Everclear’s Art Alexakis goes deep with us ahead of Ameristar Casino show this Friday

Everclear. // Photo by Brian Cox

The ’90s alt-rock icons Everclear have gone from a band whose first album, World of Noise, was actually just a demo recording to being rock radio stalwarts whose string of singles still find their way into regular rotation 25 years on.

In anticipation of Everclear coming to Kansas City at Ameristar Casino’s Star Pavilion on Friday, July 26, The Pitch spoke with singer-songwriter Art Alexakis to discuss some hard topics, future plans, and celebrating life in the moment.

The Pitch: Some of the songs that you’ve written you’ve expressed your genuine pain and trauma, and that’s all extremely heavy. I grew up in turmoil. Trailer parks, drugs were around—You name it, we had it. Your songs were like theme songs to people like me. “I Will Buy You a New Life” basically became my theme song and I actually did, in fact, do that. I’m 34, for context, I grew up with you. So my first question is: How did you get the gusto or the ambition to even talk about that? Because there’s almost no way that I could really talk about that with the whole world.

Art Alexakis: Let me ask you a question. Are you what we call an ACA in the program?

Maybe?

Yes, you are. You’re an adult child of addiction. Were your parents alcoholics in the program?

Oh yeah, yeah, but they weren’t in any program at all.

No, no, but in the program, we call it an ACA. You’re an adult child of an alcoholic. Did you ever go through or experience Al Anon?

I have not personally, but I do know people that have.

Okay. I’m telling you sister, I know people who have gone through it. Can’t really talk about it because it’s anonymity, but it’s such a blessing because it uses a lot of principles from the 12 steps, but it it also just helps people who’ve been through this experience and grow up like you did and like I did in the housing project very similarly—poor as hell, doing without, my brother died of an overdose, all that stuff. So I just wanted to tell you that’s something that if you ever feel like you need help dealing with that, those kinds of issues, that’s a really good place to go. A lot of people who will be very loving and very accepting.

That’s beautiful.

Which is always a good thing and you can do it now on Zoom. Anyways, the reason I write about that stuff is I like people who write songs that are storytellers. That’s why one of my songs is from the first person. Even if they’re not autobiographical, I’d say about a third of my songs are autobiographical, another third comes from different things in my life, and then I mentioned what things I’ve heard about, read about, or just add some creative license and create like an amalgam of characters.

But then, the other third, I just make up songs and a lot of those are some of my more poignant songs. But the point is, I wouldn’t be able to make up songs like that with stories, dramas, characters, and all that stuff, if I hadn’t experienced it. That’s for me. I’m sure there are people who can, not me. So, it all comes through. Even though it might be technically fiction, sometimes I think those songs and those stories are more real than even straight-up autobiographies.

I like to write about things that matter and the things that I know about. I’ve always believed writers should write what they know about. That doesn’t mean that that’s all you can write about. I like science fiction but I connect with these stories. A lot of the really good ones, not because of the technical aspects of it, but because of the human aspects of it. Because, regardless of where it’s at, there’s human issues. That, to me, has always been really interesting.

One thing for note is that even though I might write about heavy type stuff, it’s always light at the end of the tunnel because I’ve seen that in my own life. Look, things are going to get better. They’re going to get good. It’s just a rollercoaster, man.

With that rollercoaster, looking back on all of it, do you actually have any regrets? Not necessarily with specifically the band, but was there anything that you would have done differently?

Yeah, but not necessarily with my sobriety. Do I wish I’d never done acid? Yeah. I did a lot of acid and it screwed with me. But with drugs, I put my mother and my people that I love through the ringer.

It’s funny, a friend of mine in the program, we were talking last night after a meeting and just talking about how he went with a friend of his to a bar and he’s got like 20, 22 years sober, and he’s like me—He’s an ex-drug addict, full-on drug dealer, violence, the whole nine yards. We come from a very similar background. Sounds like you kind of come from that world as well. I embraced it, and so did he.

We’re talking and he’s like, ‘Yeah, man, a Cuba Libre would taste really good,’ and I go, ‘Yeah, it would. But if I got a drink right now and you’ve got a drink, we’d be looking for dope in Maryland, and we’d find it. I don’t know where to find it. I’d figure it out. And then, you know what wouldn’t taste good? The looks on my family’s face when I drop off to the side of the world and I’m not the man that they need me to be. And my friends, my family, my fans, and just my network of people all over the world would be heartbroken, I’d be breaking hearts left and right and that’s not a choice.’

Then, when you think about it, that Cuba Libre or that drink that sounds kind of good, doesn’t sound so good. Yeah, because as the whole point is, you do work in any kind of program, it’s not going to necessarily take the fact that you want to drink or use away. It’s your sobriety and you’re working and you’re being present and your willingness and your openness helps you to realize what the reality of what that will look like. You know what that’s gonna look like. You know where it’s gonna lead. It’s not just gonna be a buzz, it’s gonna take you to a hole.

That’s insightful. I love that. Backing up, you mentioned how it kind of affected you in the band. Like your fans, how it would affect them specifically. I actually read your letter to your fans about your car wreck and how that led to the diagnosis of a form of MS. Even though that was in 2016, how has this affected you moving forward?

