When John Stirratt was in college, criss-crossing around the American Southeast in a cover band, he hardly could have imagined that almost 40 years later he’d be touring the world as a member of Wilco, a band so iconic it went viral online with the announcement of a new Pope.
For this week’s episode of The Lincoln County News’ podcast “Beyond the Broadsheet,” Stirratt visited the studio to reminisce about how a job as Uncle Tupelo’s roadie led to being a founding member of Wilco and a journey that has taken him from opening for R.E.M. in Germany to “Saturday Night Live” to the Grammy Awards to Bremen and next month’s Sonic Sleepover event at Otyokwa.
Along the way, Stirratt opens up about the drama surrounding the release of “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot,” the first album to be streamed online, the challenge of playing some of the same songs for 30 years, the bump the band received from the TV show “The Bear,” what it’s like to be the subject of a documentary, the upcoming album from his side project The Autumn Defense, and how a road trip years before he moved to Maine ended up at Moody’s Diner (as all road trips do).
“Beyond the Broadsheet” is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and other podcast platforms.
