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\n\tIf you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Rolling Stone may receive an affiliate commission.<\/p>\n
\n\tNashville-based singer and songwriter Justin Townes Earle<\/a> died in 2020 from an accidental drug overdose, and a new biography<\/a> is offering fresh insight into his most celebrated work, the downward spiral that followed his rise, and the legacy he left behind.<\/p>\n \n\tWhat Do You Do When You\u2019re Lonesome: The Authorized Biography of Justin Townes Earle<\/a><\/em>, written by Rolling Stone <\/em>senior research editor and writer Jonathan Bernstein<\/a>, has already drawn strong critical praise. Kirkus Reviews<\/em> calls it \u201ca superb biography of a singular life\u201d in a starred statement.<\/p>\n \n\tThe book<\/a> offers an in-depth look at Earle\u2019s upbringing, music process, and career highs and lows. <\/p>\n \u201cI started by reading through every interview of Justin Townes Earle<\/a> I could find, dating back to him being a teenager in Nashville before he was a nationally-known artist,\u201d says Bernstein. \u201cOnce I\u2019d done that, I started reaching out to everyone I could think of who knew or ever even really crossed paths with Justin: bandmates, childhood friends, business associates, acquaintances, ex-girlfriends, and family members. I ended up speaking with roughly 250 people for the book.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNew\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tWhat Do You Do When You\u2019re Lonesome: The Authorized Biography of Justin Townes Earle\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n \n\t\t\u27a4 Available in both hardcover and Kindle formats\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n \n\tKnown for songs like \u201cHarlem River Blues\u201d and \u201cNylon Eyes,\u201d Justin Townes Earle was the son of Steve Earle<\/a> \u2014 a three-time Grammy Award winner \u2014 and carved out his own path with the release of his debut album Yuma<\/em> in 2007.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI think Justin\u2019s story is important because on a personal level, he overcame so much \u2014 all the odds that were stacked against him as the son of a famous father who struggled mightily with addiction \u2014 to create so much lasting art and forge so many beautiful connections and relationships with people around the world during his too-short life,\u201d Bernstein said.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cHis main goal as an artist was to create his own identity separate from his father or his middle namesake, and he achieved it entirely. On a larger level, Justin is an underacknowledged influence on so much of contemporary Americana and roots music today \u2014 from Charley Crockett to Zach Bryan<\/a> to Sierra Ferrell \u2014, and I think his story is a way of telling a much larger and important story of the evolution and popularization of roots music and Americana in the 21st century.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tWhether you\u2019re a longtime fan or discovering his compositions for the first time, it\u2019s a compelling dive that music lovers of all kinds can appreciate. It\u2019s also worth noting that the biography was written with the full cooperation of the Justin Townes Earle estate, according to the book\u2019s Amazon description.<\/p>\n What Do You Do When You\u2019re Lonesome: The Authorized Biography of Justin Townes Earle<\/em> is available to order now. As Jonathan Bernstein\u2019s first full-length biography, the book joins a growing list of our favorite recent music titles, including The Uncool: A Memoir by Cameron Crowe and Tonight in Jungleland: The Making of Born to Run by Peter Ames Carlin<\/em>, among others, which you can find out about here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.rollingstone.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Rolling Stone may receive an affiliate commission. Nashville-based singer and songwriter Justin Townes Earle died in 2020 from an accidental drug overdose, and a new biography is offering fresh insight into his most celebrated work, the downward spiral that followed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2233395,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[339307,346254,431535,424892,368338,368339,363034],"class_list":["post-2233394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-biography","tag-book","tag-justin-townes-earle","tag-new-book","tag-noads","tag-rs-recommends","tag-steve-earle"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Where-to-Buy-the-New-Book-Online-2026.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2233394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2233394"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2233394\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2233396,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2233394\/revisions\/2233396"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2233395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2233394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2233394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2233394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n