You mean the MS?

Yes. That and well, the car wreck in general. I know you had lacerations and pain. I’m sure that did some damage.

No, the car wreck wasn’t a big deal. Not at all. I got like a little twinge in my neck. No one else got hurt, it wasn’t that. The blessing from the car wreck was that, so I got a twinge in my neck. I called my orthopedic surgeon and he’s like, ‘You know what? I’m gonna send you to go get an MRI. I’ll figure where it’s out in your neck. I’ll give you an epidural shot and it’ll loosen up that pinched nerve.’

I go, ‘Cool. I’ve done stuff like this before in my legs and stuff like that.’ So, I went and got the MRI and I went to his office. I go into his little examination room, which you’ve seen these things, they are basically a table on a chair, barely room for two, three people. I walk in there and there’s like five people, grown men, sitting in there with like, their clipboards and white jackets.

I walk in and they all start talking and look at me kind of really serious and I’m like, ‘Oh shit. I don’t know what this is, but this isn’t good. I don’t know what this is.’ It proceeded on, two of those guys were neurologists and my doctor told me that the person doing the MRI had seen the lesions on my spine that looked like MS. And these people had looked at it and looked at my blood work and stuff, and they were pretty convinced that I had MS and I needed to go get a second and third opinion.

It changed my life right then and there. They put me on medication that kept a lot of the symptoms from getting worse, so I didn’t really feel I had been having balance issues and fatigue issues a little bit, but not bad. Then, I got COVID in January ‘21 when all that stuff went down and I was in the hospital for almost a month, about three and a half weeks, and then I went home and I was in bed with pneumonia for another month and it progressed my MS.

Having that disease, how hard it was on my system, gave me new lesions, and so since then, I’ve had a harder time with it. I find it’s getting worse, but I work out, I just came back from physical therapy today. I’ve already swam once, I’ll swim again later, my exercise bike. I just constantly have to be on guard. I have to make sure I don’t eat inflammatory things. I got to get as much sleep as I can get. I can drink gallons of water a day. And there’s just different things I gotta do. But I’m also grateful for the adversity because it makes me work harder and try harder.

I thought, We’re doing more shows than we have in decades. We got played on the radio on our own last single that came out on the live record. It took the first time in decades. We’re making more money than we’ve made in years and years and years. It was a real desire for Everclear. There’s a big push for ’90s bands right now, I’m really grateful for it. So we’re working and traveling all the time. It’s hard on me. It’s hard on everybody.

Yes. I’m glad you’re taking care of yourself though.

But I have to or I couldn’t take care of my family. I couldn’t take care of my band. I couldn’t do what I need to do. I need, not just my survival, I need my health. And unfortunately, they tell you that to take care of your health when you’re younger or you’re gonna wish you had. Well, they were right. They were right.

Do you draw inspiration from anybody like Peter Frampton, who tours while being sick?

Uh, no. I respect Peter. I was never a Peter Frampton fan, but I was always respectful of his talent when he was in Humble Pie, 17 years old, and just a blazing guitar player. But, the ‘70s, that was more of the hard rockers like Sabbath, Aerosmith. I was into Peter Frampton for sure, and then punk rock happened. Then I was head over heels about that. But I do, I have heard a lot of this story and I’m amazed by it. I thought he stopped touring?

He actually was just here, he was on tour. He went on tour to promote voting to get him into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and then he got it, and he’s going back on tour to promote a thank you for it.

It’s really hard with any autoimmune disease, but Parkinson’s, especially. MS is a chronic disease, so it won’t kill me. But it can be pretty horribly painful and I could end up in a bed and not being able to move, or more likely a wheelchair. I’m a few years away from the King, I’m pushing it back as far as possible, but it’s fun. And that is what it is, that’s cool, but Parkinson’s will kill you. And ALS. What can you predict?

He doesn’t have Parkinson’s, but it is an autoimmune. It’s IBM—Inclusion Body Myostasis.

I’m inspired by anyone who does it. It really comes down to people who inspire me. It’s like Selma Blair and Christina Applegate. I know Selma has a better attitude about it. Poor Christina just came on and was so strong. I don’t know her, but when she said things in the past like, ‘I don’t enjoy life at all,’ it just breaks my heart and I’m grateful that for whatever reason. It’s harder on me than it was before.

But, I’m not there. I still love life, I love life more. I’m a large agent because of my autoimmune disease and my sobriety, and my addictive personality, all that stuff. Even bad stuff can be an agent that you can use to make good things happen.

Absolutely. I know that you did solo touring for a while, but with Everclear being so successful right now and being right back at the height of the game, do you have any new albums coming out?

No. We do about a song or two a year and I don’t write all my songs about what I’m going through. If they’re appropriate, I do. My one solo record I put out in 2019, the album’s called Sun Songs. There’s a song on there called “Hot Water Test,” which is about my MS. But that’s about it so far. No, I have no plans to make another record at this point. I write new songs, a few new songs a year, and it’s fun. We put it out for fans, but to do not want to write another album, spend a year of my life to do that. Nah, life’s too short.

Everclear plays the Star Pavilion at Ameristar Casino on Friday, July 26. Details on that show here.