Beth Hart: The Unstoppable Voice of Blues Rock Revisited!

Turn on the Music Podcast

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

1. Try A Little Hard
2. Woman Down
3. Caught Out in the Rain
4. Fire on the Floor
5. Skin
6. Sister Heroine
7. LA Song
8. Isolation
9. Spiders in My Bed
10. I’d Rather Go Blind
11. Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
12. Beth Hart on Beverly Hills 90210

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