Ten years ago, Roky Erickson’s legacy as one of rock and roll’s most tragic figures had already been written. Once regarded as a spectaculary gifted singer and one of psychedelic music’s founding fathers, Erickson had watched his career fall apart while locked in a maximum security prison for the criminally insane. He had eventually retreated a housing project in South Austin where he kept multiple TVs and radios on at full volume to drown out the voices in his head. No one had heard from him in over a decade. His friends and fans had all given up hope. They assumed he would simply fade away.
Instead, Roky has shocked everyone with a recovery that’s nothing short of miraculous. At the age of 63, he has emerged from debilitating mental illness and self-imposed isolation. He has given up drugs and alcohol, reconnected with his son and first wife, bought his first house and made his first new album in over a decade.
True Love Cast Out All Evil introduces thirteen songs written at various points in Roky’s life but largely abandoned due to the violent twists and turns that life took. In these songs, Roky narrates his own incredible story in his own unique voice. It’s a story of agonizing pain and irretrievable loss, but it’s also a story of the optimism and hope that has allowed him to overcome. And it’s all true. |
