Billboard

Steve Earle’s son, John Henry, was diagnosed with autism when he was 19 months old, while the singer/songwriter was on tour in Australia. He received a phone call with the news from his then-wife, country singer-songwriter Allison Moorer. 

“That was the beginning of me trying to figure out what John Henry needed,” says Earle, “and I got lucky.”

John Henry, now 14, is enrolled in the Keswell School in New York City. The year-round school nurtures and educates students with autism ages 3 to 22, with a teacher-to-student ratio of 1:1 for “pretty intense” therapy, says Earle. John Henry is non-verbal, with a diagnosis of a sensory processing disorder.

For the past decade, Earle has used his acclaimed artistry and career-long friendships to raise funds to help the school with an annual must-see performance.

On Monday (Nov. 4), at Town Hall in New York, the 10th annual John Henry’s Friends Benefit will feature Earle with Jackson Browne, along with singer-songwriter Margaret Glaspy and the husband-and wife duo of Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams. 

The show is a rare opportunity to see Browne in a small venue. “Jackson and I have been showing up for each other’s causes for a long time,” says Earle. Glaspy is a New York-based singer/songwriter whose latest album Echo the Diamond was released last year. Earle has been friends for decades with Williams and Campbell, the latter the Grammy-winning producer/singer/guitarist known for his tours with Bob Dylan and as the musical director of Midnight Rambles with the late Levon Helm of The Band.

Presented by Earle and City Winery, the benefit will feature a guitar pull format, “all four artists on stage at the same time, just kind of swapping songs and telling stories,” he says. “It’s a unique experience for the audience.” Earle will draw from his repertoire of classics like “Guitar Town” and “Copperhead Road,” which he recently re-recorded live for his new solo acoustic concert album Alone Again (Live).

The community spirit of the benefit show reflects what Earle has learned about parenting an autistic child, beginning immediately after that very first phone call, he recounted recently. 

In Australia, in early 2012, he was playing festivals with Crosby, Stills and Nash. “I’d never really met Stephen [Stills] before that week,” says Earle. But he knew Stills and his wife Kristen have a now-grown autistic son, Henry. (Henry Stills was featured in the 2007 HBO documentary Autism: The Musical, for which his mother was an executive producer.) “I just made a beeline for Stephen and he put me on the phone with Kristen,” recalls Earle.

Connection with others facing the challenge of autism is crucial, he says. Earle, who has overcome addiction to heroin and cocaine, recalls: “There was a guy in my twelve-step group that had a kid, who was a young teenager by that time, who had autism, and [that father] was the one that showed me the ropes in New York City.”

(Although Earle recovered from his addiction, his first-born son Justin Townes Earle, 38, died in August 2020 of an accidental overdose. “I’ve had two of the worst bits of news a parent can receive,” says Earle. “One is your child has autism and the other, my son [was found] deceased on the floor of his apartment.” Earle subsequently released J.T., an album of his son’s songs on Jan. 4, 2021, which would have been Justin’s 39th birthday.)

“Everything that can happen has happened to me,” says Earle, who nevertheless responded to John Henry’s diagnosis with his instincts as an activist. “I have skin in this game,” he says. “I have something I could offer that might be able to raise some funds.”

Earle has become an advocate for those with autism, dismissing misinformation and offering guidance where he can. “It is an epidemic and, yeah, we don’t know what causes it,” he says. “Whatever else you think about vaccinations, it doesn’t cause autism.”

Earle notes that federal disability laws state that “if your public school system can’t provide what your child needs — and that’s any special needs child — then the school system has to fund that education” in a private school setting. “But you have to lawyer up,” says Earle. “You have to litigate to get those funds, even though there’s a federal law, because it’s an unfunded law. There’s a lot of those on our books.”

Earle also sought legal advice to set up what’s known as a special needs trust to provide for John Henry’s future. “It’s something you definitely need to do,” says Earle, while acknowledging that John Henry also will benefit from a strong extended family. The singer’s son, Ian, will care for John Henry when his parents are gone.

“That was decided early on,” says Earle. “I didn’t force that on him or anything. And I think my grandkids will step into the breach,” he adds. “They’ve just been raised that way. We’re that kind of family.”

Federal government support for autism crosses party lines. A renewal of the Autism CARES Act, which will provide $2 billion over the next five years for autism research and healthcare training benefiting individuals with autism, passed both the House and the Senate in September. And yet, “the truth is, any kind of services provided by the government are in danger in an election like this,” says Earle.

Perhaps surprisingly, this self-described “hard-core lefty” does not criticize those who have previously supported Donald Trump. “There’s some people whose lives just didn’t get any better in the administration before and they voted for something different. That’s heartbreaking, but it is the way that it is.”

But on this Election Day, he says, “we have a candidate on one side that really isn’t concerned about anything but lowering his taxes and [the taxes for] people like him and keeping himself out of jail.” On Monday, Earle will be focused on helping the school that has done so much for his son. 

“John Henry’s improved a lot,” says Earle. “He’s still non-verbal. He navigates an iPad fairly well.” He also enjoys a wide range of music, Early explains, helping his father develop an appreciation for classical compositions and opera.

“He understands way more than we ever know,” says Earle. But he also will not respond, due to his autism — or perhaps due to him simply being a teenager.

“I’m his father, and there are other times when he understands exactly what I’m saying, and he ignores me,” Earle says with affection. “So that’s not autism. That’s just like any other 14-year-old.”