MOUNT VERNON — Just when things were coming together, they also were falling apart.

Local rockabilly and country performer Knut Bell was at a crossroads. He’d just been invited to record a CD of mostly his newest songs with a group of accomplished musicians in Austin, Texas.

If his last CD, “Honkahillarockabilly,” was a hit among country music fans in the Pacific Northwest, the new CD promised even more success. He’d be recording with the likes of Redd Volkaert, guitarist for Merle Haggard’s band; Earl Poole Ball, Johnny Cash’s right-hand piano man for 20 years; and members of Austin’s well-known honkytonk band The Derailers.

But meantime, Bell was engulfed in a black hole of cocaine and alcohol abuse that for a little more than three years had been destroying his marriage, job and friendships, and even pushing him to attempt suicide.

As he sat in a downtown Mount Vernon coffee shop recently, Bell rubbed his calloused fingers nervously as he struggled to explain how he managed to survive the intense cocaine abuse, all the while performing several nights a week on stage in Skagit County and Seattle.

“I was going through a quarter-ounce to a half-ounce a day,” Bell, 35, said in his deep, baritone voice that’s been described by fans and critics as a welcome mix of Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings.

“I don’t know how many times I stood on stage and said, ‘I’ve got it under control.’ I wasn’t in control.”

The only thing that was keeping his head above water was the love of performing, the connection with the audiences that packed into local bars and taverns to watch Bell and his band raise the roof, and the possibilities of his soon-to-be-released newest album that promises him so much success.



“Wicked, Ornry, Mean and Nasty” is Bell’s latest effort, set to be released later this month. It keeps alive the Skagit County pride, with the upbeat “Skagit Days” and “Johnson’s Barbershop,” a tribute to eccentric former barber Lawrence Johnson, who cut hair in Mount Vernon’s south end for more than 40 years before he retired.

Highlights are obviously the in-your-face “Wicked, Ornry, Mean and Nasty,” the stand-up-and-dance, comedic “Haybales.”

All in all, it has much the same spirit of the kind of witty, down-home music that has attracted people to his shows.

So by late 2005, some of those people started telling Bell that he should take his music to another level. Go to Austin and Nashville, they said. Go talk to a big-time music producer.

Bell thought he might have a shot. He’d paid his dues, and had connections with some well-known Austin musicians. One of those musicians helped him meet with that big-time producer, who didn’t feel that Bell’s music fit what he wanted to produce.

Instead, his musician friend, Sweet Basil McJagger, a member of the honky tonkin’ and regionally renowned The Derailers, helped convince bandmate Brian Hofeldt to produce Bell’s next album. To Bell’s surprise, his friend also managed to help pull in some well-established and connected musicians.

With their help and Bell’s typical witty music writing, Bell said he was more than pleased with the outcome.

But even while recording the album in August 2006, it became apparent that something wasn’t right with Bell.

McJagger said he wasn’t aware of Bell’s cocaine problems the first time the Skagit County “local yokel” came to Austin for a visit earlier that summer. But as Bell readied for the recording of his CD, McJagger said the problem became clear.

“By the second visit, yeah, we were all painfully aware of it,” McJagger said from his home in Austin. “He was showing up four and five hours late to the studio.”

But Bell had no problem shrugging off the effects of his addiction while recording in the studio, McJagger said.

“Once he got in there, he was amazing,” McJagger said.

One of Bell’s songs and his performance of it, “Little Country Church,” brought Hofeldt to tears, McJagger said.

“Brian’s not a spiritual man, but the power of that song and Knut’s performance of it really moved Brian emotionally,” McJagger recalled.

After recording the album, Bell’s addiction continued to suck him down. His erratic behavior put him at odds with long-time bandmates, who hadn’t seen him using cocaine, but knew he was abusing drugs.

Guitarist Adam Bratman butt heads with Bell and decided to leave the band when he felt that Bell became increasingly threatening and angry during shows.

“When I met him, he was an amazing, good-hearted person who’s really aware of the feelings of people around him and sensitive to what other people need, and that’s what makes a good performer,” Bratman said.

