Send Him A Friend

Anders Osborne’s road to sobriety.

- Brett Milano

Anders Osborne’s status as a musician in recovery is well known. In many of his songs he’s dealt with the spiritual and emotional issues related to the journey back. But there’s another, nitty-gritty side to the process: He’s a musician, and musicians have to work. Which of course means going straight back to the clubs where the old temptations flow. That’s the idea behind his newly founded Send Me a Friend Foundation, named for one of his most loved songs and co-sponsored, ironically enough, by the Oskar Blues Brewery. The simple goal is to provide real-time support for newly clean people in the music world, so they can get back to their art and their livelihood. The program launches December 15 at John Bukaty’s Studio and Gallery at 841 Carondelet Street (the night before his two-night Holiday Spectacular at Tipitina’s). The benefit will include an intimate performance along with a talk and Q&A session.

Osborne has managed to do his best work since cleaning up, and to work at a faster pace than ever. His cause nowadays is making sure that others get the same chance.

So tell me how this foundation came about.