or exaggerated.
April 16, 2024 @ 6:59 pm
I am an old Townes Van Zandt fan and I’ve been listening to Steve Earle a long time as well, it is no secret these men struggled with and sang about their addictions and bad behavior. So has Jason Isbell who has openly talked about his less than spotless life, this is not a song that mocks or ridiculed or satirizes the death of an estranged friend. It’s a bittersweet lament about the Needle and the Damage done. It’s a sad song, it’s not a song for children but children will hear it played and most will not care.
April 16, 2024 @ 7:27 pm
At the risk of sounding insensitive, Justin Townes Earl pursued the spotlight through his music. Once you reach any level of stardom, nothing is private and the public commentary is out there. There are countless biopics, documentaries, songs and books about celebrities personal struggles. Having her husband’s life evaluated by the public was something she knew going into the relationship.
Conspiracies about Courtney Love murdering Kurt Cobain was something Fraces Bean had to grow up living with.
Rosanne had to watch her mom villainized in a love story about her dad cheating on her mom. It showed her dad in uncompromising positions.
Jason’s song is beautiful. It is about the dangers of being an addict. It is more about him than JTE.
I agree with the sentiment. It may trigger the family, but it may save countless lives of those struggling with addiction.
I personally think it was responsible for him to not engage with the grieving widow in this situation. This is his story and he can tell it- just as she tells hers.
The song is poetic, not factual. He is not on a fact finding minute in a 3 minute song. The line about people dressing them is alluding to their success, not the act itself.
She is pain, but that is not the fault of Isbell. That is the fault of the drug he is speaking against. It takes courage to tell the story.
We can’t cater to everyone’s feelings (no matter how real and important they are). We need to be able to tell our story.
April 16, 2024 @ 9:19 pm
First, I don’t know that anyone is citing privacy concerns about this song at all. In all of Jenn Marie’s statements, saying that she didn’t want the issue broached at all has never come up. In fact, it was Jenn Marie and the Earle family who decided to publicly announce that Justin Townes Earle did of an accidental overdose.
” She is pain, but that is not the fault of Isbell. That is the fault of the drug he is speaking against. It takes courage to tell the story.”
Jason Isbell disagrees. While so many are getting swept up in the finer points of whether Justin Townes Earle REALLY “dressed himself” or not, Jason Isbell said in an interview that THIS song, “When We Were Close,” created “victims.” Those are his words that he decided to share unilaterally and without prompt or question. This is what stimulated Jenn Marie to go public.
I do agree that ultimately, it’s the addiction scourge that is the underlying case of this whole issue. But there were many opportunities for Jason Isbell to solve this issue and be the bigger person, even if he or others thought it was being petty. Apparently, it is beneath him.
April 17, 2024 @ 3:14 pm
“Beneath him” seems like an unfair characterization and rests on a lot of assumptions. Usually people are chiding Isbell for not being able to keep his mouth (or keyboard) shut. It’s easy to second guess his choices, but there’s at the very least a case to be made that saying nothing in this situation is the most respectful route.
April 17, 2024 @ 3:33 pm
This is a very complex issue, and I understand if not everyone has the time or the inclination to dive into all the details. But I do think it’s helpful to take a step back and look at how all of this unfolded.
Jason Isbell has said something about this situation. That is what caused Jenn Marie Earle to break her silence on this matter, and answer what Jason Isbell said. While being interviewed at Ohio University as part of the music summit last week, Isbell unilaterally brought up how “When We Were Close” had created “victims.” He wasn’t prompted by the interviewer. It is where he chose to take the discussion. It was Isbell bringing up the issue—while also saying “I don’t want it to come up again” which signals that he knows it’s a point of drama—that Jenn Marie Earle reacted to.
One of the reasons I chose to write a second article about this matter was to get all the information together, including finding the full context of the video that Jenn Marie Earle posted to verify how the subject was broached.
Jenn Marie Earle felt like , “Okay, you started this discussion. I’ve been biting my tongue. Now I am going to say my own peace.”
All that said, perhaps Isbell feels like the situation now is too toxic or too awkward to reach out to Jenn Marie now. I think on a human level, we can all understand that. But I also think it would mean a lot if he attempted to make some effort, publicly or privately, to show some empathy in the situation.
