Seasick Steve’s moniker is an entirely apt one – he literally quivers at the thought of setting foot on a vessel.
So it’s perhaps surprising that the Mississippi-born bluesman will be hopping onto a ferry as he heads to County Clare next month to play at the Cois Fharraige with Sony Ericsson festival, alongside the likes of Travis, Supergrass and The Zutons.
Says Steve: “I love coming to Ireland. I’m really looking forward to the gig, but as you can imagine, I’m not looking forward to the journey itself! When we play in Ireland, I’m going to take my big old bus over, so I’ve got to ride on the ferry when I go from Fishguard. I’ll be OK If I take some seasick pills.”
Formerly a freight-train hopping hobo, Steve nowadays divides his time between a rented home in Northwick and a small apartment in Norway with his Scandinavian wife. Prior to this, the rambling bluesman had lived in 56 other homes, including one that happened to be beside Kurt Cobain (more of which later).
The elderly musician (nobody seems to know his actual age) came to prominence after playing the Later With...Jools Holland Annual Hootenany special in 2006.
“I was just getting over having a heart attack and I really didn’t have nothing going, you know? I was very happy just to be alive. Yeah, it was life changing – it was real life changing. It was horrible. But then I did the Hootenanny two years in a row and it kind of made things go good for me. If I didn’t do that, I don’t know what would have happened.”
After settling in Scandinavia, Seasick Steve recorded his first album Cheap, with The Level Devils as his rhythm section. Soon afterwards, he made his second album Doghouse Blues in his house.
“I recorded in my kitchen on a four-track. I don’t really like making records, I like having them done. I was a little depressed when I made that record because of the heart attack. So, when I was recording, I wasn’t even consciously making a record. When you just write for yourself, you’d write a song and then forget about it the next day. Now I try to record it or at least write down the lyrics because maybe I can use it, you know? Before, I let so much (potential material) go through my fingers. But when you got an audience it’s nice because you have somebody to write for.”
Why did he wait until his twilight years before deciding to record his music?
“I really didn’t think anybody was interested in what I had to say or do,” he says in his affable Southern drawl. “Over the years, when people asked me what type of music I played, I’d say, ‘Country music or country blues or whatever you want to call it.’ People would just yawn. I could clear a room out! So, after a while, I didn’t think that it was an issue anymore.
“I’d played on some people’s records and stuff but, you know, I could never really get something going. Every time I would get something together it would fall apart – I’d be playing in somebody’s band and I’d get kicked out and then I’d have to get a job. Most of my life, I had just normal jobs.”
He first suspected he could have a career in music when he played some shows with the songwriter RL Burnside.
“I thought, ‘Oh, maybe I could play again?’ So when we moved to Norway, I went, ‘Shit, I could make a record’.”
And now that he’s enjoying success, he isn’t counting his chickens.
“I don’t hold my breath that it’s going to last! I’m just happy to go out and play while I can and earn money. I try to make the best records I can. But, you know, I don’t have no faith in longevity (laughs). It’s all very strange. I’m very happy that young people are rocking it and loving it when I play at all these festivals. It’s quite an honour.”
Speaking of young people, Seasick Steve’s newfound fame has even brought him groupies. The thought of young girls flirting with him makes Steve roar with laughter.
“Oh, yeah. Girls bother me a lot. It’s really funny to me. They chase me and want to hug me and grab me. It’s very strange because I know that if they didn’t know me on the stage, if I was walking down the street, they couldn’t get far enough away (laughs)! The music is a miracle. My wife is just happy that I have a job, I can tell you that. She laughs at it – she thinks it’s funny. She’s also holding her breath, hoping that it doesn’t go away too quick!”
Seasick Steve has been moving around his entire life. He left home before his 14th birthday to escape his violent stepfather.
“It was pretty depressing. I didn’t have much of a childhood. I didn’t get past the eighth grade. It was a drag, you know? I lived rough for a long time. I have always written about that time but, in the past, nobody was interested in my music.
“The one thing I can always fall back on is self-sufficiency. I know how to take care of myself and I’m not afraid if my success goes away.”
Prior to stumbling across fame and fortune, Seasick Steve spent parts of the ’90s working as a recording engineer and producer in Washington State – a stint that coincided with the grunge explosion.
“I mostly lived down in Olympia, where Kurt lived too. He was a regular guy in that town and then he obviously got famous. He was a nice fella. All my experiences of him were just of a quiet, nice guy. Nobody knows why people kill themselves, but for some reason I wasn’t surprised. The last time I saw Kurt he had a baby and this woman hanging on him, and he just looked like completely confused. My impression was that he didn’t want any of that.”
Having had such a tough life, did Seasick Steve ever think about taking his own life?
“No,” he says, shaking his head. “It just ain’t in my nature, you know? I have always been an optimist. I always think things are going to get better. If I didn’t think that I would have had to kill myself – I would just have died.”
Seasick Steve has now signed to Warner Bros and his third album, I Started Out With Nothin’ And I Still Got Most of It Left, is released next month. He says the record is “different but the same” to his previous offerings.
“The title refers to how I started out with nothing and how that feeling is still there – it don’t matter what you take away from me because I’ve still got what I came here with.”