'I'M GRATEFUL, EVEN WHEN IT'S DIFFICULT'

AS HE CELEBRATES CAREER WINS AND COMES TO TERMS WITH DIVORCE, THE MUSICIAN AND KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON ACTOR IS FINDING HARMONY BETWEEN HIS HIGHS AND LOWS

- DAVID WALTERS

With six golden gramophones now in his possession—including two from last month’s Grammys ceremony—Jason Isbell is ready to reveal the secret to his success. “I try to be the only person in the category voters have ever heard of,” says the 45-year-old current titleholder of best American roots song (“Cast Iron Skillet”) and best Americana album (Weathervanes), his tongue firmly in cheek. “Either you’re Beyoncé, or you find a niche genre. [Recording] Academy voters don’t listen to roots music, so all I want from them is to recognize my name. Now, to do that, I’ve had to make a lot of mistakes: I had to be an alcoholic and get a divorce. But now they say, ‘Oh, I’ve heard of this guy!’ ”

Isbell’s sense of humor is as finely honed as his songwriting chops, and both are fueled by honesty—brutal, soul-bearing, gut-wrenching confessionalism that has made him a favorite of everyone from John Mayer and Bruce Springsteen to novelist George Saunders. The Greenhill, Ala., native’s well-documented struggles with addiction accompanied, and often overshadowed, his earliest successes. By all accounts a guitar prodigy, Isbell was performing in bars before he was a teenager. At 16, he played Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry, and by his early 20s he had a publishing deal with legendary FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Ala.