Man, Steve Poltz is just great.
Sure, the guy knows how to write a memorable song (most folks would likely recognise him from his co-write of ‘You Were Meant For Me’ with old flame Jewel), and his commitment to touring is exhausting. But he’s also just… well, great. Poltz dives into conversation with the off-the-cuff bravado of Ross Noble coupled with the everyday insight of Raymond Carver. He’s friendly enough to forget you don’t actually know each other – and yet, there has been a lot of tumult in his life since his last Australian visit. The rise of Trump is one concern; another more personal shock was the stroke he suffered onstage in 2014.
“Well, I didn’t want to play any more,” Poltz admits. While the stroke occurred back in the US, it was on the heels of 38 back-to-back dates here in Australia. “I thought the guitar had done it to me, and I kind of just hunkered down, didn’t know what I was going to do. I couldn’t even drive a car, I was too scared. It was like PTSD. I was afraid to fall asleep in case I just wouldn’t wake up, or I’d be paralysed. I spent months going to different doctors, cardiologists, neurologists, and all of them kept saying, ‘We don’t know why this happened to you.’ I’m not predisposed to blood clots, don’t need blood thinners. My cholesterol was perfect, I have the heart of a 15-year-old. Nobody knows why it happened, so that’s the good news but also the bad news. It freaked me out.
“It was a blessing though, because it really got me into The Grateful Dead. Their music really spoke to me. Then I started playing again, and there it was. I was like Al Pacino.” Poltz laughs and does his best Michael Corleone impression. “Once I thought I was out, but they pull me back in.”
It’s rather incredible that he’s managed to push through to the other side of something so uncertain and traumatic with his spirits still in fighting form. Poltz took a hit that would lay many other folks out for good, but just over two years later, he’s back to touring with the same charming insouciance as ever. He’s the first to admit, though, that when he knew for certain he was going to be physically alright, there was still a lot of shock to process.
“I started crying a lot. It was weird,” he chuckles softly. “When I got out of hospital I started sobbing, and I’m not a big crier. I was sobbing just looking at a tree while my friends were waiting for me to get in the car. Weird. They picked me up, and I made them get out of the car and look at this ugly little tree. Then I called my parents, because I hadn’t told them. Everything was really emotional. I felt like I’d skirted death. It made me appreciate life more. Now two years later, I’m back to my old self. I don’t give a shit about life. I don’t care.”
So he’s come full circle and he’s learnt nothing? Poltz laughs. “Yeah! The only thing I’ve learned is there’s nothing to learn. Honestly, the more I know, the more I know what I don’t know. The stroke made me more loving, definitely. A bit more patient. But even then, this last election in the States had me flummoxed. Just when you think you understand something and know what’s going to happen, life will throw you some weird curveball.
“Being a musician with so many followers – playing in Canada, Australia, England – anywhere outside the United States, I knew what people were thinking. But inside the States? You got a 50/50 chance of hitting a Trump person, and that person could well be at my show. Not that my show preaches that kind of hate, but people can still show up and say, ‘I’m not a racist, but I voted for Trump.’ And I mean… you can’t even argue about it any more, because you get nowhere.”
While Poltz seems equally at home playing somewhere like Australia as he is back home, the future of his homeland has clearly got the man thinking. He’s currently reading T.C. Boyle’s The Tortilla Curtain – a novel of xenophobia, environmental destruction and refugees written in the ’90s – and while he tries to keep his performances light on politics, he finds the novel’s message quite prescient.
“I think the US doesn’t know where it’s heading. He’s not even President yet, and there are these protests. People are saying, ‘Calm down, he hasn’t even done anything yet.’ I don’t know – can we be calm? I don’t even know what our job is any more as artists. Are we there just to entertain? Are we there to be political? And if we are there to be political, who made us the experts? A lot of times people just chant some slogan without having done any research.
“I kind of just want to walk away from all of it, and realise that a lot of it is out of my control. I can control what’s in my circle and in my shows – my shows can be about love and hope and be inclusive; I can make my own little change that way. But I’m not one to stand on a soapbox and proselytise.”
Steve Poltz’s tour takes him to Camelot Lounge inThursday December 15,The Bunker atCoogee Diggers on Friday December 16,The Basement onSaturday December 17, and ultimately, Woodford Folk Festival 2016/17, Woodfordia, Tuesday December 27 – Sunday January 1.
