'I Take The Long Way Going Everywhere': Travis Meadows On Learning To Be Human Again
Interview with Scott Simon - LISTEN HERE
Let's talk about the title track, "First Cigarette." You sing, "I am a little more content with who I am than who I was." Tell me about the contentment part in your life: What are you feeling now that's different?
Just to give you an example — I hate even going down this road, but for you I will. I would wake up in the morning, and the first thing that I would do is go to the freezer. By this time, I had completely gotten rid of any mixers — just vodka out of the freezer. I was shaking so bad I couldn't actually hit my mouth. I would hold the bottle with both hands trying to steady it, and finally I would get a sip down and I could feel it from the top of head: I'd start getting warmer and I started feeling human again. These days, I don't go to the freezer. I'm eating pretty good, I'm sleeping pretty well. I'm spending a lot of quality time with my son.
Do you think that everything that's happened to you can find its place in a song?
I do. You know, oddly enough, a lot of times I don't know how I feel about something until I write about it — it's part of my processing.
I've always been quite a pessimist, and I've been trying to battle that now that I'm seven years sober. You know, it's the glass half full or the glass half empty, and I was always like, "Who drank my water?" But these days, it's a half-full glass, isn't it? And it's a nice one, I love that glass. Look how it sparkles in the sunshine.
(READ OR LISTEN TO THE FULL INTERVIEW FROM THE NPR WEEKEND EDITION ARCHIVES)