Interview: The Lumineers on writing about addiction, doing stunts and the Greyhound to Bonnaroo

On their third full-length, “III,” the Lumineers grow a fictional family tree.

The concept album follows three generations of the “Sparks” clan, exploring how the effects of addiction reverberate through a family for decades.

This work of fiction is still personal as anything the folk-rock group has released over the last decade. Frontman Wesley Schultz drew from experiences with an unnamed family member who’s been “in and out of jail and in and out of rehab” over the last 10 years.

Ahead of the band’s concert at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on Wednesday, Schultz gave us a call to reflect on what he’s learned from the project (and how his family responded to it), his full-circle moment at Bonnaroo and bringing his wife and son around the world with him.

With this album, you wrote a story that was partly inspired by events in your own life — did that help you process things that you'd gone through?

Yeah, part of the appeal of using "characters," in quotes, was to tell the story unedited, without airbrushing it, because you have anonymity. I think that's one reason why I enjoy writing that way. You don't feel like you're hurting someone as you're telling something real. Even with regards to personal writing ... I don't know how long that can go on. I think you run out of good stories. It can't only be about you if you're gonna write interesting songs.

Unfortunately, this was interesting and also personal. The subject matter was taking care of a family member of ours, or I guess more appropriately, we were trying to take care of this person and help them, my wife and I, for the past 10 years. She's been in and out of jail and in and out of rehab. We actually got her a house at one point and bought her a dog. We did the things that you'd think you should do to help someone get their life back in order. We had to take away the dog at first, and then we had to evict her from the house, because she was destroying herself and the house.

I think it's been a way to talk about it, but I don't feel like I have any more clarity on that much. The only clarity I've gained is that a lot of people are going through this, and not talking to one another about it. Because as I've shared these stories, people have mirrored that back and shared things with me that they may not have shared with some of their close friends.

How did your family react to you channeling this experience into a story?

I think it's really scary to tell a story that's not only yours. As a writer, I feel like you're sort of a vampire, you know? You're taking from other people's stories and yourself, and that can be the negative. But I think the heartening thing is if you come from an authentic place with it, even people who you don't get along with can sense that.

There's a song (of ours), "Charlie Boy," that was about my Uncle Charlie (Note: Schultz's uncle, Charles Schultz, was killed in the Vietnam War.)

My dad passed away (in 2007), and he was his oldest brother. And he still has two brothers who are alive, my uncles, and I was pretty worried about their reaction to the song, if they were hurt by me singing about that. ... I got to talk with both of them over the phone about it, and they were really encouraging about it, really sweet, and said, 'We understood where you were coming from.'

In that same way, with this subject matter, my wife's family and my family have both been supportive of it, and some of them have been kind of excited by the fact that their story is being put out there, in the sense that they have an experience that they can now point to, that's more public and not so taboo.

The videos for this project are really ambitious. At what point did you and (band member) Jeremiah (Fraites) decide you wanted to be on camera — and how was your experience taking a fake punch?

We loved pulling off a cameo in some of these videos. Initially, I didn't want us to be in the videos because I wanted it to be about the story, and I didn't want there to be a distraction ... if you noticed us, it would take you out of that world, if you're a fan of our band. But the good part is, most people didn't even notice us. We had to point it out.

But yeah, they had a couple of stuntmen involved in the fight scene, and they were showing me how to properly take a punch and fall down the right way. I thought I busted my knee the way I fell on the first attempt. I was like, 'Oh man, we (messed) up the whole tour because of a fake punch.' But the director really wanted to get this blood-splattering, much more gruesome thing happening, but he didn't have enough time that day. He kept joking that he really wanted to see me get hit hard (laughs). We worked for a while, Kevin (Phillips), the director, and I, getting this thing developed and off the ground. We had a lot of conversations, so I think it was nice for him to see me get punched a couple times.

Last year, you guys shared a photo from when you attended the first Bonnaroo — and already, that's become something to brag about. But you shared it because you were about to perform (at the 2019 festival) as one of the top acts on the bill. Did you tell the audience, "We were you once"?

Yeah, and I still am. I still go to festivals sometimes. But I feel like I'm too posh now to camp out because I have a wife and a kid and it would just be too dusty or something. But I think we're still gonna do it (laughs). It did feel like a very storybook ending to a chapter.

I went to the first two (Bonnaroos). The first time, we drove the 14 hours or so from New Jersey, and then (for) the second, we took a Greyhound, and that was 26 hours. We were pretty dedicated hippies, and when I went back onstage (at Bonnaroo) this past time, I told them the story of seeing Michael Franti give this beautiful speech about his father passing away ... and that was Father's Day that day. When we played, it was also Father's Day. I lost my dad in 2007. (Franti) had everyone put their arms around each other and helped them sing this song.

I had a song about my dad, so I paid tribute to that moment. It was really one of the most emotional things I've experienced on stage. I cried during the set, and that never happens. It was a really big deal on a personal note, and it doesn't really feel like you could draw it up much better.

Judging by recent social media posts, this appears to be the band's first tour with babies. How's it going?

I had a son, and then three months later, Jeremiah had a son as well. They're both around 2 years old, and this is their first U.S. tour.

My son came out (when) we toured more around the world in 2019. He took his first steps in Japan, actually. We were at a hotel in Kyoto and he took his first steps when the guy was showing us the room. He's had his passport stamped quite a few times for a little guy.

The Lumineers perform at Bridgestone Arena on Wednesday. The show starts at 7 p.m., and tickets start at $33.

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