Justin Townes Earle Was in Hospital w/ Pneumonia Prior to Death
The death of singer, songwriter, and second generation performer Justin Townes Earle at the age of 38 came as a shock to many when it was announced on August 23rd via his official social media channels.
“It is with tremendous sadness that we inform you of the passing of our son, husband, father and friend Justin,” the message read. “So many of you have relied on his music and lyrics over the years and we hope that his music will continue to guide you on your journeys. You will be missed dearly Justin.”
Fans concerned of what happened to the Nashville native received a partial answer when the Metro Nashville police spokesperson Don Aaron explained on August 25th that police and fire had responded to Earle’s apartment in the West End Park neighborhood of Nashville after receiving a request for a welfare check from a friend. When police arrived at the residence, they had to force entry into the residence, and found no signs of struggle or foul play in the apartment.
Though the death is currently labeled “unclassified” pending findings from the Medical Examiner’s Office in Nashville, police preliminarily determined Earle’s cause of death to be a “probable drug overdose,” citing the conditions in which they found Earle, though giving no specifics about how they came to that determination.
Autopsy and toxicology reports can regularly take six weeks or longer to conclude due to the process undertaken to determine levels of toxicity in the blood when an individual passed away. At this point, it is unknown what specific day Justin Townes Earle died, though this could be determined through the autopsy process. August 20th was the last day anyone had made contact with Earle.
However Saving Country Music has been able to confirm from numerous sources that in the weeks leading up to Justin Townes Earle’s death, he had been suffering from a severe case of pneumonia, and had been hospitalized due to the illness, and required surgery on his lung. At the time of his death, Earle was still recovering from the condition, and was “very weak.”
Though it won’t be determined conclusively how Justin Townes Earle died until the final report from the Medical Examiners Office is issued—and drugs could still have played a role either partially or fully in his unexpected passing—Earle’s overall health and continued issues stemming from his bout with pneumonia could have also played a factor.
Justin Townes Earle was the son of alt-country pioneer Steve Earle, and was married in October of 2013 to Jenn Marie Maynard. The couple had a daughter in June of 2017 named Etta. A public memorial service is said to be in the works for 2021. More information on Justin Townes Earle’s death if or when it becomes available.
Arlene
September 7, 2020 @ 10:51 am
I’m as curious as the next person about the cause of death of a celebrity, especially one with a substance abuse history, but I think it is unnecessary and ill-advised for law enforcement authorities to release a statement that a celebrity’s cause of death was a “probable drug overdose” before the results of toxicology tests are available.
BC
September 8, 2020 @ 4:49 am
Agree 100% but we also don’t know what they observed at scene. I’d be shocked if authorities released that statement with no evidence… if they did, your right shame on them.
Jake Cutter
September 7, 2020 @ 12:06 pm
Ok this is interesting, because even if it comes back that he died of the pneumonia, drug abuse weakens the immune system. A massive portion of our population wouldn’t be dying of many things, including COVID, if they actually took care of their themselves. Either way, he died alone shooting drugs.
Slim
September 7, 2020 @ 3:45 pm
Yeah those damned old people with their weak immune systems. If only they’d toughen up and just feel better already!
Jake Cutter
September 7, 2020 @ 4:03 pm
Psst….you’re using the wrong stock talking points there Slim, I’m referring to this:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-31/obese-patients-at-high-risk-of-severe-covid-illness-study-finds
Less people would die of pneumonia, the flu, diabetes, heart disease, and COVID, if they took care of themselves. Of course not injecting heroin also helps.
Trigger
September 7, 2020 @ 4:29 pm
Any further comments in any way mentioning or implying anything having to do with COVID-19 will be immediately deleted from this comments section. It is an extremely divisive topic and has absolutely nothing to do with this story. Please show more respect for this website and think before posting.
Jake Cutter
September 7, 2020 @ 5:00 pm
I respect you, this website and your readers enough to share information that suggests taking care of yourselves. Sorry about that. Hope everyone is enjoying the holiday.
sbach66
September 7, 2020 @ 4:03 pm
“…he died alone shooting drugs.”
Please cite verified sources and toxicology report.
Cool Lester Smooth
September 7, 2020 @ 4:07 pm
…or he slipped off alone in his bed, not having “shot drugs“ in a decade, but there were drugs in the apartment and some shitbird leaked to the media that “circumstances indicate” that he’d OD’d.