April 17, 2024 @ 5:03 pm
I’m aware of the interview, it doesn’t change “beneath him” being a pretty combative characterization. His reference to victims fits into the context we all understand, I.e. when you write about real people they may have a negative reaction to being depicted. Acknowledging this, while also making a choice not to engage, criticize, respond, etc… to a grieving widow doesn’t necessarily mean he believes engaging is beneath him. There’s a very high chance engaging would only cause more hurt.
April 17, 2024 @ 5:22 pm
That’s a fair point. And we know that there was pre-existing acrimony between the Jason Isbell camp and the Justin Townes Earle camp prior to all of this, and Jason may have feared exacerbating that by reaching out.
It is interesting that Isbell did reach out to Steve Earle because it signals that Isbell had a sense that getting the family’s blessing was important. It’s just Steve Earle may not have been the best liaison to make sure everyone got the message, and to maybe follow up and actually hear the content of the song, not necessarily to approve it, but for Steve to be in a position to warn Jenn Marie Earle that there are some stark moments to look out for.
April 17, 2024 @ 6:35 am
I have never cared for the pedestal that Johnny/June have been placed on. Then again, I find the whole Cash saga to be overblown.
April 16, 2024 @ 9:21 pm
This whole thing is nothing more than a Rorschach test for people’s feels about Isbell’s politics. Like them? Song is fine, Jason reached out to Steve and left a grieving widow alone. Dislike Jason’s politics, he’s an asshole and nothing he did (or could have done) will be enough.
In reality, Jason is probably keeping silent cuz ain’t shit he could do to make Trigger and the haters happy.
Trigger gonna keep the story alive…good for clicks.
Streisand Effect in full gears for others – talk more see if people who weren’t aware don’t give it a listen.
April 16, 2024 @ 10:29 pm
Totally agree this has been a Rorscharch test for many, which is unfortunate because I think this issue has a lot of important and nuanced discussions to be had about it. And for most, it’s just a good shouting match to get into.
For the record, I had no desire to “keep the story alive.” My initial article about the matter was the only one I was planning to publish, unless there was some resolution to report on. But Jenn Marie Earle tracked down my phone number and called me directly. I guess I could have told her to kick rocks. But there were a lot of outstanding questions that her comments had stimulated, including if not especially if Steve Earle had been contacted prior to the song’s release, and so I pressed her on that matter and others, and then presented the information in an objective manner to the public so everyone would have the full boat of information to decide.
If Jason Isbell or someone from his camp would have called, I would have done the same thing with them, and that invitation is still open. After Ms. Earle reached out, I reached out to them as well, and those requests went unanswered.
April 17, 2024 @ 2:33 pm
It’s a bit strange people are making this about Isbell’s politics because Steve Earle is about as far left as it gets in country music. Justin, while less overtly political than his father, also always struck me as pretty firmly left of center.
April 16, 2024 @ 11:57 pm
Ultimately, Jason Isbell, who is only human, is guilty of handling a complicated and emotional situation imperfectly.
April 17, 2024 @ 12:01 am
And now…. Back to the regular SCM business. Here’s an article about Beyonce.
April 17, 2024 @ 4:28 am
You see the tides are turning here she had sine sympathy to begin with but confessing that she deliberately played the song to Etta is questionable and she admits in the article deliberately playing the song to her when her original post claimed it had come on the radio. So can people trust her on other things she says. I think shes purely after money and publicity like she mentions Justin left her with debts i mean thats got nothing to do with Jason or the song.
The song does actually unify us all or could because Jason is actually trying to say through this song how he wishes hia ex friend had made it through and how worse our lives are without Justin in it, estranged friend or not the underlying message in the song is not one of nastiness .
April 17, 2024 @ 8:02 am
This is incorrect.
This is the reason I wanted to speak to Jenn Marie to clarify this very issue, along with the Steve Earle issue.
I can’t verify with a lie detector if Jenn Marie is telling her the truth, but I pressed her on how her and Etta first heard the song, and what she told me is what is in this article.
