Discussed in this episode:
Thanks to @Ben-Schulman on YouTube for the information!
BETH’S BACK STORY: All of Beth’s songs are personal and delve deeply into themes of addiction; drugs & alcohol; abusive relationships; death & suicide; love; Scott (her husband of 23 years); her siblings & parents; living with mental illness; survival; playing music; and striving for happiness… She is a humble but wickedly talented artist who is raw, transparent, and completely honest with her audience.
Some of the many personal and professional challenges she has endured and overcome:
• Parents divorce when Beth is about 5 years old.
• In psychological therapy starting at age 7.
• Experiences a violent home invasion and robbery.
• Father gambles the house away; abandons family; imprisoned for tax evasion. (The song “Try a Little Hard” off her latest album is about her dad and gambling).
• Beth is an alcoholic by age 11.
• At 12 years old, she’s in a “relationship” with a 40 year-old man (The song “Woman Down,” off her latest album, is about this).
• At 15 she takes off for Brooklyn, NY to live with a violent 25 year-old man.
• Arrested & briefly jailed for DUI.
• At 16, back in LA, she’s asked to leave a prestigious music school because of poor attendance (caused by her staying out all night long to sing in South LA clubs).
• In a string of abusive personal relationships. (She’s written many songs about this theme, but “Caught Out in the Rain” and “Fire on the Floor” are two superb examples).
• When Beth is 22, an older sister Sharon dies of AIDS at age 32. (The songs “Skin” and “Sister Heroine” are about her sister Sharon).
• Officially diagnosed with Bi-polar I mental disorder around age 27.
• As musical career begins to explode in 1999 with the hit single “LA Song,” Beth weighs just 92 lbs. and nearly dies due to drugs, alcohol, and anorexia.
• Atlantic Records drops her from the label by 2000.
• Long-term drug & alcohol addiction and series of stays in rehab and psyche wards. (Her song “Isolation” is about being in a psyche ward; “Spiders in My Bed” is about living with bipolar mania). By late 2000/early 2001, Beth is completely out of the music business.
(1) 2023: The most recent documentary is “Bad Woman Blues” (60 min; a German production) from fall 2023: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9Fjr2HTGdY
(2) 2005: “Beth Hart Documentary” (from the 2005 ‘Live at Paradiso’ DVD; 32 min. plus 8 min. song): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFHisbCrqdg. This early documentary is from the time of Beth’s re-emergence and comeback into the music scene in Europe with the 2003 “Leave the Light On” album and legendary Paradiso concert in May 2004.
(3) 2018: “The Beth Hart Story: From Los Angeles to Amsterdam” (32 min): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGkubyOS7jw. This documentary aired on Dutch TV in 2018, following Beth’s big-time, sold-out, appearances at the Royal Albert Hall in London (5,300) and the Ziggo Dome (17,000) in Amsterdam earlier in the year.
(4) 2020: “Beth Hart’s Soulful Tale of Survival and Redemption”(22 min): https://spectrumnews1.com/ca/la-west/la-stories/2020/02/17/beth-hart-s-story-of-survival-and-redemption# . This is a terrific “career retrospective” type piece that aired on LA TV host Giselle Fernandez’s “LA Stories” in 2020.
(5) 2022: PBS’s “Soundcheck: Beth Hart” (27 min.): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSfBq3bGEHw. This is a short interview/documentary based on a recent NJ concert from summer 2022.
Songs
- Try A Little Hard
- Woman Down
- Caught Out in the Rain
- Fire on the Floor
- Skin
- Sister Heroine
- LA Song
- Isolation
- Spiders in My Bed
- I’d Rather Go Blind
- Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
- Beth Hart on Beverly Hills 90210
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