It's a sunny day, and I'm crying as Wilco's darkness is cheap, a track off the stalwart indie band's new album, Cruel Country, plays on a crappy Bluetooth speaker on the dining-room table that doubles as my desk. There are birds outside fighting at the feeder, and the sky is blue after days of rain and the endless gray that defined spring in Chicago this year. Frontman Jeff Tweedy's brittle voice fills gaps between the sparse instrumentation. A horn, a piano, a guitar. It's beautiful and sad in the way so many things are nowadays. Before I realize it, tears are rolling down my cheeks.
It's been a long few years. For me, for you, for Jeff Tweedy.
Amid the crushing isolation of the pandemic, divisive politics, and a creeping sense of powerlessness over it all, it was easy to feel lost and alone. As Tweedy, 54, sings elsewhere on the album, It's hard to watch nothing change. This wasn't the first time he felt adrift, and it probably won't be the last. But the past few years altered him, he says, in a way that feels new. Good, even. During this period of deprivation,
Tweedy says, it occurred to me that making music is really everybody trying to figure out how to have more good days than fucking bad days. Tweedy knows bad days. The beating heart of Wilco, he has publicly struggled with addiction and anxiety, depression, and debilitating migraines. Migraines so bad that when he was a boy, he'd vomit dozens of times in a night from the pain, regularly landing in the hospital for dehydration. A Vicodin habit to numb the discomfort came later-on tour in 2004, he'd pass out in the bathtub, thinking he might not wake up. Rehab kicked the pills, but the migraines still rage. He had one this morning, pushing our conversation back by hours.
Denne historien er fra Summer 2022-utgaven av Esquire US.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent ? Logg på
Denne historien er fra Summer 2022-utgaven av Esquire US.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
this charming man
Drew Starkey's performance in the Oscar hopeful Queer has Hollywood buzzing. He's also fashion's latest \"it\" boy and an incredible dinner companion. What is it about this guy?
THE RISE AND RISE OF JANNIK SINNER
The world's number-one tennis player is winning MAJORS and dominating HIS rivals. Now comes the HARD PART.
ALL MONEY AIN'T GOOD MONEY
The current exponential proliferation of legal gambling preys on Black and brown people in unseen ways
CORD CURRICULUM
You don't need to look like a rumpled college professor in your corduroys. The secret is picking the right pair.
THE WORLD'S BEST ATHLETES TELL HER EVERYTHING
Taylor Rooks gets her NFL and NBA interview subjects to open up like they're in therapy
the perfect girl friend
Flirty, sexy, seductive, supportive. Your AI companion can be whatever you want her to be. And now a growing number of men are turning to bots to ease their loneliness or satisfy their kinks. The choices are endless. The emotions are real.
priceless
At Hermès, Axel de Beaufort will make whatever you imagine. Its value can be measured not in dollars but in the hours spent crafting it and the beauty it adds to the world.
shoes with staying power
The Shannon lace-up from Church's is a study in enduring style
THE MIDLIFE CRISIS? TRY THE THREEQUARTER-LIFE QUANDARY.
Black men's life expectancy is short, thanks to history. At 49, am I on the downslope?
HOW THE DEMOCRATS GOT THEIR GROOVE BACK
They've been flinching ever since Reagan, but the party has finally figured out who they are.