The second issue is how she said she felt pursued by the song, like every time she turned on the radio, it was playing. So I went back and looked at the Americana radio charts for 2023, and found that “When We Were Close” was the most-played song in the Americana format in 2023. That’s a pretty insane statistic if you think about it. It’s like the 4th or 5th most popular song on “Weathervanes,” let alone in “Americana.” It really speak to how hard the Isbell camp was pushing this song, including performing it on Kimmel.
That statistic in itself deserves an explanation, because it makes no sense to me. Why was this the song they chose to push so hard, when you have “King of Oklahoma” or another more popular song from consumption numbers out there to push as your 3rd single?
April 17, 2024 @ 11:08 am
I don’t mean to come off as glib, but we wouldn’t even be having this conversation if the song wasn’t good, and part of what makes it so compelling is Isbell’s relationship to its subject. Clearly, it’s resonating with audiences.
April 24, 2024 @ 8:56 am
Are you suggesting they “chose to push” this song so hard to spite JTE’s family or something? Because I can think of plenty of more likely reasons (e.g. it being deemed more “radio friendly,” Jason liking it/wanting to get the message out there, etc.).
April 17, 2024 @ 5:23 am
Yeah, really. It’s been too long since we have had ANOTHER article on her.
April 17, 2024 @ 8:54 am
There were multiple loose ends and unanswered questions from the initial reporting on this matter from myself and other outlets. This article clears up many of those loose ends and questions. Not sure what the harm is in that. The media is here to inform the public, and clearly this is an issue that the public has interest in.
April 17, 2024 @ 6:29 am
This whole situation began years ago. Isbell is the typical limousine elitist who pontificates how the world must change and tells everyone how to live while being the most insufferable person on a personal level. JTE was a druggie who would be alive today for his wife and daughter if he didn’t dance with death. He was also let down by his father. A great songwriter who was worthless as a parent. Then you have the wife who probably ignored 100 red flags when she married JTE.
My sympathy rests with the daughter. She deserves much better.
April 17, 2024 @ 12:20 pm
She ignored 100 red flags when she married him then doubled-down when she chose to have a child with him four years and two more failed rehab stays later.
“If we just have a baby, things will be better” rarely works to anyone’s benefit, especially the baby.
April 17, 2024 @ 12:57 pm
You two sure seem deeply invested in the intricate details of the life of someone else. I don’t really know Jenn Marie, but maybe she decided to get involved with Justin Townes Earle knowing his substance abuse concerns and believing she could help him as opposed to in spite of those concerns. Love and life are messy, and I don’t think it helps any of us to stand on moral high ground and pontificate down because it often lends to hypocrisy. That’s been the underlying criticism of Jason Isbell.
April 17, 2024 @ 2:42 pm
Deeply invested? I am not the author of two massive (albeit excellent) articles about the incident.
None of the adults in this affair are victims. If they had done things the right way, this story wouldn’t have been written. They should serve as a cautionary tale.
Love and life are often messy because people ignore common sense. Marrying a druggie is just foolish and being an absentee dad is inexcusable. That is the tragedy of it all.
April 18, 2024 @ 4:04 am
I usually disagree with most of your takes but we are in complete alignment on this one.
April 17, 2024 @ 7:41 am
While I feel bad for the Earle family as they wrestle with the cruel realities of how Justin passed, Jason sharing his personal feelings about his relationship in a song is really no different than Taylor Swift dissing the string of exes she has had, or Carly Simon’s throwing shade at Warren Beatty in “You’re So Vain”…except I dont think Isbell meant to diss anyone (in fact, he says “You were the better of us two”). It’s sad Earle died the way he did and I hate that his 6 year old is having to process this within the public eye (that’s the sad part of being a celebrity), but you cannot stop a songwriter from writing about their personal experiences–that’s what they do.
April 17, 2024 @ 8:16 am
Generally speaking, I agree with this, and that is why I brought up this very exact case scenario and named Taylor Swift specifically in this article. But as you said, Justin Townes Earle is not an ex-boyfriend. He is recently deceased with a bereaved family, so it’s not an apples and apples scenario.
