Jimmy McDonough’s vivid new biography on haywire honky-tonker Gary Stewart begins with the musician throwing a lethally sharp object near his head.
“Thwap” was the sound the steak knife made when it hit the paneling of Stewart’s double-wide on a hot Florida day in the late 1980s.
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McDonough was a novice writer at the time, profiling the wayward country singer-songwriter for Village Voice in hopes of dragging the musician back into the spotlight.
The article was published in 1988. Since then, McDonough has written biographies on film world oddities Andy Milligan, Russ Meyer, the Ormond family and Georgette Dante, and musicians Al Green, Tammy Wynette and, most famously, Neil Young.
With Gary Stewart: I Am From the Honky-Tonks, McDonough turns his attention back to the self-sabotaging musician whose most well-known song was 1975’s She’s Actin’ Single (I’m Drinkin’ Doubles). Stewart died by suicide in 2003, at age 59.
About the word “thwap,” McDonough says he and his editing associate Charlie Beasley argued long and hard about the spelling of the sound before they came to an agreement. Speaking on a video call from his home in Portland, Ore., McDonough says thwap is “absolutely on the money.”
Thank goodness his aim is better than Stewart’s knife-throwing ability.
Your objective with the Village Voice profile on Stewart in 1988 was to help kickstart his career. What were your motivations with this biography?
I still feel he is not as well-known as he should have been. So, I did want to expose the world further to his art. What most people know of him represents a mere smidgen of what his talent was. It was a great motivating factor to want to set the record straight in terms of his contributions to the world of music. There was also personal motivation. I’ve written about a lot of artists of all different kinds, and he moved me the most. In a way, he kind of started my career and I just felt a sense of obligation to tell the story.
Stewart was chaotic and troubled. As a fan, was there ever a “never meet your hero” moment?
Not for me. But then, I have a wide tolerance for eccentric behavior, being more than a little nuts myself. I wrote a book about Al Green. I went into writing it thinking one thing and finding out a whole lot of another, and it really was a struggle to finish it.
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Was Stewart a likable guy?
If you knew Gary, you gave him a wide berth. But even when he was doing things that weren’t so friendly or maybe irritating, there was just something about the guy that won you over. Everybody I spoke with for the book felt the same. He just had a way.
He told you that you couldn’t understand him, and that nobody could understand him. Did you take that as a challenge?
Yes, I suppose I did.
And do you feel you ultimately did understand him?
I don’t know. I do lie awake at night thinking, “Did I do him justice?” I can’t answer that question. I just know I gave it my all. More so than any book, this book bedeviled me. I had health struggles. There were times I never thought it would be done. No one wanted to publish it. But I am thankful to say it exists.
You describe your young self as jaded, hopelessly naive and a red-hot combination of utter certainty and gnawing self-doubt. Where are you now as a writer?
Well, you get older and you hopefully understand a lot more about what makes people tick and what makes yourself tick. Hopefully you gain more empathy for everyone when you go through life. The way I do biographies is particularly intensive, and it’s very exhausting on the people who are in my books. Hopefully I’d learned kindness.
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It’s been suggested this will be the last of your epic biographies. True?
I came in as a writer with Gary Stewart, and maybe I’ll go out with Gary Stewart. I can’t see bettering my kind of book after this. You have to have a certain energy to do this. All my books have been kamikaze missions, and, you know, I’m getting to be an old codger.
This biography has received a lot of attention. Do you think your stature as a biographer had something to do with that?
If that’s the case, I’m thrilled. For many years, it feels like I’ve been out in the coal mines just doing these books and wondering if five people read them. But now all of a sudden it feels like at the end of this particular chapter in my life people kind of caught up with me. And instead of accusing me of biographical crimes, they’re actually enjoying the process.
Not only did you bring attention to Gary Stewart with this book, you’ve upped your own cachet as well.
I have to tell you, it’s a little disappointing. I mean, I thought I was a brat and now I’m a distinguished old man of letters. Honestly, I am just glad people are talking about Gary Stewart.
This interview has been edited and condensed.