Robert Earl Keenknew the question was coming, so he answered it without a prompt.
He assured friends and fellow musicians backstage that there would be no comeback.
Two years later, the 68-year-old Keen has, for all practical purposes, made a comeback.
Robert Earl Keen shrugged off retirement and has returned to the road in support of his latest project, ‘Western Chill.‘Getty Images
In a blazer and cowboy hat, Keen was spotlight-ready.
The physical pain he showed at his final shows in 2022 was no longer there on his sleeve.
On this day in Nashville, Robert Earl Keen was happy.
To Keen, taking a break wasnt an option.
He was determined to play until he could no longer.
And, I have to say, today, that was a mistake.
It awakened something inside of him.
It went over so well that it was intoxicating for me.
It was just the reminder that, Oh, this is how we perform.
Part of performing always includes being creative.
Its not just writing a setlist and singing.
Credit Cormac McCarthy
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I went into a recovery place between October and March last year, he recalls.
It was a great place.
I got to do all kinds of counseling with people.
One of the things they taught us was about making lists of gratitudes.
Id get up every morning and start a list, and it turned into poems.
The concept was to do a band-inclusive record, together, Keen says.
We all became part of this one thing, and that becameWestern Chill.
Keen had written the title track before the record took shape.
Everything that they brought were things that were just amazing, Keen says.
Not only that, but they expanded the whole notion ofWestern Chill.
They wrote heartbreaking narratives.
It would be that serious retirement, sitting in a rocking chair and concentrating on the universe.
But the fact is there was something missing.