As I also pointed out, in the case of “Better Than Revenge,” Taylor Swift actually changed the words to both her new recorded version and live versions of the song to take out problematic lyrics, just like Gordon Lightfoot did for “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.” I don’t want to tell Jason Isbell what to do with his song, but there are cases where these issues have been resolved by thoughtful songwriters who don’t want to inadvertently hurt others.
April 17, 2024 @ 7:41 am
When I’m dead and gone someday, I could only hope that the best songwriter of his generation would write a song about me. Her beef is misplaced. I think she’s redirecting her anger with Justin on to Jason and that’s not fair. Great art is sometimes painful. Our species ihss proven that for thousands of years.
April 17, 2024 @ 8:24 am
Hopefully, Evan Felker knows who you are.
April 17, 2024 @ 8:19 am
Just your daily reminder that if you want to bring the bell-hive out of the woodwork, imply that their god may not be perfect.
April 17, 2024 @ 8:52 am
Bell- Hive!? Hilarious. You better copyright that! I’m stealing it. ????
April 17, 2024 @ 12:11 pm
Feel free to use it, Kevin. Came to me this morning while I was reading these comments lol
April 17, 2024 @ 8:53 am
I went back and listened to the song today. Idk it’s a great song and I don’t really get being angry at it. The specific objections to lyrics about the kind of floor or when we dressed ourselves seem pretty.
It’s not my life or my family obviously. But the song is mostly about isbell feeling guilty that his talented and good person friend died of a drug overdose while Jason isbell recovered from his drug addiction and didn’t die. It seems to be specifically about that true observation that back in 2010 it seemed like Justin was destined for stardom while Jason was much more obscure. And for whatever reason Jason recovered and became a star while Justin’s career floundered and he died. And Jason feels guilty about that.
I don’t know. It’s a painful hard situation. Seems like Jason could have handled the situation better. But I don’t really see anything worthy of objection in the song itself.
Makes me sad though. I saw Justin in Boston in 2009 and it changed my life. That night is the reason I’m on this site at all. Justin was the guy who showed me that good country music still existed and was being made now. I still love his music so much and it’s awful what drug addiction can do. I hope his family finds peace.
April 17, 2024 @ 9:32 am
This is a great interpretation, and one a lot of people are definitely saying Isbell is right to present.
I can’t speak for Isbell personally, but a general undercurrent even among people who ostensibly share his politics is that he’s at best, a difficult person and at worst a self-righteous virtue signaler who thinks his songs are the medicine for the world’s ills, and not in the campy way that Garth likes to envision himself uniting people with ‘we shall be free’ and ‘people loving people’ which is hokey but at least feels sincere.
That isn’t to say Isbell can’t or isn’t feeling survivor’s guilt, especially given the complexity of his relationship with JTE. survivor’s guilt takes many forms
I think our interpretation of Isbell’s intent and behavior speak to both our personal relationships with addiction struggles and our underlying desire to read certain patterns into Isbell’s behavior
Would I love to find out he’s wracked with survivor’s guilt and doesn’t know how to talk to JTE’s family, and that he reached out to steve earle specifically, musician to musician, someone asking the advice of someone older and hypothetically wiser?
I’d love to find the best in Isbell because I hope that the world isn’t full of arrogant narcissists
Do I think it’s more likely that Isbell is just incapable of being the bigger person and apologizing?
yeah… I do.
April 17, 2024 @ 9:39 am
Fuzzy,
You have been killing it on this issue.
April 18, 2024 @ 8:51 am
I kinda don’t think he feels like he needs to talk to JTE’s family?
He knows Steve, but does he know Jenn Marie? Has he ever met Etta?
How would the conversation go?
“I’m sorry that you and your daughter find the song painful, but I wrote it about my relationship with Justin, and my reaction to the news of his death. I think it’s a damn good song and an important one…and one that’s ultimately about my truth, so I’m gonna keep playing it and promoting it.”
Do you think that would make her feel any better about things?
Isbell spoke with Steve, asking if it was okay to write a song about his relationship with Justin and Steve gave an unqualified yes, without asking to hear the song first, because he gets it, as a fellow cranky Artiste.
April 18, 2024 @ 10:36 am
Howdy Lester. Long time, no chat. Don’t see you very active around the comment section anymore.
