“… art had no moral responsibility. Art, he argued, should strive only to be a beautiful object entirely separate from its creator.”
- Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray
Ryan Adams (not Bryan) is a hot mess. Always has been. The singer/songwriter form North Carolina is everything you think of when you hear the term “rock star” evoked. At least that's his reputation over his career spanning 30-years now. Of course, I don't know him personally, but you read stuff, and you hear stuff. If even a little of it's true, he's a hot mess. Or his has been, anyway. He's 50 now so maybe he's mellowing.
I, however, consider him the very best songwriter of his generation, and given the competition, that's saying something. I love what he does. So here's the thing - Sometimes it's difficult to enjoy the art when the artist's personality or conduct makes it hard to get past, doesn't it? Sometimes I can and sometimes I can't. With Adams, though, I don't seem to have any choice. His stuff is so good that I'm not sure what he'd have to do to get me to walk away. Life's always complicated.
Here's a song, Jacksonville Skyline, (his hometown in NC) that he wrote and preformed with his first band Whiskeytown when he was about 20. A couple of lines just make me shake my head:
"Jackson's a city with a hopeless street light
Seems like you're lucky if it change from red to green"
and the final lines of the song:
"Somewhere the night sky hangs like a blanket
Shoot it with my cap gun just to make it seem like stars"
SHUT UP!