"This is an artist you must listen to…Steve pulls no punches and gives me much hope…If I were a rock star, I would be Steve Earle."--Michael Moore

It can be kind of defeating, trying to write a standard music industry bio of Steve Earle. For someone not yet 50 (not until January of 2005), Steve has managed to amass quite a bunch of bio. Also problematic for the bio writer is the fact that the many details of Steve's hectic existence can not simply be set down in any semblance of reductionist order. You know: the usual Behind the Music melodramatic list of boxes to be checked: born, grew up semi deprived/disaffected, got break, made records, piled up money for his handlers, went to pieces, came back, found God/humility, etc. etc. This isn't to say that Steve Earle hasn't touched those bases at least once or twice, or that his tumultuous life and times are not chock full of drama, melo and not. But good luck trying to crush his highly particular world into a row of checked boxes