Some psychics say that there are two types of Capricorns: Ones that are like mountain goats, always climbing until they reach the top; the other type is a garden goat with little adventurous spirit or ambition, happy to remain within a small domain until they are pushed. Capricorns supposedly emit a very powerful, resilient energy, too.

While Justin Townes Earle doesn’t seem like the kind of gentleman that would let an astrological categorization define him, he does exude a few of those said characteristics. Even over the phone, Earle’s energy is palpable. His speaking voice is deep and carries a lot of emotion within its timbre. You rarely need to ask follow up question because Earle has a unique ability to get his point across without saying much.

“I am who I am,” he told me after asking him whether he makes a conscious effort to change others’ perception of him, “I’ve got a rough reputation, but I’m not a rough person.” Earle, 28, got some slack for an altercation he allegedly got into at an Indianapolis night club, but he certainly doesn’t come off as a mean person, just someone who tells it like it is each and every time.

He recently finished a stay in rehab where he received treatment for drug and alcohol addiction, but where others may pretend everything is hunky-dory when they get out, Earle is realistic about the realities of his future. He confronts his habits with honesty and says that he tries to live day-to-today instead of making plans. “There are too many chaos factors,” he said when I asked how he wants the next 30 years of life to play out, “I think (planning your future) is a fool’s game.”

What’s not a game is the way he has slowly made a name for himself. He’s released four solid albums since 2007, and his latest – Harlem River Blues – finds Earle (who recently relocated from Nashville to Manhattan) expounding on his countrified blues sound by offering listeners a bit more Memphis soul and gospel to whet their sonic pallets. He brings his talents to Ybor City’s Crowbar on December 9, and he’ll be in good company. Nashville’s Caitlin Rose and Joshua Hedley open and tickets for the show are available at Aestheticized.com for $12 ($15 day of show). Doors are at 9 p.m for the 18+ show.

REAX caught up with Justin just a few dates into his tour and talked about why he left Tennessee, whether he would ever completely change his style, the realities of addiction, and whether or not he was a closet Justin Bieber fan. The full text of our chat is available below.

REAX: Hey Justin how are you?
Justin Townes Earle: I’m good how are you?

REAX: I’m doing well, thank you sir. You just started a tour that goes through March. Are you a little worried about the length or do you relish being on the road for that long?
JTE: I’ve been doing this for 14 years. It doesn’t scare me.

REAX: Doesn’t scare you at all.
JTE: Nope.

REAX: I want to talk about Townes Van Zandt and your father (Steve Earle). You’ve been asked about living up to their names, but you said that while their names may have been intimidating, they weren’t intimidating in real life at all.

Sometimes people attach a rough image to your own name, but you come off as a very gentle, respectful person in most interviews. Do you ever feel yourself trying to change peoples’ perceptions of who you are?
JTE: Um, No. I don’t. I am who I am. I’ve got kind of a rough reputation because of the things that I’ve done, but I’m not a rough person – I’m a person who can be made rough. I’m not an angry person, but I’m a person who can be made angry, and made very angry – fairly easily too.

REAX: Fair enough.
JTE: I’m also a person that doesn’t hold back when I’m mad. If I’m mad, and I’ve got something to say, then I’ll say it.

REAX: It’s almost better that way since it doesn’t simmer inside of you forever.
JTE: Yeah, I’ve got enough shit simmering inside of me.

REAX: You mentioned how can be made into a rough person, but I think that may have something to do with the life you’ve lived. It almost seems like you had already lived about ten lives by the time you were 21-years-old.

Your rehab stint after the incident in Indianapolis and this tour almost seems like a kind of rebirth considering all of the well wishes you’ve received. Do you ever look into the future? How do you see the next, say, 30 years of your life playing out?
JTE: No, I’m not. I mean, I think that, you know, I discovered early that making plans is a setup for disappointment. I don’t have any plans for the future; I try not to worry about it. I live every day day-to-day, and just try to let things go. I think it’s a fool’s game.

REAX: It’s a fool’s game to look into the future…
JTE: Yeah, I mean there are too many chaos factors. Number one, I’m a drug addict, I’m an alcoholic. I mean, I’m clean at the moment, but it doesn’t mean that I’m gonna be tomorrow.

REAX: I kind of like how you’ve been realistic and haven’t set that expectation for everyone else. You’re like “Well this is my life, and this is who I am. I know I have my habits, but I’m going to do the best that I can and I hope that you guys still pay attention to me.
JTE: Yeah, I think that’s the best way to be. I’ve always been very honest with people about what I am and what I do. I don’t see any sense in keeping it hidden. I mean, I’m a public figure – I’ve been one since I was a kid due to my father, so I think that makes it where no matter what I do, people are gonna find out.

REAX: So you don’t look into the future, but do you ever try to move away from your past? You relocated to Manhattan, and you recently spoke about the advantages and disadvantages of living away from Music Row (in Nashville), but now that Harlem River Blues is done and recorded and you’ve started this tour, do you think that you’ll stay up north?
JTE: I’m definitely staying in New York. I mean, I’m one of those people that believe that it’s the greatest place on the face of the Earth and I enjoy every day in New York. I find it very inspiring. It’s kind of like an endless city – it never stops. (Car or truck honks twice in the background)

REAX: That was awesome. Do you foresee your music taking a different sonic route now that you’re in New York and your surroundings are a bit more varied and have had a different opportunity to take things in a different way?
JTE: Um, I think that it’ll definitely affect my subject matter, for sure. It affected the subject matter on this record for sure, and I think that’s why I’m there. I think that in order to grow artistically we can’t be…you know, I think a lot of people slip into the textbook definition of insanity, which is repeating the same actions over and over again expecting different results.

