史蒂夫·厄尔

Stephen Fain Earle (; born January 17, 1955) is an American country, rock, and folk singer-songwriter. He began his career as a songwriter in Nashville.

Earle's breakthrough album was his 1986 debut album Guitar Town; the eponymous lead single peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard Hot Country chart. Since then, he has released 21 more studio albums and received three Grammy awards, each for Best Contemporary Folk Album; he has four additional nominations in the same category. "Copperhead Road" was released in 1988 and is his bestselling single; it peaked on its initial release at No. 10 on the Mainstream Rock chart, and had a 21st-century resurgence reaching No. 15 on the Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart, buoyed by vigorous online sales. His songs have been recorded by Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Levon Helm, The Highwaymen, Travis Tritt, Vince Gill, Patty Loveless, Shawn Colvin, Bob Seger, Percy Sledge, Dailey & Vincent, Robert Earl Keen, and Emmylou Harris.

Earle has appeared in film and television, most notably as recurring characters in HBO's critically acclaimed shows The Wire and Treme. He has also written a novel, a play, and a book of short stories. Earle is the father of late singer-songwriter Justin Townes Earle.

He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2020, and became a member of the Grand Ole Opry in 2025.

Early life

Earle was born on January 17, 1955, in Fort Monroe, Virginia, where his father was stationed as an air traffic controller. The family moved to Texas before Earle's second birthday and he grew up primarily in the San Antonio area.

Earle began learning the guitar at the age of 11 and entered a school talent contest at age 13. He ran away from home at age 14 to search for his idol, singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt. Earle was "rebellious" as a young man and dropped out of school at the age of 16. He moved to Houston with his 19-year-old uncle, also a musician. While in Houston, Earle finally met Van Zandt. Earle was opposed to the Vietnam War as he recalled in 2012: "The antiwar movement was a very personal thing for me. I didn't finish high school, so I wasn't a candidate for a student deferment. I was fucking going." The end of the Selective Service Act and the draft lottery in 1973 prevented him from being drafted, but several of his friends were drafted, which he credits as the origin of his politicization. Earle also noted that when he was a young man, his girlfriend was able to get an abortion despite the fact that abortion was illegal. Her father was a doctor at the local hospital in San Antonio, while several other girls he knew at the time were not able to get abortions; they lacked access to those with the necessary power to arrange an abortion, which he credits as the origin of his pro-choice views.

Career

1974–1999

In 1974, at the age of 19, Earle moved to Nashville and began working blue-collar jobs during the day and playing music at night. During this period Earle wrote songs and played bass guitar in Guy Clark's band and sang on Clark's 1975 album Old No. 1. Earle appeared in the 1976 film Heartworn Highways, a documentary on the Nashville music scene which included David Allan Coe, Guy Clark, Townes van Zandt, and Rodney Crowell. Earle lived in Nashville for several years and assumed the position of staff songwriter at the publishing company Sunbury Dunbar. Later Earle grew tired of Nashville and returned to Texas, where he started a band called The Dukes.

In the 1980s, Earle returned to Nashville once again and worked as a songwriter for the publishers Roy Dea and Pat Carter. A song he co-wrote, "When You Fall in Love," was recorded by Johnny Lee and made No. 14 on the country charts in 1982. Carl Perkins recorded Earle's song "Mustang Wine," and two of his songs were recorded by Zella Lehr. Later, Dea and Carter created an independent record label called LSI, and invited Earle to begin recording his own material on their label. Connie Smith recorded Earle's composition "A Far Cry from You" in 1985, which reached a minor position on the country charts, as well.

Earle released an EP called Pink & Black in 1982, featuring the Dukes. Acting as Earle's manager, John Lomax sent the EP to Epic Records, and they signed Earle to a recording contract in 1983. In 1983, Earle signed a record deal with CBS and recorded a "neo-rockabilly album."

After losing his publishing contract with Dea and Carter, Earle met producer Tony Brown, and after severing his ties with Lomax and Epic Records, obtained a seven-record deal with MCA Records. Earle released his first full-length album, Guitar Town, on MCA Records in 1986. The title track became a Top 10 single in 1986, and his song "Goodbye's All We've Got Left" reached the Top 10 in 1987. That same year, he released a compilation of earlier recordings, titled Early Tracks, and an album with the Dukes, called Exit 0, which "received critical acclaim" for its blend of country and rock.