I think you hit the nail on the head with that. And I think more details wood shed some light on the situation. And while I want to make clear that I think it is the responsibility of us fans to have empathy first for the people going through grief, we shouldn’t witchhunt A guy who may or may not have actually done anything
Example: we don’t actually know what Jason’s relationship is with Justin’s wife. I know that if my best friend from high school were to pass away tomorrow, and I wanted to write a song about it, or share my testimony, I would reach out to his parents because I know them better than I do his wife.
I have other friends that I would absolutely be reaching out to their wives first because I know them better.
We know that Jen allegedly reached out to Isbell. And I believe she did.
But did she use his professional contact info where I’m sure he gets fan letters and possibly his crew weeds out a lot of messages and he didn’t even get it from her directly if he knew about it, or get it right when it came in? Or did she send him a personal message?
If she sent him a personal message that might imply that they knew each other fairly well, or at least well enough that she was able to use his personal info that I’m sure he keeps very guarded and maybe they know each other better.
I would say that this info would change our interpretation of Jason’s decisions to or not to engage with her
April 18, 2024 @ 12:14 pm
Good to see you too, man!
Work’s been a bit nuts lately, which has helped me cut down to only commenting on stuff I actually care about, haha – not to mention that I’ve mellowed in my old age!
But yeah, the fact that Jason and Justin specifically fell out over an old girlfriend of Justin’s and never reconciled leaves me with a bit of doubt that he’s spoken to her in the last decade.
I feel awful for Jenn Marie and Etta, both in general and for the specific pain caused by this song.
And that Jason’s explanation makes him sound like a douche who uses his own farts for cologne.
I also think that this really does seem to fall within the normal range of “Artist being an asshole by placing the craft over everything else,” especially given how thoroughly the song frames everything around the speaker’s perspective.
April 17, 2024 @ 9:45 am
Regardless of how the child heard the song, it’s awful parenting. And there is no way that child deciphered that the song was about her Dad without being told.
Also, Isbell played other songs on other late night shows. “King of Oklahoma” on Colbert, and “Cast Iron Skillet” on The Daily Show.
April 17, 2024 @ 10:28 am
Much ado about nothing. It’s a great song. Sorry, but when you choose a life as a public figure as JTE did, your life and death become open fodder. That means you have to take the good with the not so good. Maybe just be honored by the fact that an artist like Jason Isbell was compelled to write about him.
April 17, 2024 @ 10:36 am
from top to bottom this story makes my skin crawl. everyone is a victim here. I see no one talking about personal responsibility. JTE is a victim because he “accidently” OD’d. Isbell is a victim because his ex-friend was a junkie. the widow is a victim because of Jason Isbell’s stupid song. the only real victim here is the little girl. there is no excuse for playing that song or any other Jason Isbell song for that little girl. I have an idea. how about letting the kid be a kid and stop talking about Jason Isbell or his stupid song. And stop talking about how her father died. this whole thing is just gross.
April 17, 2024 @ 11:16 am
Except for the daughter, none of the parties are sympathetic protagonists. You have a druggie, a hysterical, poor-parenting widow, and a pretentious moral elitist. It is an NPR special.
April 17, 2024 @ 11:28 am
“Isbell is a victim because his ex-friend was a junkie” is just something you made up.
As a child, I think it’s fair to say that JTE was a victim of a broken marriage and abandonment. My understanding is that his Dad Steve largely ran out on him and his Mom. His Mom raised him an a rough neighborhood in South Nashville and he was brought up in poverty. I think he started using drugs/alcohol when was was like 11/12 and dropped out of school after eighth grade. Seems like he tried to get straight numerous times as an adult but ultimately couldn’t.
April 17, 2024 @ 11:48 am
I was being hyperbolic. I don’t view Jason Isabel as a victim of anything, other than his own narcissism.
April 17, 2024 @ 10:51 am
Quick attempt to try to explain why sometimes details in a death are so important, emotionally.
Labor Day Sunday, 2018 – when the police officers, and coroner at the scene explained that my husband’s head, came to rest on the driver’s side window, it was a piece of information i could cling to as being inexplicably comforting.
