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Today in 'Treme': Steve Earle exit interview

There’s a massive spoiler straight ahead for anyone who hasn’t seen Sunday’s (June 19) “Treme.”

Earle saw the episode for the first time minutes after coming offstage following a concert in Medicine Hat, Alberta.

Walking beside Washington Square Park with Annie Tee (played by Lucia Micarelli ) after an evening of street-corner busking, Earle’s character, Harley Watt, was shot in the face during a holdup.

The scene ends Earle’s two-season acting run on “Treme,” though he said he’ll continue writing songs for the series as needed.

Earle’s “This City,” which played under the closing credits of season one’s finale, appears on his current album, “ I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive. ”

The title’s the same for a new novel by Earle, and is borrowed from the Hank Williams song Harley and Annie played during their final “Treme” performance together.

Earle is on a tour that will bring him back to New Orleans for a July 11 performance at the House of Blues . He said he intends to donate his performance fee for the House of Blues show to the New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic .

Here’s an edited Q&A from my Monday phone interview with Earle, conducted a few hours before he took the stage for his next tour stop in Edmonton, Alberta.

How did you learn that Harley was going to die?

There was a little bit of a snafu. It’s funny, David (Simon) and I haven’t discussed this because both of us were so busy as the season was winding down. I was cranking up for the record and the book, and I was running in and out of New Orleans. I was in the last few episodes more than anything before. From the time my character shows up, I’m in it a lot more than last year, and a lot more than “The Wire.”

I had a hint in the off-season. I sent David an e mail -- I was just being paranoid and trying to make sure I had a job – saying, “Hey, do I have a job this season?” And I got an email back saying, “Yeah, we’ll work you in, but we have a sad story planned for you. You’re going to make people cry.”

I know he blamed (“Treme”) writer George Pelecanos (who co-wrote the episode with Simon). He always does this. Every time anybody dies, he throws Pelecanos under the bus. He’s kind of Dr. Death around there. He writes the episodes where people die. He did it in “The Wire” and he did in this. In “Treme,” a lot less people die, because it begins when a couple of thousand people are already dead. So they’re the ghosts in this.

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