Rhett Miller at the Triple Door in Seattle. December 10, 2013
Stewart Ransom "Rhett" Miller II (born September 6, 1970)[1][2] is the lead singer of the alternative country rock band Old 97's. He also records and performs as a solo musician, and has been published as a writer of both fiction and non-fiction.[3][4]
Miller, a seventh-generation Texan, was born in Austin, Texas.[1] Miller's parents divorced when he was 17 years old. Miller, the oldest of three children, has a younger brother and sister.[5][6] Rhett's paternal grandfather, Giles E. Miller, was a young millionaire scion of a successful textile family who, in 1952 owned the first NFL football team in the south, the Dallas Texans. The Texans folded after seven games, marking the last time an NFL franchise would go bankrupt.[7][8]
Miller's family lived in Highland Park, Texas, where he went to Armstrong Elementary School. In 4th grade, Miller was hospitalized for several months due to a severe inner-ear problem. In 6th grade, he began attending St. Mark's School of Texas, a private boys' school in North Dallas. He started taking guitar lessons when he was 12 years old and writing songs when he was 13. Miller has said that his time at St. Mark's was very difficult, and that he was ostracized and bullied, leading to depression which culminated in a suicide attempt at the age of 14.[1] The following year in April 1985 Miller played his first gig at 500 Cafe in downtown Dallas.[6] Through high school Miller played in bands, becoming a local folk performer and headlining small venues and opening for such nationally touring artists as Rosanne Cash, Chris Isaak, and The Lords of the New Church. Also in high school, Miller edited St. Mark’s literary magazine and helped start an alternative literary magazine called The Rag, for which he wrote poetry.
In 1989, while still in high school, Miller released an album called Mythologies. The album title was taken from a book of essays by the French media philosopher Roland Barthes. Only 1,000 copies of the CD exist. Miller signed and numbered each one.[1]
In 1990, when Miller returned to Dallas after his semester at college, Miller formed a band called Sleepy Heroes with childhood friend and future Old 97’s bassist Murry Hammond. Sleepy Heroes was a power-pop three piece. They released one album, Under a Radio Sun, before they broke up. The Old 97's song, "Victoria," was written during the last few months of Sleepy Heroes.[1]
Miller was the lead singer of various bands in Dallas between 1990 and 1993: Rhett Miller's Third Eye, Buzz, Rhett's Exploding, and Retablo, for which Miller self-recorded an unreleased record on cassette which included some early Old 97's songs.[1]
In 1993, Miller and Hammond formed Old 97's as a three piece acoustic act along with their neighbor at Dallas’ Marquita Court Apartments, guitarist Ken Bethea. They played as a three piece for six months before adding Darin Lin Wood on drums. He played with the band for a few weeks in the summer of 1993 before being replaced by Philip Peeples who has remained the band’s drummer ever since.
Old 97’s first album, Hitchhike To Rhome, came out on local Dallas label Big Iron Records in 1993. During the first year of Old 97’s, Miller also performed as a touring member of the band Killbilly. It was during a Killbilly tour that Miller met Nan Warshaw, owner of Chicago’s Bloodshot Records, the label which released Old 97’s second album, Wreck Your Life.
After a sold-out SXSW showcase in 1995, Old 97’s found themselves the subject of a major label bidding war. 15 record labels fought to sign the band, with Elektra Records A&R rep Tom Desavia finally inking the band to a multi-album deal. Their first Elektra release, Too Far To Care, came out in 1997, followed by Fight Songs and Satellite Rides.[10]
In 2002, Miller released The Instigator on Elektra Records. The record was produced and recorded with Jon Brion, received critical acclaim and substantial airplay on alternative-oriented radio stations.[3]
2008: Co-produced the first EP, No One Will Know, of New York band The Spring Standards
2009: Appeared as a member of the musical ensemble in the 30 Rock episode Kidney Now![22]
2019: On 1/23/19 Miller announced the 1/24 start of his podcast, Wheels Off, subtitled A Show About the Messy Reality Behind the Creative Life. In partnership with Revoice Media, it's an 11-episode series; each segment features host Miller conversing with musicians, writers, artists, actors, comedians and other creative people about the pivotal moments that shaped their work, what it means to create in a digital age and grappling with the challenges and joys of living a creative life.[23]
Philanthropy
In 2006, Miller and his brother Ross Miller launched the Breathe Easy Concert Series, an annual event in Dallas that raises money for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and awareness about cystic fibrosis.[24]
In 2016, Miller appeared as part of the Okay to Say initiative sponsored by the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute in Dallas, which encourages the use of therapy to prevent suicide and address mental health issues.[25] In the campaign, Miller discusses his own suicide attempt when he was 14 years old,[6] and how therapy has helped him over the years.[26] Miller said that Jason Isbell encouraged him to talk publicly about his sobriety.[18]
Personal life
In 1997, Miller moved from Dallas to Los Angeles. In 2000, he moved to New York City. Miller and his then-fiancée lived three blocks south of the World Trade Center and were at home on 9/11. He shared journal writing about their experience, which was published in The Atlantic in September 2011.[27] Miller now lives in New York's Hudson Valley.[6]
In 2002, Miller married former model Erica Iahn a week after he completed production of The Instigator. Iahn found out she was pregnant with their first child, Max, while Miller was on tour with Tori Amos to promote the album. Their daughter, Soleil, was born in the spring of 2006.[28][29]
McSweeney's 12: Twelve New Stories from Twelve New Writers. Unpublished, Unknown, or, Unbelievable Plus Twenty-Nine Stories Written in Twenty Minutes Each. and a Story from Roddy Doyle. in Over Two Dimensions. Almost Three. San Francisco, CA: McSweeney's Quarterly. 2003. ISBN978-1-93-241606-0. OCLC54697932.
Miller, Rhett (2009). "Tender 'Til The Day I Die". In Schaper, Julie; Horwitz, Steven (eds.). Amplified: Fiction from Leading Alt-Country, Indie Rock, Blues and Folk Musicians. Brooklyn, N.Y.: Melville House. pp.171–182. ISBN978-1-93-363371-8. OCLC297148858. – short story
Miller, Rhett; Santat (art by), Dan (2019). No More Poems! A Book in Verse That Just Gets Worse. New York: Little, Brown and Company. ISBN978-0-316-41652-8. OCLC1089741084. - poetry
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