When my brothers-in-law and i were at the accident site several hours later, it mattered.
Instead of thinking our loved one’s head had been scraped and mangled amongst the vegetation, but instead came to rest on the driver’s side glass – it mattered.
It mattered even more after seeing that all of the glass had exploded from the car upon impact(s), as we were standing at the car at the salvage co.
Tiny details can have a huge impact on processing through the grief.
April 17, 2024 @ 12:54 pm
It seems pretty obvious that Jason refrained from using people’s names intentionally. He probably knew that many would know right away who it was about, but that really keeps the meaning of the song close and guarded while not limiting it’s appeal to people who don’t know the backstory.
I for one heard it a number of times, without really connecting all the dots. I certainly had the strong feeling knowing his history that it came from a personal experience, but not specifically about one person. Then one day I realized “oh, wait a second, that’s too on the nose to not be intentional”. At that point I googled it and the pieces fell into place.
Fear, anger, survivors remorse, adulation, longing; there’s so much wrapped up in that song and just the emotional toll of writing must have been agonizing.
But, at the end of the day it is unarguably a great song and will only increase the legend of JTE and Jason by extension.
I’m sorry that his widow or daughter might feel upset by it, but I think with time they will find it really honors him. Jason clearly held him in high regard.
April 17, 2024 @ 2:40 pm
Truth and Victims.
Many people calling out Jason Isbell here are right, but in my opinion for the wrong reasons. His comments about truth as this relates to ‘When We Were Close’ could have been elaborated on, and while some facts may be off, I find the the song to be ‘true’ nonetheless. What JI has called out in the song is very real, these are the consequences when it comes drugs to and addiction. Some lines noted as grotesque and graphic are hardly the most grotesque and graphic parts parts of an OD. They might be specific and triggering to those closest, but put rather mildly in relative terms. And the truth is a father/son/husband was lost and the consequences will ripple forever. I think JI’s statement on truth is from the artistic side, once persons addictions absolutely effect others, this is not up for debate.
His choice to note the daughter, understandably upsetting, made this song more true, than if left out. Had he omitted that and just talked about why it was JTE and and not him, it omits the real consequences of the event. In terms of saving people, I know of one – me. This song and King of Oklahoma hit me like a gut punch when I first them, there were times it was too close a look in the mirror and I had to turn them off. The truth is the truth hurts, but its these terrible truths that should be the catalysts for change.
As for victims, I’ll focus on one, the daughter, since the family has mentioned her repeatedly. Her presence in the song is perhaps the most weighted part and anyone with kids and addiction problems should let that line sink in deep. Again, this is the fallout of JTEs actions and the ‘truth’ I believe the song was meant to convey. I also see the daughter being not always being protected. It was noted the mother and daughter listened to this together for the first, this came up repeatedly on the radio and the daughter was granted requests to hear the song at least several times. If my child were to be bitten by a snake and then I let them roam the grass where snakes could be at any time and let them touch the fucking snake that bit them, even at the request of my child, I’m in no position to blame the snakes or the grass where they lay.
There are lots of reasons Jason Isbell can and should be called to the carpet, he’s not the shining knight he’s portrayed to be, but mosts of the reasons related this event are not it, painful has they may be. This is the real fallout of addiction. The reasons it hurts so bad is because its ‘true’ and some people need to hear that.
April 17, 2024 @ 4:17 pm
Really good thoughts GRunner.
I think one of the reasons people are talking past each other on this issue is that when you listen to “When We Were Close,” you don’t hear a bad song. You hear a song where Isbell tried to put complex feelings into a composition that couldn’t have been easy to write. Even though his public persona is polarizing, where there is more consensus is about his aptitude as a songwriter.
I did not take issue with the song when he released it, and I do not take issue with the song now as a composition. But neither myself nor my child is referenced in it, and if I try to put myself in Jenn Marie’s shoes, I can definitely understand how it would be difficult to listen to. How others can’t do that and at least see the issue from her perspective I think is a bit strange, but that is how fandom can affect people’s perceptions.
I really think the song is the least concerning thing about this whole issue. It’s really Jason Isbell’s actions before and especially after its release that have led us to this point. It’s also arguably one of the easiest things for Isbell to resolve—much easier than re-recording the song or something.