I mean, I am crazy as fuck, but I’m not crazy when it comes to my heart. I know what it needs, and I know how to feed it. One thing that it needs is it needs change, it needs growth, it needs good books, it needs movies, it needs different cultures. I mean I just try and feed it as much as I can.

REAX: A lot of people talk about “good in/good out” when it come to songwriting. Are you the same way? Do you just try to take it all in and shoot it out the other way?
JTE: Yup.

REAX: Are you a “sit down and write,” or do you just go spur of the moment? What’s your method?
JTE: I’m a spur of the moment; I’m a cocktail napkin writer in every sense of the term. I rarely ever sit down to write just because I find it boring and forceful, and I don’t think that anything good is forced. I consider sitting down to write a song, it’s like artistic rape.

REAX: You were talking about movies and books and how they relate to the sound of your music. You’ve said that you’re a southern music preservationist, and you’re music is obviously very southern; although, on this record you can hear more of the blues in it and a lot of Memphis and gospel influence. I was wondering if you’ve ever written in a completely different style. If there was a Justin Townes Earle thrash demo floating around somewhere.
JTE: No. You know, there’s a few demos of a rock band project (The Distributors) that I was working on a few years ago that I kind of put off to the side, but I may venture into a little more electric of a sound of some point, I’m not sure. I kind of like what I do. The versatility of the acoustic guitar is endless – you can do anything you want with it.

REAX: Did you get sick of doing The Distributors thing?
JTE: Yeah, exactly.

REAX: Is part of that wanting to be able to call the shots in terms of practice time and songwriting? Do you simply prefer doing the solo thing and letting your mind just flow without worrying about respecting someone else’s opinion or hurting someone’s feelings?
JTE: Yeah, I guarantee that there’s nobody on Earth that wants to work with me as far as being an equal to me because I’m gonna run you over. I learned early on. I was in a couple of bands, and I don’t work well in a democracy as far as artistically. My organization is a dictatorship, and I am the supreme dictator.

REAX: A lot of people beat around the bush and pretend that they can be in a band when they know that they can’t operate in that context, so that’s pretty cool that you’ve realized that you feel that way.
JTE: Yeah, I couldn’t do it in a million years.

REAX: You mentioned M. Ward influencing the record. Are there any other contemporary artists that we might be surprised to find that you listen to? You’re not a secret fan of Justin Bieber are you?
JTE: No, not at all. I mean, I’m not offended by the little guy, but I’m not a Justin Bieber fan. (Laughs) I think Jenny Lewis has got a lot of great things going for her, I think she’s a very honest songwriter – somebody I admire. I admire John Prine a lot; he’s a brilliant songwriter. There’s some stuff out there that I like – not a lot.

REAX: I was thinking about you leaving Nashville, and I was wondering if that anything to do with the big country music machine that they have over there. Granted, there are small pockets or more authentic, roots country, but is that part of the reason you left? To get away from that machine?
JTE: No, I actually left to get away from a lot of things, I think. Nashville – the city I grew up in – is long gone. It’s been covered up, you know, a bunch of fucking ugly buildings have gone up, certain parts of town are gonna be trash. And I got tired of fucking 22-year-old kids from Cleveland telling me why Nashville is cool.

I also got tired of talking about everybody’s fucking record. You go out in Nashville and everybody’s talking about their new EP, the new guitar they got, how the label fucked them over…

REAX: So just a bunch of bitter ass people up there?
JTE: There’s a lot of it, but it’s because that’s the kind of town it is. When you create a town around one industry…it’s like New York is full of a bunch of broke, dick ad dudes. There’s a shitload of out of work ad guys and a shitload of out of work Broadway actors, but the best part about the way New York works is that nobody wants to hear about your fucking problems, and I love that.

REAX: Cool, I see I’m getting low on time, so I wanted to rattle a few questions off. You’ve got a sold out show in Mobile, Ala. where tickets were going for $45. I know there’s a nice buzz regarding your appearance here in Tampa. You’ve probably been doing press nonstop, so how does it feel to know that there’s a kind of movement behind you? It feels like your fanbase is growing.
JTE: I have a pretty decent size fanbase, it’s growing every day, and I’m very pleased with it. It shows that we’ve been working hard, and that everything is going in the right direction, and ‘m proud of that. It also lets me know that I’m accomplishing what my original intent was with writing my songs, which was writing songs that people can relate to.

REAX: Is there anything you’re looking forward to doing in Florida?
JTE: I’m looking forward to not being cold.

REAX: Nice, last question. I wanted to know what the tattoos on your hands meant. The hammer and the bluebird.
JTE: The hammers are because a songwriter named Guy Clark told me that I’ve got a thumb like a hammer, the way I play guitar. The bird on my hand is to remind me that no matter what situation I’m in I’m free to get the fuck out of it.

REAX: Awesome, thanks for taking the time to talk to me.
JTE: Cool man. Thank you so much.