Trigger
September 7, 2020 @ 4:34 pm
Nobody “leaked” anything to the media. I spoke to Metro Nashville police spokesperson Don Aaron personally and he was the one who told me (and other media outlets) that Justin Townes Earle died of a probable drug overdose. I pressed him on why specifically that conclusion had been come to, and all he said he could tell me was that it was determined by the circumstances Justin Townes Earle was found in. No references to “shooting drugs” were made by the police or anyone else.
Cool Lester Smooth
September 7, 2020 @ 4:43 pm
Yeah – that wasn’t at all an attack on you!
Wasn’t even one on Don Aaron, who only knows what the officers told him…but this definitely makes me want to wait for the Tox Report.
Ultimately, it doesn’t matter which disease took him – he’s gone either way.
But, for whatever reason, I hope he didn’t lose to that fucking monkey on his back.
Trigger
September 7, 2020 @ 5:00 pm
Didn’t take it as an attack Cool Lester, and didn’t mean to come across like I was jumping down your throat. Just wanted to establish a few things since speculation all of a sudden started running rampant in this comments section. We don’t really know anything right now, and with this pneumonia news, we arguably know less for certain. I’d know about this for a while, and had been working to confirm it. I don’t know how Justin Townes Earle died. But the fact that he was in the hospital and required surgery in the weeks before he died unexpectedly seems like it needed to be added to the conversation.
rrmorris
September 7, 2020 @ 7:24 pm
Wow, you must be great at funerals…
“I’m sorry that George died Mrs. Jones, but if he hadn’t been such a drunk for so many years I’m sure he’d still be alive.”
The possibilities are endless!
“
Jake Cutter
September 7, 2020 @ 8:19 pm
I don’t know how many you’ve been to that were substance abuse related, but speaking for myself, I was lost for words and didn’t speak at all. The strongest emotion was wishing there wasn’t a reason to be there in the first place. Especially when I looked into the faces of the family members left behind.
Ryan
September 7, 2020 @ 9:45 pm
Wish you had been similarly lost for words re: JTE’s death, bummer.
Your comment is asinine. If only shouting at someone to “take care of yourself” and shaming actually helped people but it doesn’t.
It’d be better to spend some more time searching for reasons for empathy rather than straining for a list of reasons people “deserved” some horrendous fate.
Jake Cutter
September 7, 2020 @ 10:06 pm
It’s a shame that a plea for people to take care of themselves, and to stay alive, is “asinine.” Sadly, your comment is just a symptom of our sick, ass backwards culture.
But, since you mentioned it, Out of respect, I was pretty quiet on the last 3-4 articles on him. You can go back and check, if you’re so inclined.
Ryan
September 8, 2020 @ 12:28 pm
I’m not sure why’ you’d think proportion of global population would be the appropriate unit for analysis unless you were highly confused or deliberately misleading. We’re talking about systems of justice and treatment as the locus of analysis: China has one system, Denmark has another, Yemen has one. When you look at comparative studies of criminal justice and treatment systems in the international context, we’re punitive. It’s a fact that I wish wasn’t, but a fact I cannot deny. And we’re particularly Intensely punitive when you’re looking at developed countries that are also democracies.
You can make the case that you wish we were more like China, but then just make that case. The fact that they have a ton of people living there doesn’t change the fact that they have a single system that you can compare to others. It just means they have a big population and it’s tragic for those people who have to suffer under their singular way of doing things that’s governed by their autocracy. You get the distinction, right?
Jake Cutter
September 8, 2020 @ 12:47 pm
I’m amused that you can’t figure out how to post comments correctly. Look what you replied to. It’s now the second time you’ve done that. Other than that, this is boring and now way off topic. Peace bruh
Ryan
September 7, 2020 @ 9:53 pm
If only you had been similarly lost for words re: JTE’s death, bummer.
Your take is asinine and ignorant. If only shouting at someone to “take care” of themselves and shaming actually helped people; it does not.
Time better spent would be searching for empathy rather than compiling lists of reasons why people deserved their horrendous fates.
I’m sorry if you’ve been hurt by people lost to substances. Many of us have. I for one thoroughly reject the kind of cold, angry shrugging like that demonstrated by your take.
Ryan
September 8, 2020 @ 9:34 am
Shaming, blaming, lecturing, talking at, shrugging your shoulders, telling people their irresponsible, berating, attacking, dismissing their deaths as their fault cause they’re weak or dumb or lazy etc. almost never work as strategies to help people who struggle with any problem. Those kinds of things are for the person doing the shaming; because they’re angry, or sad and it helps dismiss the tragedy so they don’t have to feel as intensely. Defense mechanisms are important for people but don’t confuse them with actual help for the struggling. They’re for you.