April 17, 2024 @ 7:08 pm
Thanks Trig, and agreed. For all sorts of reasons, theres no clean end to this, damages is done. Long story short, hopefully more people realize how much impact an impact words and communication can have, even those left unsaid.
And as JTE fan that has strummed Harlem River Blues in the dark, small hours of the morning many times, I have heartfelt sympathy for him, Jenn and Etta. Even if my views are different, I wish them continued healing and wish the events that lead to this song never took place. Much love to the Earles.
April 18, 2024 @ 9:24 am
This whole situation annoys me. JTE’s widow absolutely has the right to speak her mind about the situation. On top of that, yes, Isbell has a tendency to act a bit pompous in the face of his sobriety, but a lot of musicians are. BUT after reading this, it’s hard to fault Jason for any of this… Jenn Marie doesn’t have any right to be the arbiter about how anybody feels about the death of her husband. It’s that simple. Jason has a right to react how he wants to JTEs death, he certainly had enough lived experiences with the person to do so. The whole dress thing is indicative of that, I don’t know how you can object to someone else’s memories— it’s entirely probable that someone in the Green Room at the Late Show was checking their wardrobe before they went on stage.
It’s clear the Jenn Marie and Jason don’t like each other particularly, but that doesn’t give her or anyone the right to be a gatekeeper towards what is an “approved response” or not. The lyrics of the song are clearly Jason saying they are Jason’s reaction “I had a vision of you dying in my mind” isn’t “This is what the police report should say” and yes, Jason is allowed to have a reaction to how JTEs daughter would react without Jenn Marie giving the go ahead.
But most frustratingly, Jason asked Steve for permission before doing all of this, which means conflict between JTE’s father and his widow really can’t be put on Jason. Jason doesn’t have to go to everybody in JTE’s life and ask if they are okay with it. It seems there is tension in the Earle family, and the most unfortunate thing is that is all now out in the open.
In the end this amounts to a nothingburger that people who seem to get off on trying to take Isbell down a notch (a group of which I firmly believe the editors of this site are part of, and the main reason I had stopped coming to this site until this week) jumped onto hard. Jason and Jenn Marie do not like each other, that’s clear, but that doesn’t give one person the right to try and restrict the voice of the other about a third party.
Oh and a final thought, despite claims being made otherwise in the comments and not corrected, but Jason absolutely donated to the GoFundMe set up for JTEs daughter, AND promoted it on his much maligned twitter handle, and basically organized a charity concert with Steve to raise money for his daughter. I realize that doesn’t advance the mission of what some people are trying to do on here, but it does fly in the face of “relatives” who claimed Jason hadn’t done anything to help JTE’s daugher
April 18, 2024 @ 11:27 am
Said it better than I could have.
April 18, 2024 @ 11:34 am
Yes! This. You hit all the points. Thank you for articulating this so well.
April 19, 2024 @ 10:03 am
For the record, the “editors of this site” also named Jason Isbell’s “King of Oklahoma” the 2023 Saving Country Music Song of the Year, and said his album “Weathervanes” was the best overall album in 2023. Also, the editors deemed it important to post this second article on this issue to clarify certain points. One of those points was about how Jason Isbell did reach out to Steve Earle before the release of the song.
If there was some bias or bone to pick, it’s unlikely any of these things would have happened.
The widow of Justin Townes Earle releasing a lengthy statement lashing out against a song about her late husband is at least news, and many other outlets deemed it as such as well.
April 19, 2024 @ 9:11 am
I feel that, in general, there should always be a great deal of tolerance when someone is grieving. Indeed, having experienced it more than once, I’ll say that the pain of losing a loved one to addiction is both indescribable and very personal. Myriad complex emotions are inevitable when we are reminded of those we have lost, regardless of how those reminders may occur. My heart goes out to Jenn and the Earl family.
However, the importance of creative artistic freedom is difficult to overstate. The political debate aside, Isbell’s lyrics about Earl’s death, as well as those about other sensitive issues he addresses, are part of who he is as an artist and represent why we listen to music in the first place. While they may be abrasive, the emotions they evoke are part of what separates his music from the Brittany Gomez Swift brands that bombard us daily.
