Ryan Adams Gets His Brain Picked

There's a rather interesting article in the Times today about Ryan Adams. Well, I guess it doesn't really say anything that we don't already know. It details his drug addiction and how his girlfriend Jessica Joffe pretty much saved his life. It also talks about how Ryan works in the studio, and his insanely fast writing process. Luke Lewis also detailed how he and Ryan would contrive fights to drum up more press.

Luke Lewis, the chairman of the Nashville division of the Universal Music Group, of which Lost Highway is a part, seemed wistful as he pondered the departure of his old nemesis. “He’s like a kid to me,” Mr. Lewis said. “I’ve always loved him. We’ve had a couple of fights, and we’ve actually contrived a few fights, to be honest. It wasn’t lost on either of us that it’s not a bad thing for him to be the petulant child of a record label.”

So will he try to convince Mr. Adams to stay with Lost Highway? “If you love him, set him free,” Mr. Lewis said with a laugh that suggested a former partner who recalled the bad times as well as the good. “Do I want to stop being friendly with him? Never. Is he a valuable asset to a label? Yes, no question. Did we make money? Yes, both of us. I have no sour grapes about it at all.”

Later in the article, the subject of Ryan's label deal is brought up again.

With more than a year’s sobriety under his belt, a new album and an open road ahead of him in terms of how he chooses to release his music, Mr. Adams nonetheless continues to dream of a world better able to accommodate his particular brand of unfiltered creativity. It’s evident that a conventional record contract will never satisfy him. It’s even possible that he could end up epitomizing the recording artist of the future: making music available online at will, performing theater-size shows for a devoted core of fans and leaving it up to his audience to decide which of his songs they care to own.

That would be pretty damn cool if that happened. An artist as amazing as Ryan Adams giving away all his music for free? What a can of worms that would be!

Read the whole article here.

Easy Tiger is out on June 26th. Pre-order it at Amazon.

DOWNLOAD: Ryan Adams - "Wonderwall" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Ryan Adams - "New York, New York" (MP3)