What Steve Earle Can’t Live Without

I’m a single parent to a 16-year-old with autism, John Henry. So I cook a lot. And I come from a long line of hillbilly pressure cookers — my father and both of my uncles all had big families, so anything in one pot was an advantage. You can do a pot roast in an hour with a pressure cooker, and that’s all an Instant Pot is. It’s a pressure cooker that won’t blow up or get you on a watch list. The main thing mine gets used for is John Henry’s lunches, because they don’t do hot lunches at his school. I rotate three recipes: a pot roast, a bolognese, and a risotto. You can actually make a pretty good risotto in an Instant Pot without it sticking to the pan. I’m lucky in that John Henry isn’t finicky. He eats almost everything. He’s got an adult palate, not a kids one. So it’s pretty great.

I cook with stock exclusively. I don’t ever use water in anything that I can use stock for. I keep regular chicken stock and beef stock around all the time, but during the lockdown, I got on this bone-broth thing from Brodo. Originally, it was frozen, and they’d ship it to you in dry ice. Now you can get it in packets that you can keep on the counter. It’s great to have around for cooking. It’s sort of an instant exotic recipe, because they have these flavors. They’ve got one that’s based on Thai curries, with coconut. They’ve got one that’s more spicy, with Italian seasoning. And there’s one with turmeric and ginger that’s really great. I’m a recovering addict, and I just don’t keep alcohol in the house. So wherever a recipe asks for a cup of wine, I’ll replace that with another cup of stock.

I’ve been wearing Tecovas boots for a long time. I have an embarrassing number of pairs — at least 50. I got bored during lockdown and bought a bunch more of them, even though I wasn’t going anywhere and didn’t need them. I wear the cowboy boots, but they also make a zip boot thatlookslike a cowboy boot, but it’s way cooler to wear when I tour in the summer.

Howler Brothers is a fly-fishing brand, but they have some great short-sleeve cowboy shirts. I discovered them through J.T. Van Zandt, who’s [the late linger-songwriter] Townes Van Zandt’s son. J.T. is a world-class fly-fishing guide, and he has his own Howler Brothers line, so that’s what got me in the store originally. Now I wear Howler Brothers shorts basically all the time. I’m terrible. I’ve become that old guy that doesn’t put on long pants until I’m being paid for it.

These jackets are not cheap, I know. This is the second most elitist item on my list. But they’re gorgeous. They’re all designed in Nashville and made in Italy. A friend of my ex-wife [singer-songwriter] Allison Moorer owns the company and designs all the stuff, and she even made me a jacket for when I was inducted as a member of the Grand Ole Opry last September. It’s really, really great. They also make boots, but I haven’t quite tested positive for them yet. I’m from Texas, and they’re great boots — they’re just not quite cowboy boots. I have a prejudice about that.

I’m pretty outdoorsy. Even though I would never live anywhere but New York, I get to see lots of beautiful places, and tour all over the mountain states. I fish with a fly rod — and I got into the saltwater thing, so now I even go to the Bahamas to fish. It’s the other disease I have, apart from collecting guitars. With Patagonia, I like how the company is run. [Founder Yvon Chouinard] has done what he said he was going to do. He ran the company, kept it as green as he could possibly keep it, and then he made it into what’s essentially a not-for-profit. The profit side of it supports the nonprofit side of it. As far as I can tell, he’s put his money where his mouth is, and the stuff’s really good. I fish in all their stuff, and John Henry wears Patagonia when it gets cold, too.

Steve Jobs got me from beyond the grave. I was out of commission for about five years because of a drug habit, and I got locked up at the end of it. So I didn’t have much technology for a while. I got into writing songs on PC computers instead of by hand, because my handwriting has always been illegible. But back then, you could still lose documents if you weren’t careful, and I wasn’t that savvy. Apple is all about correcting that stuff. They were leaps ahead of PC in making computers way more stupidproof. So I got an Apple computer, and shortly after that, iPhones came out. All the Apple stuff just works together flawlessly, and now I write 99 percent of what I write on my iPhone as I drop my kid off at school in the morning. I thought the Apple Watch was going to be a novelty, but it’s even better than the phone. I lose cell phones every once in a while, but I haven’t lost one permanently since I got this. [Since] I’ve got a 16-year-old at home, I cannot be out of touch. I just can’t do it. I don’t use an iPad personally, but John Henry does, because he uses this program called Proloquo, which is especially for kids with autism.

It’s a luxury item. They’re stupid expensive, I know. I’ve got two or three pieces of Rimowa luggage, but I switched to the trunks several years ago. I got one of the plastic ones first, and then I switched over to the aluminum ones, which are even more expensive, but this has lasted for seven years of touring and traveling. That’s a long time for a suitcase. They make one that’s bigger than the one I’ve got, but I’ll just put more stuff in it if I get it. I did 68 shows this summer solo, and I travel in a bus, me and two guys, because we can do more miles that way. And after the last show they dropped me off here at my apartment about 2 a.m. the next morning, and then nine hours later, I went to JFK and flew to Ireland for nine shows with the Waterboys. It was a blast, and I was flying every day because that’s the way they travel, and the suitcase held up incredibly well. I like the trunk format rather than having two halves that are equal. I just divide the bottom half between dirty stuff and clean stuff, and it works pretty well for me.

I paid $85,000 for it — the original guitar from 1935. The prewar ones are just better. They’re a holy grail for collectors. I got my hands on one finally about 15 years ago, and it’s probably worth probably pretty close to $300,000 now. It’ll probably get sold after I’m gone to take care of John Henry. I own almost 200 instruments, mostly guitars, but also mandolins. Mostly acoustic, but some electrics. It is a disease, but this is the one I’d keep if I had to get rid of all of the rest of them, so that’s why I thought it belonged on this list.

[Editor’s note: Earle’s vintage guitar is so rare that you can’t currently find one online, but this replica is much more affordable (even though it’s still pretty expensive) and easily available.]

When I moved into this building, my business manager set all of my internet up, and he put me on this other thing that wasn’t Spectrum, and I didn’t have NY1 [Spectrum’s local news channel]. And it sounds silly, but they don’t just do traffic and weather. It’s the best local New York political coverage that you can find on TV. They dedicate themselves to it, and they also have theater coverage. And that’s what I came to New York to do — music for theater. I’m currently working on the musical ofTender Mercies, that movie from the ’80s. So I realized I couldn’t live without NY1, and I switched to Spectrum.