I went to school with and played baseball with Jason Isbell and we were good friends growing up. He used to let me play songs with him, Shonna Tucker, Zac Hacker or Gary Nichols and Barry Billings sometimes at dive bars in Muscle Shoals. Back then there were often more servers in the audience than there were fans. Even then, I was in awe of Isbell’s talent, so I’ll admit I’m probably biased. But I’ve never known him to be anything other than a genuinely good guy, at least until he joined DBT. I can’t comment much about him personally after that, as I didn’t spend much time with him, although we once went to the Bluebird Cafe to see Malcolm Holcombe, Steve Earle and (if memory serves) Kelly Joe Phelps. We were outside before the show and S. Earle came out and lit a smoke and started talking to us like he’d known us his whole life. I wish I could remember if J.T. Earle was there but given what I know now about his relationship with his father, I doubt it. It was a surreal moment that I wish I could better recall.
There are a few lines in the song “Relatively Easy” by Isbell that go as follows:
Is your brother on a church kick
Seems like just a different kind of dope sick
Better off to teach a dog a card trick
And try to have a point and make it clear
I lost a good friend
Christmas time when folks go off the deep end
His woman took the kids, and he took klonopin
Enough to kill a man of twice his size
Not for me to understand
Remember him when he was still a proud man
A vandals smile a baseball in his right hand
Nothing but the blue sky in his eye
My twin brother, also friends with Isbell, died about the time this song was written and though we hadn’t spoken in a long time, Isbell called me and left a message for me to return the call. I didn’t get back in touch with him as I was still grieving intensely, and although I can’t be sure as I’ve not spoken to him about it since, I’ve always believed he was calling me to offer his condolences and to ask me about using these lyrics. Had I taken the call and he had asked me, I would have been honored to endorse his request. Again, grief is very personal, as is parenting, and that’s just what I would have done. I wouldn’t propose to tell Jenn or the Earle family how to grieve any more than I would tell her how to raise her daughter nor Jason how to write songs. Jason Isbell probably should have spoken to Jenn first, and probably shouldn’t have mentioned it in the interview, but I think his silence now that the story has gained such penetration is wise.
April 19, 2024 @ 10:03 am
Thank you for sharing your story. I think about those lines often and how they make such a poignant and touching, but also raw and honest, portrait of an old departed friend. There’s a beauty in the realism, acknowledging his weaknesses, while the best moments/parts of him get to live on shiny in our memories. I hope your brother found peace.
April 19, 2024 @ 10:12 am
It’s like a fucking hip-hop feud up in here.
guy died. guy wrote a song about a guy he knew who died but was on the outs with at the time. This is what songwriters do. Now that song exists you can like it or dislike it, but it’s still just a song people.
April 19, 2024 @ 11:47 am
Every time I hear a JTE song, I wish he was still around. I hope Mrs. Earle and her daughter find peace somehow. If I were her, I’d take Papa Earle’s advice and leave this alone. Songwriters know that once a great song begins to unravel from a few mumbled words and chords, it’s a juggernaut on a downhill run. And regardless of what anyone thinks of Isbell or that song…it’s objectively a damn good tune.
April 19, 2024 @ 2:36 pm
It sounds like she’s still (understandably) hurt and angry over Justin’s passing, and Jason is where that hurt and anger is being funneled.
April 19, 2024 @ 5:27 pm
Really hard to read the way some people reduce JTE to just his demons and then foist blame on his families.
I don’t know if anyone related to JTE will read any of these comments but if they read mine I hope they know that I’m just as blown away by the hurtful comments as they must be
Some people in this comments section should probably get therapy
April 19, 2024 @ 7:56 pm
I know the point has been made that the discrepancies between the song and the real life events are NOT the point of the article I still want to add that I always took the line “before we had someone picking out our clothes” as different scenarios : for Jason, I took it as yes, a stylist for JTE I took it as someone picking out his funeral attire. I never thought about someone was picking out their clothes for the same reason i.e. a red carpet, GQ photo shoot or late show appearance. The way I heard it just lent so much more sadness to the song. Who knows…