We were lucky to catch up with Tom Hansen recently and have shared our conversation below.

Tom, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. One of the toughest things about progressing in your creative career is that there are almost always unexpected problems that come up – problems that you often can’t read about in advance, can’t prepare for, etc. Have you had such and experience and if so, can you tell us the story of one of those unexpected problems you’ve encountered?

In the 70’s I was a skateboard champion. In the 80’s I was a rock musician, even signed to an indy label and put out an album. In the 90’s I was a heroin addict and drug dealer. Got clean May 26, 1999, went back to school, got an MFA, wrote two books and got them published. Ironically the only one of these endeavors that paid enough money to live on was drug dealer. That was kind of unexpected.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

In the 70’s I was a skateboard champion in the early days, just when you were beginning to see actual skate parks. I taught myself to play guitar, left home and during the 80’s I was a musician in the fledgling punk rock and rock scene in Seattle. I was in The Fartz 1980-81, The Refuzors 1981-82, On The Rocks 1984-85, Crotch Rockets 1986-87 and Crisis Party 1988-91. Crisis Party got signed to Metal Blade records and put out one album that was well received. Drugs and a lack of support caused the band to implode. I had started doing hard drugs in the early 80’s and it took over my life completely after the breakup of the band and I sold drugs to maintain a large supply. I quit on May 26, 1999 and checked myself into the hospital for a six month stay. I had done so much physical damage with the drugs I could no longer play guitar and upon that realization I went back to school, got an MFA from UBC, wrote American Junkie a memoir of my survival from heroin addiction and This Is What We Do a neo noir novel. Both were published by an indy press in 2010 and 2013, American Junkie was republished by Soft Skull Press in 2017 and was adapted for the stage by Book-it Repertory Theatre in 2019. This Is What We Do was republished by Counterpoint Press in 2019.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

The music and writing businesses should broaden their horizons in the hiring of decision makers aka gatekeepers. Both have tendencies to hire the same kind of like minded people who think the same type of book/music is “cool” and is worth supporting. I experienced this both in books and music. Both received very little support and I think the evidence shows they were quality works that had merit.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I’m still alive.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://softskull.com/dd-product/american-junkie/
• Facebook: https://www.google.com/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Ftom.hansen.961%3Fmibextid%3DZbWKwL&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AOvVaw388cT091kcNleQdNi4kX_Q
• Other: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1593766645/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=softskull-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1593766645&linkId=054392be886bc4b334cd6294e7b53a93

Image Credits
Lance Mercer