What do you think?
Rate this book
What Do You Do When You're Lonesome: The Authorized Biography of Justin Townes Earle
The authorized biography of singer-songwriter Justin Townes Earle
When Justin Townes Earle died in 2020 at the age of 38 of an overdose, alone in a sparsely furnished apartment in Nashville, his death sent waves of grief through the country-Americana music community. The son of alt-country hellraiser Steve Earle, partially named after the Texas troubadour and patron saint of substance-fueled despair Townes Van Zandt, he had long struggled with mental illness and various addictions. Some weren't shocked at his passing, but everyone had hoped Justin could beat his demons. There had been encouraging periods of long-term sobriety and active recovery in his adult life, including the years that led up to his career peak when he released the 2010 masterpiece Harlem River Blues, a career-making album of rambling folk blues set to Southern Gospel. He sang of cramped Brooklyn apartments and crippling hangovers, about emotional displacement, economic anxiety, and the wandering that characterized his feral, formative years as a rootless kid rambling around Nashville, developing his own unique guitar style and absorbing the musical influences that surrounded him. He appeared on Letterman, was named one of the 25 “most stylish men in the world” by GQ, and was anointed by critics as the next coming of the authentic troubadour. By the time of his death, he’d recorded and released eight albums, creating a striking and original body of work.
Rolling Stone journalist Jonathan Bernstein, with the full cooperation of the Justin Townes Earle estate, unravels in these pages a short but incredibly creative life, and reveals the backstories behind Justin’s greatest songs (“Mama’s Eyes,” “White Gardenias”) and what happened when it all fell apart while also capturing a shadow world of the neglected children of Nashville legends who wrestle with the legacies of their hard-living, road-weary, often absent parents. Justin’s journey to near-stardom is a harrowing story shot through with moments of clarity and promise, including his marriage to his wife Jenn Marie Earle and the birth of their daughter. But what Earle called “the myth”– the idea that one must suffer for one’s art – proved to be too powerful. This heartbreaking, deeply researched tale is an exemplary music biography.
When Justin Townes Earle died in 2020 at the age of 38 of an overdose, alone in a sparsely furnished apartment in Nashville, his death sent waves of grief through the country-Americana music community. The son of alt-country hellraiser Steve Earle, partially named after the Texas troubadour and patron saint of substance-fueled despair Townes Van Zandt, he had long struggled with mental illness and various addictions. Some weren't shocked at his passing, but everyone had hoped Justin could beat his demons. There had been encouraging periods of long-term sobriety and active recovery in his adult life, including the years that led up to his career peak when he released the 2010 masterpiece Harlem River Blues, a career-making album of rambling folk blues set to Southern Gospel. He sang of cramped Brooklyn apartments and crippling hangovers, about emotional displacement, economic anxiety, and the wandering that characterized his feral, formative years as a rootless kid rambling around Nashville, developing his own unique guitar style and absorbing the musical influences that surrounded him. He appeared on Letterman, was named one of the 25 “most stylish men in the world” by GQ, and was anointed by critics as the next coming of the authentic troubadour. By the time of his death, he’d recorded and released eight albums, creating a striking and original body of work.
Rolling Stone journalist Jonathan Bernstein, with the full cooperation of the Justin Townes Earle estate, unravels in these pages a short but incredibly creative life, and reveals the backstories behind Justin’s greatest songs (“Mama’s Eyes,” “White Gardenias”) and what happened when it all fell apart while also capturing a shadow world of the neglected children of Nashville legends who wrestle with the legacies of their hard-living, road-weary, often absent parents. Justin’s journey to near-stardom is a harrowing story shot through with moments of clarity and promise, including his marriage to his wife Jenn Marie Earle and the birth of their daughter. But what Earle called “the myth”– the idea that one must suffer for one’s art – proved to be too powerful. This heartbreaking, deeply researched tale is an exemplary music biography.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published January 13, 2026
32 people are currently reading
3257 people want to read
About the author
Jonathan Bernstein
1 book11 followersJonathan Bernstein is a senior research editor and writer at Rolling Stone, and before that was a freelancer for Oxford American, The Guardian, GQ, Vulture, Pitchfork, The Village Voice, Spin, Entertainment Weekly, and American Songwriter. He lives in Brooklyn.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
January 14, 2026
This biography is so full and nuanced. Utterly brilliant prose. This is such a raw and honest depiction of stardom and the tortured artist!
November 23, 2025
Thank you to Edelweiss for the opportunity to read and review this fine book. What a sad story about another young and gifted artist wracked by substance abuse and his failure to deal with and come to grips with his traumatic past. Please read my entire review here:
https://open.substack.com/pub/msarki/...
https://open.substack.com/pub/msarki/...
