Turnpike Troubadours went on an “indefinite hiatus” in 2019. At the time, frontman Evan Felker was in the process of hitting rock bottom. As a result, the canceled shows, and finally Felker had to walk away to heal himself. Now, he has nearly four years of total sobriety under his belt. Additionally, the band released their comeback album A Cat in the Rain earlier this year.
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Earlier this week, Felker appeared on the MeatEater Podcast to talk about music, life, and the outdoors. During the conversation, the subject of his sobriety came up. He was happy to talk about it.
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“The best thing that ever happened to me was getting sober,” Felker said. “I’ll have four years or so in January,” he added.
Then, he looked back on the days that led him to stop drinking. “I was kind of trying to figure out life in general. I was burnt out on playing. That was all I had done from the time I was about 24 or so until I was 34, about ten years,” he said. “That was all I thought about, all I did.”
Felker said there was a “romantic period” where alcohol seemed to help him tap into his creativity and write songs. However, that period was short-lived. “We were in the bars four or five nights a week and everything was nuts,” recalled.
Hard Work on the Road to Recovery
When he stepped away from making music, Felker thought his drinking problem would “solve itself.” So, he went to Southeast Texas to work with a friend of his named Justin Jenkins on his family’s rice farm. Then, he started working with cattle. However, his problem was still there.
“Then, I realized that I wasn’t drinking too much because I was on the road. I was drinking too much because I was an alcoholic,” he said with a laugh. That led him to talk to a friend of his who had gone through treatment. “His life immediately got better. He was a happy dude and was better at everything he did,” Felker said about his friend’s recovery. That friend directed Felker to the treatment center that helped him. “I went and did a 90-day deal and changed my life,” he said.
“I was this maniac who was coming out of the bars and for ten years could do anything he wanted to at any time of any day. So, I sort of had to learn responsibility. I’m very lucky I did that before I had kids.”
Felker is currently married and has two children. He and his family live on a ranch in central Oklahoma.
Featured image by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for Stagecoach