“I could definitely see him losing that sensitivity to what was going on around him.”

The downward spiral came to a critical point in October 2007, when Bell tried to hang himself with a rope tied to a beam — tried, but he failed when the large, wooden beam broke and sent him tumbling to the ground.

It was luck; he’d been too heavy for the beam. But as he lie on the floor, his head spinning, Bell began to wonder: How did I get here?



Bell, a former salmon and crab fisherman, said it began years ago when he was just 14. That’s the age at which he began chugging alcohol, he said, to deal with excruciating sadness and frustration stemming from his grandmother’s death.

The drinking continued as a part of Bell’s life. But he remained through his childhood and as a young adult staunchly “anti-drug,” thumbing his nose as people he knew were sniffing cocaine or shooting heroin. In the back of his mind, he also suffered from a fear that if he tried a drug — just once — he’d become an addict.

“That’s just the way I am,” he said, quietly, sipping on a cup of coffee.

But in 2005, Bell injured his back trying to move heavy music equipment and found himself in severe and constant pain, pain so great that he struggled get up each day and work. He was allergic to most pain relievers, and so he began drinking more heavily to ease the discomfort.

Meantime, his music was taking off, and he found himself in demand at local taverns and community events. He and his band The Blue Collars had finished two CDs, “Takin’ it Back” and “Honkahillarockabilly,” and established themselves as top-rate country entertainers who could pack ‘em in.

But one fateful day, when his back pain was killing him and his head spun on alcohol, Bell did exactly what he knew he shouldn’t — he took that sniff of cocaine.

And just as he feared, he knew he wouldn’t stop.

“What did I do the day after? I got an eight-ball (a quarter-ounce of cocaine),” he said, shaking his head. “Two weeks after that, I couldn’t get enough here, so I dipped around outside Skagit County.”

Everywhere he went, Bell said he surrounded himself with cocaine.

The more personal setbacks he suffered, including the death of a close friend and divorce, the deeper he’d dig into the coke. His addiction cost him his job as a tug boat operator and many of his friends.

Then in 2006, McJagger and Hofeldt invited Bell to record. Bell was ecstatic.

He traveled down and spent several weeks recording at Cristobal Studios in San Marcos, Texas, not far from Austin. The recording went well.

The album was set to be released in 2006. But circumstances beyond Bell’s control meant that the album was put on the back burner. Meantime, a frustrated Bell was back home in Skagit County, struggling with an increasingly intimidating addiction.

Then his grandfather died, leaving Bell deeply depressed.

“Everybody was concerned — everybody knew something was wrong,” Bell said.

After another year of abusing coke and attempting suicide, Bell hit rock bottom.

Bandmate Steve Smith said Bell was not showing up for scheduled gigs and carrying on paranoid conversations that left bandmates and audiences confused.

“He was a public spectacle at that point,” Smith said. “It became apparent to the band and to Knut himself that he needed to go to rehab.”

Bell told his mother about his addiction and promised her that he would seek help after Christmas last year.

In reality, it would be another two months before Bell would enter a recovery program. While in recovery, he finally admitted that not only was he addicted to cocaine, he also was an alcoholic.

“The real problem is that I have a disease of addictiveness,” Bell said.

Now, several months after his stint in recovery, Bell said he’s determined to make sure his newest and long-awaited CD is released and promoted. He’s confident it will take him to the big time, maybe even the Grand ‘Ol Opry.

McJagger said he and the other members of The Derailers often have discussed how Bell’s newest album should be a hit. The depths of Bell’s talent as a singer and songwriter are still being tapped, McJagger said.

Meantime, Bell said he wants to use his experience to warn others away from drugs and alcohol. And he wants to put more effort into his music and performing. Now at his shows, he’s open about his addiction and the detrimental effects of cocaine abuse, and has made reference to it while introducing songs.

“The only thing that saved me was doing these shows,” Bell said.

• Beverly Crichfield can be reached at 360-416-2135 or .