January 19, 2026
I knew it would be sad from the get-go, a person surrounded by others, but yet lonely and searching. I felt it was written with respect, openly and unapologetically, as if from a fan who wanted you to know about someone special who struggled. I didn’t know much at all about Steve Earl, his father, but after reading the book, I want to listen to the words of his sons songs.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
My thanks to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing Da Capo for an advance copy of a singer songwriter and talent who seemed almost doomed from the start, burdened with the myths that make the creative world so hard for many to make it in, and with a last name that shadowed almost everything he did.
I have gotten to the age in life where I know there is really nothing more left to be excited about. No great romances, no book I always thought I would write, no great achievements. Retail will be my employment until AI replaces me, or the government decides that I am useless to capitalism. I'm fine with that. What does bother me as I have gotten older is to see people never get the chance to shine, when they so deserve it. People with real skills, real abilities to help people by entertaining them, something we really need today. Art helps us deal so much with what goes wrong, and to see creatives go off on the wrong path is truly a tragedy. Especially when that life ends so early, with so much unwritten, unsung, and untapped. Justin Townes Earle had skill, a drive to both create, and a drive to self-destruct. Much about this talented performer has probably been forgotten in our quick as a blink social media world. This fine biography will hopefully introduce more people to this artist, whose name almost destined him to die young. What Do You Do When You're Lonesome: The Authorized Biography of Justin Townes Earle by writer and editor Jonathan Bernstein is a biography told in full about this man, one who tap the pain that he lived with to create his art and lead to his own self-destruction, and a body of work that should be remembered better.
Justin Townes Earle was the son of Steve Earle, the country rebel who's early albums brought a new harder edge to country music and Carol Ann Hunter Earle. Justin was named for Justin Hayward of the Moody Blues, and Townes Van Zant, a country singer who was almost famous numerous times, who died early before he could make it. Steve Earle career hit just about the time Justin was born, and Steve hit the road and in Justin's words never really came back. Carol raised Justin, who had behavior problems and probably ADD. Justin loved music of all kinds, but it was a chance listening of Nirvana's Unplugged album that introduced him to the music of Leadbelly and Lighting Hopkins. And Justin was never the same. Justin leaned to play with a heavy thumb, to write songs that sounded 165 years old, as he would say. Busking and small bands became his thing, traveling with his father, living in Chicago learning and playing as he went. Slowly he began to get a name, and just as quickly besmirch it, taking drugs before shows and ruining sets, and hurting those around him. Things started to move in ways that were maybe beyond him. Justin began to get more popular, win awards made a album that got him a gig on David Letterman, married had a daughter, and began to spiral.
A book that was filled with so much potential, and one that makes one sad, mad and glad all in the same sentence. Justin had a lot of talent, but he seemed to be a part of what his father, Steve Earle, called a myth of suffering for art. Steve suffered, and in turn so did his son. This is an excellent look at music, the cost that music can take on a person, a family and those around them, and what music can do to heal sometimes. And sometimes it isn't enough. Bernstein had incredible access to friends and family, and it shows with a portrait of an artist as a damaged young man, with so much to offer, but uncertain how to do so. The writing is really quite good. One gets a real understanding of Justin, his friends and family, the addictions and the addiction that music can be.
I enjoyed this book, and felt sad reading it. I would have liked to have heard more music, which is kind of selfish, as I am sure his parents would like their son alive, and his daughter would love to have her father. There are moments where you can see the decisions made had great consequences in the future for Justin. Something many biographies don't really try to understand. I enjoyed this quite a bit, and have now found something else to listen to, and think of what might have been. I look forward to more books by Jonathan Bernstein.
I have gotten to the age in life where I know there is really nothing more left to be excited about. No great romances, no book I always thought I would write, no great achievements. Retail will be my employment until AI replaces me, or the government decides that I am useless to capitalism. I'm fine with that. What does bother me as I have gotten older is to see people never get the chance to shine, when they so deserve it. People with real skills, real abilities to help people by entertaining them, something we really need today. Art helps us deal so much with what goes wrong, and to see creatives go off on the wrong path is truly a tragedy. Especially when that life ends so early, with so much unwritten, unsung, and untapped. Justin Townes Earle had skill, a drive to both create, and a drive to self-destruct. Much about this talented performer has probably been forgotten in our quick as a blink social media world. This fine biography will hopefully introduce more people to this artist, whose name almost destined him to die young. What Do You Do When You're Lonesome: The Authorized Biography of Justin Townes Earle by writer and editor Jonathan Bernstein is a biography told in full about this man, one who tap the pain that he lived with to create his art and lead to his own self-destruction, and a body of work that should be remembered better.