We’re among the most punitive societies on the face of the Earth and it doesn’t work. Contrary to your suggestion, mine is a dissenting view; yours is completely dominant. Empathy and restorative justice are thought of as “weak”, but they’re what work when you want people to get better and for people to be made whole. If you want less substance addiction and recidivism, you lead with them. The research is clear on this.
Jake Cutter
September 8, 2020 @ 10:14 am
The dissenting view. LOL.
Our country is punitive? By population, quite a large percentage of people live in countries that carry the death penalty for possession of less hard drugs. Or even protesting or being gay.
Keep on dissenting though Ryan, you’re really good at it. Maybe write a near identical comment to this one too.
Ryan
September 8, 2020 @ 10:39 am
This is not a matter of opinion. Across many metrics vis-a-vis criminal justice and how we treat addiction, incarceration rates, prison sentences, etc. we’re outlying. It’s true that there are a handful of countries who are even more backwards, and good on you for noticing, but comparing us to them doesn’t mean we’re non-punitive on an international scale.
If Yemen and Saudi Arabia were the only other countries on Earth you’d have a killer point here.
Jake Cutter
September 8, 2020 @ 11:14 am
You haven’t heard of the largest country by population, I guess. They just sentenced another Canadian to DEATH. There are many more like that, but sure, the US is like so punitive and harsh man. Singapore will HANG you for 18 oz of weed. In the Philippines you’ll be lucky not to be killed by a government empowered extrajudicial death squad. But, Poor us! A guy on SCM suggested taking care of yourself. Dissent! Resist!
My point is plain and simple, you’ve done nothing to convince me otherwise, and this is getting boring. Catch you later dissenter.
Ryan
September 8, 2020 @ 4:03 pm
I guess shouting “this is off topic” plus “you don’t know how to post threads” is how it goes when you’re scraping the bottom.
Here’s something actually off topic: aren’t you the same fella who refused to condemn the cause of the Confederacy? That’s definitely has to be a person of sound values and rational faculties capable of weighing evidence and coming to reasonable conclusions. I can’t believe you remain unswayed. Only myself to blame, bruh.
Jake Cutter
September 8, 2020 @ 5:02 pm
No. And nobody is “shouting” either. You’ll be OK. And that’s strike 3 on replying to the right comment, dissenter.
Carla
September 7, 2020 @ 12:50 pm
Poor bugger ☹️ RIP, JTE
Doug T
September 7, 2020 @ 2:14 pm
Brings to mind Toy Caldwell who died when he had the flu and had cocaine in his system.
wayne
September 7, 2020 @ 5:53 pm
Man, that was a loss. Toy was incredible.
Cool Lester Smooth
September 7, 2020 @ 3:58 pm
No wonder his friends are so pissed about the “probable drug overdose” reports.
For all we know, the “circumstances in which they found him” means “He was lying in bed, but there were controlled substances in another room!”
Carolyn
September 8, 2020 @ 8:51 am
Justin already had a partially collapsed lung from years ago. He only had one fully functioning lung so the pneumonia and the surgery needed to repair his lung does not come as a surprise to me. #RIPJTE
Di Harris
September 8, 2020 @ 5:10 pm
Evening, Jake,
Hope it is a nice evening wherever you are.
Beautiful here.
Just want to say that when Trigger disables the reply button on certain posts, a reply might not follow by “normal” thread protocols.
I am such a p- i – t – a, that i sometimes reply wherever, when feel strongly about something.
You often help me navigate thread protocol, etc. & much appreciated.
Think this possibly might be what is happening with Ryan’s comments.
Jake Cutter
September 8, 2020 @ 5:18 pm
It’s not disabled. There are just too many replies. You have to scroll up to the next comment on the thread that still has the ability to reply. Thanks though Di, hope you’re having a great evening too! I’m jealous of your Nashville trip.
Di Harris
September 8, 2020 @ 5:48 pm
Laughing. I love it.
See how ignorant/site savvy, i’m not?!
My friends swear this is the only reason they keep me around. Comic relief.
Should have known you knew exactly what you were doing.
Even thought hard before posting this, thinking, there’s something i’m missing …
But after 1/2 glass of wine, well you know
Jake Cutter
September 8, 2020 @ 5:53 pm
Glad I could help. Cheers 🍷
Chris Paulick
September 24, 2020 @ 9:38 am
I’ll let Justin talk…
https://youtu.be/qIHebvTJ9mM
RIP Justin Townes Earle
Movin On
JT’s Mom
June 23, 2021 @ 2:47 pm
Love you always and forever, little boy.
Love, Mom