Biography
American singer- songwriter Roky Erickson recorded one album with Okkervil River, the 2010 album True Love Cast Out All Evil.
Ten years ago, Erickson's legacy as one of rock and roll's most tragic figures had already been written. Once regarded as a spectacularly gifted singer and one of psychedelic music's founding fathers, Erickson had watched his career fall apart while locked in a maximum security prison for the criminally insane. He had eventually retreated to a housing project in South Austin where he kept multiple televisions and radios on at full volume to drown out the voices in his head. No one had heard from him in over a decade. His friends and fans had all given up hope. They assumed he would simply fade away.
Instead, Erickson shocked everyone with a recovery that's nothing short of miraculous. At the age of 63, he emerged from debilitating mental illness and self-imposed isolation. He gave up drugs and alcohol, reconnected with his son and first wife, bought his first house and made his first new album in over a decade.
True Love Cast Out All Evil introduces thirteen songs written at various points in Erickson's life but largely abandoned due to the violent twists and turns that life took. In these songs, Erickson narrates his own incredible story in his own unique voice. It's a story of agonizing pain and irretrievable loss, but it's also a story of the optimism and hope that has allowed him to overcome. And it's all true.
On May 31st, 2019, Roky Erickson passed away.
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