Beth Hart Never Gives Up
The old expression claiming that one must suffer in order to be an artist almost seems to have been first uttered with Beth Hart in mind. A national winner on the old “Star Search” television program, Hart attracted the attention of Atlantic Records, which released her major-label debut, Immortal, in 1996.
But being on a label and having hits such as “Am I The One” didn’t necessarily mean carefree life for Hart. Anxiety, depression and a bipolar disorder bundled with alcohol and drug dependencies almost did her in. That is, until she married road manager Scott Guetzkow who helped her get back on track. That was more than 10 years ago.
Today, Hart is a very busy woman, a singer’s singer who’s received praise not only from fans but from fellow artists. In 2012 Jeff Beck invited her to appear with him and sing “I’d Rather Go Blind” at the Kennedy Center Honors tribute to Buddy Guy. That experience led her to Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Festival at New York City’s Madison Square Garden earlier this month where she once again performed with Beck.
She released her latest album, the bluesy, gospel-tinged Bang Bang Boom Boom at the beginning of April and her latest collaboration with Joe Bonamassa, the CD/DVD/double vinyl Seesaw, drops May 20 in Europe, May 21 in the U.S.
While talking with Pollstar, Hart not only described her approach to music, but also gave us an inside glimpse of what it’s been like to be her during the past two decades. Once you read her words, we think you’ll agree that not only is Beth Hart one tough lady but she’s also a shining example that one can rise victorious over mental problems and overcome substance abuse.
Yes. There definitely are some regiments. Even when I’m not on the road I try to take care of it as well. I got to tell you, I do smoke, which is horrible as we know for you. Other than that, I don’t smoke a lot and I really try to stay pretty quiet during the day while I’m on the road. When I speak, as loud as I am on stage when I’m talking to the crowd, I’m never that way off. Sometimes I barrel it out, vocally, and sometimes I don’t. It kind of goes up and down through the night. I warm up but not like I used to warm up. As a kid I used to do massive amounts of scales. I worked with a coach and he got me really strong by doing all these scales. When I got older I was finally like, “Forget these scales. I can’t take it anymore.” And it was funny, I didn’t really need it anymore. Maybe that’s because I’m on the road a lot, my voice is always being used so I don’t have to do all those scales anymore.
[There’s] typical stuff, like tea. I sleep a lot. About 10 hours a night. So, all that stuff kind of makes a difference.
Speaking about sleeping – when you’re on the road, do you follow the regiment of leaving for the next town right after the show, or do you stay in town and leave the next morning?
I don’t do the bus thing. I don’t do mornings, either. I hate the bus and I hate mornings. If I’m doing promo where I need to be up early, I’ll usually do that as a separate tour. If I do any promo while actually on a show tour, that will be at the gig. I’ll meet with people at the gig or I’ll get on the phone at the gig. Otherwise, not at all and that’s another way I preserve my voice.
I do flights, but I don’t allow them to fly me out in a day. I also don’t do six shows a week. I do four. So I get plenty of time to recover and rest. But it’s not that I do that just for my voice. I do that for my head because I have my disorders, so I watch my stress level and can never miss sleep and things like that that are really important to keep myself balanced.
I’m really lucky in things like [having] a good manager who makes that a priority. Also, a record label that really understands that and respects it as well.
When I was younger, first of all I wasn’t aware of how ill I was. Also, I felt unworthy to ever say anything about anything. I should just go along with the play. That’s the nice thing about getting older. You realize you got to tell people what you can do and what you can’t do. If they respect it – great. If they don’t respect it – fuck ’em and move on.
I wouldn’t have said, “Yes,” but my psychiatrist definitely says, “Yes.” I wouldn’t have thought that because I don’t want to be overly dramatic about thinking like that kind of stuff. “Oh, in order to be an artist you have to be half crazy.”
But my doctor believes, with every gain in your brain there has to be a give and take. What may be a lack in the brain, you gain somewhere else. It can be with all kinds of different things. Certainly with mental illness it tends to be a pretty consistent pattern that someone can be really smart with mental illness but have the worst social skills possible. And no matter how much they care about treating people really well, they just really can’t. They don’t have social skills. So, I guess because of that, I’d say, “Yes.”
I’ve often wondered in regards to past artists if some of the more colorful personalities might have suffered from a mental disorder in one form or another that helped make them who they were. Say, the great drummer Buddy Rich, to toss a name out there.
It’s funny you mentioned Buddy Rich because I remember coming across some bandmember’s tapes of him being on the bus with them. And he’s ranting and ranting at them, just pissed off. Listening to those tapes, that’s a total manic thing.
Before I went on medication, when I’d get angry at someone, I would not only get angry but I’d stay angry and keep repeating myself over and over for about an hour and a half until they just ran away. That is definitely mania. You’re so worked up that you can’t stop.
I remember hearing that from those tapes and going, “Dude! This dude definitely needs some therapy.” Wow. He was out there.
Because you have received treatment and, through the years, have learned so much about your affliction, do you find yourself recognizing the same traits and/or symptoms in other artists? Are you more aware of others in your profession that might be facing similar issues, even if they don’t recognize it themselves?
I really believe that human beings … when our brains are balanced, we naturally behave with kindness and love. We’re basically pretty good. But when you have imbalances, it can lead to all kinds of things – anorexia, bulimia, workaholism, drug addiction, cutting yourself, robbing, stealing. You’re doing things that are incredibly self-destructive.
And I think anytime you see someone caught up in that, it’s not because they’re an asshole or because they don’t care. They probably have some form of imbalance. What I’ve learned about it, anyway, at least what they know so far is that it could be an inherited thing. It also could be because you had a major brain injury as a child. Also, being treated certain ways as a child can change the function of the brain. They’re learning more and more about that all the time.
I know for myself, personally, I hated myself for so many years. I was so embarrassed of the way I would behave. I was always so ambitious and I loved music but for so many years whenever I would hear of a great opportunity that came my way, the first feeling I would have was a sinking gut feeling of terror, that I was unworthy. I hoped to God they didn’t find out that I would suck, and that I would just grin and bear to get through it. And I never got to enjoy the great options that came my way.
Since all the therapy and taking medication. … A perfect example is when Jeff [Beck] asked me to do the Kennedy Center; it was so wonderful that I got to enjoy being asked. I got to hear him ask me and my first feeling wasn’t terror or feeling sick. It was a feeling of … the joy of getting yourself a little healthier. To learn to believe in yourself and trust others on a whole other level. And I think overall it just gives you more peace in your life.