I saw a video where singer/songwriter Steve Earle was being honored on the floor of the Tennessee State House. It’s usually always good when performers & their music are honored by a state’s representatives, and I’m a fan of some of Steve Earle’s music, though not of the man or the life he’s led by his own poor choices, but I’m wondering if the politicians who voted for his song ‘Copperhead Road” to be the 10th State Song of Tennessee (they have a lot of State Songs obviously) have read the lyrics of the song or know anything about Steve Earle’s past that could easily be found on his Wikipedia page . . .

I like the song and have no personal qualms over the content at all, as i view it as just a fictional song. Besides, there are worse crimes that people have sang or rapped about, but I’m not a public figure or politician who has to watch what he endorses. Songs are typically a work of fiction, as this one is. One Nashville artist once said “I won’t write or sing a song I didn’t live”, which is a ludicrous statement to make as it condemns any and all works of fiction anywhere, including this song.

There are a lot of songs I like of which I have no personal affection for the lyrics and even disdain them. Anything about religion or mentioning a supernatural higher being is a ridiculous concept to me being that I’m highly anti-religious (the opposite of “religious” isn’t “evil”; it’s actually “intelligence” in not believing unproven fairy tales), but there are good songs about religion that I’ll probably always like such as “My Sweet Lord”, “Day By Day”, “Let It Be”, etc, but I just sing the lyrics much like an actor reads lines — you don’t have to believe in or approve of the character in order to play a part anymore than I have to believe in the lyrics in order to sing them or appreciate the song.

Otherwise I’d probably have very few songs that I’d be able to listen to, as most of the musical landscape I grew up in glorifies random sex (KISS, Van Halen & most of 80’s Hair Metal), slavery (“Brown Sugar” by The Stones), machismo (Heavy Metal in general), drug use (Steely Dan, Pink Floyd, etc), objectification of girls & women (lots of songs including “I Saw Her Standing There” by the Beatles & “My Sharona” by The Knack, just a couple written about an obsession with a teenager), sex trafficking (Lady Marmalade), alcoholism (lots of “party” songs), hedonism (almost anything by The Eagles or Jimmy Buffett), witchcraft (Stevie Nicks & a host of Metal artists), devil worshipping & the dark side (Metal again), self-loathing (90’s bands), whining (2000’s bands) & a host of other issues I don’t agree with — but I still like much of the music that delves into these topics as did millions of others. I love the music of the Beatles, Stevie Nicks, Jimmy Buffett, Eagles, Steely Dan, Pink Floyd, Stones, Van Halen, a little KISS, Ozzy & the song Lady Marmalade, but I don’t have to believe in the lyrics to sing & like the songs anymore than Anthony Hopkins had to support serial killing in order to play Hannibal Lecter.

The song is sung in a fictional protagonist’s POV about his daddy’s exploits as a moonshiner when the protagonist was a kid. Earle sings as the character/protagonist “John Lee Pettimore”; the song isn’t autobiographical. Moonshine was the latter-day equivalent of being a modern-day drug dealer. Both are illegal in Tennessee then & now, but many of its residents support them by purchasing the products. To be fair, this happens in a lot of states where both are illegal, and even in states where pot is legal, as it’s cheaper to buy the illegal untaxed stuff. Moonshining didn’t bring the harsh sentences drug dealing does now and still doesn’t, even though both are a Federal & state crime.

The last verse is about the song’s protagonist coming home from Vietnam & deciding to grow pot illegally; it’s still illegal to grow pot in TN as of 2023 & this song came out 35 years earlier when it was illegal everywhere to do anything. It doesn’t explicitly state that the man intends to sell the pot, but you can infer that’s the case as he wasn’t growing it in a few planters on his porch, but instead in a “holler” (hillbilly speak for a “hollow”, or small/narrow valley), which would presumabily be a large garden or even a decent-sized field of pot. He also says DEA choppers are in the air, so this isn’t just some guy growing a few plants if the DEA is involved enough to send in air surveillance.

So we’ve got a lot of TN state politicians voting for a song written & sung by Steve Earle, which glorifies him as well. Steve Earle was a convicted drug addict (including weapons possession), who’s been married 7 times to 6 different women, is a high-school dropout, and looks like a homeless bum, which he admittedly was for a few years. Steve Earle is also an unabashed Liberal Socialist Democrat, which is not a popular thing to be in Tennessee or anywhere in the Red states.

“Copperhead Road”, the song they voted for, is about the illegal manufacturing & distribution of moonshine whiskey, which combined is a felony virtually anywhere, in a state where they recently passed a law that you can’t call a whiskey Tennessee Whiskey if it isn’t made in TN, surely because of the popularity of the song “Tennessee Whiskey”, and this same song also glorifies the illegal manufacturing & distribution of drugs, i.e. pot, which isn’t as big a deal anymore, but it’s still a felony crime in Tennessee. It also makes the people of Tennessee look even more redneck than they are. It’s not a song I’d want associated with my state, or any state.

My point is that I’m surprised that any politician would associate themselves with this song and its content, or Steve Earle himself by voting for his song to be a State Song considering the content & considering the character & background of Earle. This makes you wonder not so much about what their values are, but whether or not they read the text of these bills they sign. I know it’s a work of fiction, just a song, but if Earle had instead been praised for a song about shooting cops and politicians, would it have received the same number of votes, much less having the bill proposed in the 1st place? Is it OK to honor some forms of criminality that we personally approve of, or should we not honor any criminality? Would they have approved of a rap song by a black rapper that had the same criminality of selling drugs & killing people or cops in it? Why honor Steve Earle considering his background & his political learnings?

Why didn’t they pick another Steve Earle song to honor? In my opinion, “Guitar Town” is a better song than “Copperhead Road”, and just about anyone will tell you that title refers to Nashville. Keep in mind that Earle wasn’t born or raised in Tennessee, so it isn’t like he’s Tennessee’s favorite son & needs a TN honor. He’s spent a lot of time in Nashville as an artist, but a lot of out-of-towners do/have & they’re usually not honored as such as only 9 other songs have been honored in this manner. “Copperhead Road” is the name of an actual road in Tennessee, and the song lists a number of Tennessee locales in it, but that’s the only connection, and it’s a dubious and infamous connection at best considering what’s it all about.

I don’t have a problem with me liking Steve Earle’s music apart from the man, and I don’t have a problem with you or the Tennessee State House politicians liking it either, but I do have a problem with honoring him personally, which is essentially what they were doing along with the song being honored, and I’m amazed that song was honored considering the behavior being sung about & who they are & the values & people they represent.

I would equate this to New Jersey honoring The Sopranos by making them the Official State Family. I’ll bet you this will happen eventually in this dystopian society.