It’s been more than three years since country singer-songwriter Luke Bell died at age 32 after a long battle with mental illness. This week, Bell’s family and friends will honor his legacy with the release of The King Is Back. Out Nov. 7 via All Blue and Thirty Tigers, the album is a collection of 28 unreleased songs written and recorded by the late troubadour, who lived in Nashville during the height of his career. The album was assembled by Bell’s mother Carol Bell and manager Brian Buchanan, with assistance from Tiffany Buchanan and Luke’s sister Jane Bell.
“Parts of it have been really stressful, because I know it would’ve been really important to Luke to do it well and to do it right,” Carol Bell tells the Scene. “But the people who have helped us on this project are people that really loved Luke. They’ve all been so dedicated to the project, and they’ve shown up in the best way possible.”
Carol Bell says the album is a snapshot of a time before Luke’s mental health struggles, which were exacerbated by his father’s death in 2015.
“All of the music was written and recorded before Luke got sick — either before his dad died or right after his dad died,” Carol Bell says. “It sort of returns a happy version of Luke to me.”
Born in Lexington, Ky., and raised in Cody, Wyo., Bell was a performer from an early age. From the moment he could dress himself, he loved wearing costumes and would often fashion capes out of silk Western scarves — a black scarf for Zorro, a red scarf for Superman. He was always passionate about music, obsessed with everything from Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony to Michael Martin Murphy’s “Tying Knots in the Devil’s Tail.” One summer, while working on his grandparents’ ranch in Shell, Wyo., he discovered a box of his granddad’s old country records and fell in love with the storytelling in songs by Patsy Cline, Marty Robbins and Kris Kristofferson. A few years later, he dropped out of college to pursue a music career in Austin, Texas, where he played in a band called Fast Luke and the Lead Heavy. He spent some time in New Orleans before making his way to Nashville in 2014.
J.P. Harris was one of the artists to mentor Bell during his time in Music City. Harris remembers Bell driving up to his house in his “beat-up, really ugly, white grandma Buick from the ’90s” with his pit bull Bill, who Harris described as “the sweetest dog and the most untrained motherfucker that I’d ever met.” Bell spent the night on Harris’ couch and would end up staying for nearly a month. Harris, who owns a carpentry business in Nashville, put Bell to work when the singer needed extra money.
“He didn’t know the dumb end of a hammer when I met him, but he could learn, and he was enthusiastic about working,” Harris says. “Something about the mix of his fearlessness and his charm and his work ethic just made me immediately want to take him under my wing. … The closest thing I’ve had to a little brother really was those good years with Luke.”
Riley Downing, a member of the Americana band The Deslondes, first met Bell in New Orleans and remembers him as a “young puppy finally meeting all the musicians he’d been listening to.” Downing says once Bell started gaining his own success, he’d invite lesser-known artists to come play a show with him.
“He tried to be a big brother to a lot of younger musicians as well because he remembered what it was like,” Downing says. “Whatever we gave him when he was young, he gave back.”
Andrija Tokic runs the East Nashville recording studio The Bomb Shelter, where Bell recorded his breakthrough self-titled 2016 album. Tokic produced The King Is Back with Stephen Daly and Justin Frances. Tokic and his team spent hours going through old recordings, including tunes Bell had hoped would make it onto prior releases.
“Working on it was pretty emotional,” Tokic says. “The banter between songs, it would blast me back into sitting in the studio.”
The King Is Back showcases Bell’s spirit, featuring blue-collar anthems (“Roofer’s Blues,” “Irrigator’s Blues”), witty, Roger Miller-esque ditties like “Orangutang,” and haunting tunes like “Black Crows.”
Country singer-songwriter Kristina Murray, who first befriended Bell at Santa’s Pub, says Bell showed a remarkable understanding of himself in his lyrics.
“One thing about Luke’s writing is that a lot of times it’s almost predictive,” says Murray. “It’s almost like he knew himself and could write about himself better than he could articulate or take care of himself.”
Carol Bell says the buoyant, euphoric title track is the perfect encapsulation of Bell when he was on an upswing.
“When Luke felt like the king, he felt like the king,” Carol Bell says. “Luke’s bandwidth for human emotions was a lot broader than some of ours. He was often either really high or really low. The song is about the upside, but people can only feel that kind of joy if they feel an equal amount of sorrow. I love that song because it’s Luke at his happiest and his best.”
On Aug. 29, 2022, Bell was found dead in Tucson, Ariz., after having gone missing nine days earlier. His cause of death was ruled as an accidental fentanyl overdose. Proceeds from The King Is Back will benefit the Luke Bell Memorial Affordable Counseling Program, a nonprofit founded by Carol and Jane Bell that supports residents of Wyoming’s Big Horn Basin by providing vouchers for up to 10 sessions with a therapist.
“One of the challenges for me when Luke was starting to spiral into mental illness is that he didn’t have health insurance,” Carol Bell says. “If Luke had had access to free therapy early in his illness, maybe it would’ve made a difference. But whether it would’ve made a difference for Luke or not, it makes a difference for a lot of people to be able to have the support they need and not be stressing about the cost.”
Bell’s friends have continued to honor him in Nashville and beyond.
Harris performed Bell’s “The Bullfighter” in honor of his friend at the 2022 Americana Music Awards, just weeks after Bell’s death. In September of this year, Downing, Murray, Jane Bell, Emily Nenni and more took the stage at The Basement East for an AmericanaFest tribute to the singer. On Nov. 7, Grimey’s will host an album release party for The King Is Back, featuring performances from Downing, Joshua Hedley, Aaron Lee Tasjan and more.
Murray considers what Bell might think of his newfound attention.
“Knowing him, he’d be laughing at the fact that he ‘got famous’ after he died,” Murray says. “What a funny, diabolical, devious fellow.”
Carol Bell says she hopes Luke’s story is a reminder to people that they’re not alone.
“After his dad died, Luke was homeless,” Carol Bell says. “Luke was missing. Luke was incarcerated. Luke was hospitalized. It’s easy for us to imagine that those people are not a part of mainstream America. If that’s true, it’s because we turn our backs on them. Here was a talented, successful, beloved, supported human who was deeply embedded in his community and in his family. In spite of all those things, he ended up living without any kind of support. I want Luke’s story to be a comfort to people who have family members who are outliers or a comfort to people who feel like outliers — just as a reminder of the humanity of all of us, including people who are mentally ill.”
