We were lucky to catch up with Tucker Hart recently and have shared our conversation below.
Tucker, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?
October 21 2011 was a day like any other. Little did I know my life was about to dramatically change for the worse. I was 30 years old, active and in good shape. I was heading out to lunch when pain hit my left arm and I started feeling very sick. I was trying to catch my breath, when a coworker came up with a char and said I needed to sit down. She called an ambulance and said it looks like a heart attack. I thought she was making a big deal out of nothing but she was right. The EMTs were absolutely incredible and able to stabilize me halfway to the hospital. I spent a week recovering in the cardiac care unit and was sent home with a follow up appointment. As much as it pained me, I knew I couldn’t return to the job I loved as we were entering our busiest season and I physically couldn’t keep up. I resigned and decided to look for another job closer to home. Around the second week of being home, I started making involuntarily noises and movements. I thought it was just stress and sought professional help from a psychiatrist. She then referred me to a neurologist. Was happened next broke me as a person. Over the next few months, I lost the ability to walk and wound up in a wheelchair. I started experiencing horrible tearing pains though most muscles in my body every minute of every day. I started having multiple seizures and could barely have a conversation. Rachel, my wife of twenty one years, was my rock and champion throughout all of this, she changed my clothes, fed me, held my hand and head as the seizures hit. Spent days at time by my side during my many hospital stays and countless doctor appointments. All while being an incredible mother to our three daughters. She truly is my best friend, soulmate and wellspring of inspiration and encouragement. She showed me a type of commitment and love I thought only existed in written form. After months of very extensive and sometimes painful testing, we still didn’t have any answers. Over the next 7 years, I learned how to adapt to this new life and it’s many challenges. I had to learn how to walk again, how to be there for my family again. And what, if any, purpose I still had despite feeling like a constant embarrassment and burden upon my family. This feeling was all internalized. My absolutely incredible wife and daughters were there for me night and day and only made me feel loved, supported, and encourage. I was determined to get better physically yet was slipping into the darkest pit I’ve ever known mentally. I became addicted to pills and started into an even deeper spiral. Very early into the morning hours, I decided to end the unending pain, embarrassment and suffering I had endured. I emptied a bottle of pills in my mouth and lifted up a glass of water. My eight year old daughter walked out of her room at that exact moment and looked me in the eyes. I couldn’t have this be her last image of me. In a knee jerk reaction, I spit the pills out in the sink, woke my wife up set about getting the mental help I so desperately needed. That was the longest and most terrifying night of my life. I can tell you truthfully that if my daughter had not walked out of her room at the exact moment I lifted up my glass of water, I wouldn’t be here. I was absolutely broken. In my clouded vision, there was no point in continuing a life of unrelenting pain and suffering. I was making baby steps with my psychiatrist, trying to make sense of it all but still feeling like I was a useless burden on my family and in society. A few months passed and my friend said I really needed to go with him to see this musician named Travis Meadows at the Old Quarter Acoustic Cafe in Galveston. I reluctantly went but I’m forever grateful for my friends insistence and invitation. That was the night my life finally turned around! I listened to Travis talk and sing about his massive struggles in life.
Taken from Travis Meadows’ website-
“An orphan who turned into a preacher
A preacher who turned into a songwriter
A songwriter that turned into a drunk
A drunk that is learning to be a human being.”
That was my lightbulb moment.
Travis was able to heal though his songwriting and somehow I knew, even though I had no experience in songwriting, that I could do the same.
I started on this new path over two years ago and have never been better mentally. I’ve worked through and healed from some of my hardest issues in my life in an empty room with a guitar, a pen and a notepad. Though the incredible love and support of my family, friends, business owners who took a chance on having me out and a fantastic community, I set about bringing my songs and story to others in hopes that I could possibly return the inspiration and hope that Travis Meadows and his music gave to me.
Tucker, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
As a huge fan of American Folk and Country and Western music from the 1930s through the 1970s, I do my best to write in that beautiful style and carry on the story telling and songwriting traditions of the greats who’ve gone before us. I write true and from the heart playing a blend of what I call Westen-Folk. In 2020 I released my first album – Light a Candle
Having deep love and respect for the elders in our communities, I started my music career off playing free birthday Zoom shows to an assisted living and memory care center during the first months of Covid and still have a monthly show there today. I started my YouTube channel to help raise money for life enrichment programs in nursing homes and have been able to donate things to help residents enjoy their time more while living at these facilities.
In February of 2022 my wife Rachel and I established the League City Folk Association here in League City Texas. We work in partnership with the League City Historical Society to host a free, monthly, family friendly, acoustic music gathering to help bring communities together through the sharing of songs and stories.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
The most rewarding part is the audience. Hearing folks sing along, tell me how a song I wrote touched them or inspired them to start writing. How an old song I sang brought them back to their childhood and a simpler time.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
My biggest driving force in writing and creating music is to chase after the old beautiful spirit of storytelling songs from the 30s to the 70s that have made sure a huge impact on me. There was a special magic during that time that I try to capture with each word and chord. When I was 14 years old, John Prine’s song, “Hello in There” taught me the true beauty of how songs can give the listener a new or different prospective in life.. It’s important to gain a different perspective in life so I enjoy reading about different people and cultures to gain insight on their struggles and outlook on life. I then do my best to fold that new knowledge into
songwriting.
Contact Info:
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tuckerhartmusic/
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCsvlZjAbbsjRId08x1b5g_g
- Other: League City Folk Association Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/LeagueCityFolkAssociation Tucker Hart Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/5p4HUO4g4f4x5IOluAUORT?si=daVAue47S6Ol0HMCJlYSQg&dl_branch=1 Tucker Hart Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/better-without/1522265051?i=1522265059