Justin Townes Earle was the son of Steve Earle, the country rebel who's early albums brought a new harder edge to country music and Carol Ann Hunter Earle. Justin was named for Justin Hayward of the Moody Blues, and Townes Van Zant, a country singer who was almost famous numerous times, who died early before he could make it. Steve Earle career hit just about the time Justin was born, and Steve hit the road and in Justin's words never really came back. Carol raised Justin, who had behavior problems and probably ADD. Justin loved music of all kinds, but it was a chance listening of Nirvana's Unplugged album that introduced him to the music of Leadbelly and Lighting Hopkins. And Justin was never the same. Justin leaned to play with a heavy thumb, to write songs that sounded 165 years old, as he would say. Busking and small bands became his thing, traveling with his father, living in Chicago learning and playing as he went. Slowly he began to get a name, and just as quickly besmirch it, taking drugs before shows and ruining sets, and hurting those around him. Things started to move in ways that were maybe beyond him. Justin began to get more popular, win awards made a album that got him a gig on David Letterman, married had a daughter, and began to spiral.
A book that was filled with so much potential, and one that makes one sad, mad and glad all in the same sentence. Justin had a lot of talent, but he seemed to be a part of what his father, Steve Earle, called a myth of suffering for art. Steve suffered, and in turn so did his son. This is an excellent look at music, the cost that music can take on a person, a family and those around them, and what music can do to heal sometimes. And sometimes it isn't enough. Bernstein had incredible access to friends and family, and it shows with a portrait of an artist as a damaged young man, with so much to offer, but uncertain how to do so. The writing is really quite good. One gets a real understanding of Justin, his friends and family, the addictions and the addiction that music can be.
I enjoyed this book, and felt sad reading it. I would have liked to have heard more music, which is kind of selfish, as I am sure his parents would like their son alive, and his daughter would love to have her father. There are moments where you can see the decisions made had great consequences in the future for Justin. Something many biographies don't really try to understand. I enjoyed this quite a bit, and have now found something else to listen to, and think of what might have been. I look forward to more books by Jonathan Bernstein.
December 3, 2025
It's hard to imagine there will ever be a more definitive work on the life of JTE. With a mix of interviews and research (both done in massive amounts), the book follows Earle's life pretty clearly through its sad and early end. Along the way, we get plenty of insight into Earle's personality, too.
The book doesn't go deep into the music itself. When Bernstein addresses songs, he does so skillfully, often in the service of biography (rather than in examination of the music or the lyrics apart from a personal slant). It makes sense for the point of this book, which already runs as long as it needs to, but it would be nice to get a more in-depth look at the songs themselves, rather than just the context of their writing and recording.
It's a tough read at times because of the nature of Earle's life, but it's something fans of JTE or, to some extent, the scene in general will likely want to read.
The book doesn't go deep into the music itself. When Bernstein addresses songs, he does so skillfully, often in the service of biography (rather than in examination of the music or the lyrics apart from a personal slant). It makes sense for the point of this book, which already runs as long as it needs to, but it would be nice to get a more in-depth look at the songs themselves, rather than just the context of their writing and recording.
It's a tough read at times because of the nature of Earle's life, but it's something fans of JTE or, to some extent, the scene in general will likely want to read.
December 5, 2025
Thank you, Grand Central Publishing, for providing the copy of What Do You Do When You're Lonesome, The Authorized Biography of Justin Townes Earle by Jonathan Bernstein. I was a fan of Steve Earle, and JTE and his music slipped under the radar for me, but I’m sorry it did after reading this heartbreaking book. Even though I knew the inevitable ending, I kept hoping Justin would find some happiness in his life, and I almost cheered when he got clean the first time and had some peaceful years. I loved learning about his life and what shaped him, mainly as a cautionary tale about addiction and the connection to mental health.
Review of advance copy received from Author
A harrowing tale about the brief life of a talented songwriter. Unlike other biographies where you need to be familiar with the subject’s music for the story to work, Bernstein weaves Earle’s tale in such a way where you are compelled to keep reading even if you don’t know any of the songs he’s talking about.
January 18, 2026
Holy shit. First 5 star read in 2026.
A book of another talented soul lost to addiction. I know and love the music of Justin's dad, country rock troubadour Steve Earle. But this book and the struggles contained within just make me wish to acquaint myself further with his catalog of work.
Overall, hell of a book but so, so, sad.
A book of another talented soul lost to addiction. I know and love the music of Justin's dad, country rock troubadour Steve Earle. But this book and the struggles contained within just make me wish to acquaint myself further with his catalog of work.
Overall, hell of a book but so, so, sad.
January 17, 2026
Revelatory work. More for the Nashville Scene here: https://www.nashvillescene.com/arts_c...
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews