Art Alexakis (center) and Everclear, courtesy.

This story originally appeared in the Oakland Tribune.

It’s understandable for Art Alexakis to want to plant permanent roots. As a youth, the Everclear frontman saw his dad walk out on him and his brother die of a drug overdose. He then was kicked around among family members. He failed at marriage three times. 

“I counted it, and in my life, I have moved 62 times,” the 44-year-old rock vocalist-guitarist says from his new home in Portland, Ore. “You know how moving is. It just sucks. It’s almost as bad as a breakup. I’m just like a shark that can’t stop swimming. I want roots.” 

On a professional note, both of his bandmates quit Everclear for their own bands in 2003, leaving Alexakis to basically start over. 

Alexakis bought the house — with a white picket fence in a nice neighborhood — last summer for himself and his girlfriend Vanessa. But he has yet to fully unpack. 

“(The house is) very sweet, and it’s wonderful and it’s painted yellow,” he says. “And I’m still a (expletive) gypsy.” 

The singer’s gypsy ways have been due, mostly, to his busy touring schedule in support of Everclear’s latest album, “Welcome to the Drama Club.” It’s the band’s first album since two of trio’s bandmates — bassist Craig Montoya and drummer Greg Eklund — left to focus on other projects. The process of restarting the band has been hard, but Alexakis is no stranger to drama. 

The youngest of five children, Alexakis was raised by his mother after his father walked out on the family — the story is chronicled on the song “Father of Mine” on the band’s third album, “So Much for the Afterglow.” 

He became a heavy drug user — even after his older brother George died of an overdose at 21. Eventually, he suffered a near-fatal cocaine overdose, which pushed him to clean up in the mid-’80s. In the interim, he was pushed around among various family members in Southern California, Oregon and Texas. 

Art Alexakis played in a few bands in Los Angeles in the’80s but became frustrated with his inability to make money, so he and his first wife moved north to San Francisco. The marriage soon failed. 

“I lived there for 41/2 years and in five different places,” he says. “I lived in Western Addition, I lived in North Beach, I lived in the Lower Haight, I lived in the Upper Haight and I lived in Potrero Hill, in a loft.” 

Alexakis founded a label and formed a band, Colorfinger, which finished one album before the label failed. The band broke up in 1992, and Alexakis and his pregnant girlfriend moved to her hometown of Portland. That relationship would not last either. Alexakis, however, remains close to his 14-year-old daughter, Annabella. 

In Portland, he met Montoya and drummer Scott Cuthbert and formed Everclear and released the debut album “World of Noise” in 1993. One year later, Cuthbert was replaced by Eklund. The band signed with Capital Records and released its second album, “Sparkle and Fade,” in 1995. The disc’s second single, “Santa Monica,” became a major hit, and the album was certified platinum. 

Over the next five years and two albums, the band enjoyed success with such hits as “Everything to Everyone,” “I Will Buy You a New Life,” “Father of Mine,” “Wonderful” and “AM Radio.” 

But the band’s next two albums floundered, which led to a split with Capitol and eventually forced Alexakis to declare bankruptcy. Correspondingly, Montoya and Eklund left the band. 

“I was like, ‘You guys don’t want to do this? Cool. See ya,’” Alexakis says. “I look back now, and it’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me as a musician, and it’s the best thing that ever happened to Everclear.” 

The singer spent the rest of 2003 performing solo to see “if I still wanted to do Everclear or if I wanted to do something else.” At that time, his third marriage was collapsing and he felt like going out on the road would take his mind off his problems. 

“I was in a denial about a lot of things that had happened to me personally, like abandonment and sexual abuse that happened to me when I was a child, and I never dealt with it,” he says. “I had never really grieved the loss of my brother and my dad leaving and stuff like that. 

“I had been a (bad) husband — a good father but a (bad) husband — to all my wives. I cheated, I lied. I wasn’t a good friend to them.” 

He decided to stick with Everclear, and brought in four friends: bassist Sam Hudson, guitarist Dave French, drummer Brett Snyder and keyboardist Josh Crawley. 

“This is the best band I’ve ever been in, personality-wise,” he says. “Everyone’s a little bit older, most of the people in the band have kids, and it’s something we can all connect on.” 

The new Everclear released “Welcome to the Drama Club” in September. Art Alexakis admits it has been an awkward transition for the new members to join a band with a history as long as Everclear’s, but they are getting used to playing the hits as much as the new songs. 

“They have more influence about making this a band project than the other guys ever did,” Alexakis says. 

Yet the songs on the new album are probably more personal to him than ever. The act of writing about where he was at the time was a humbling experience — and he needed to be humbled, he says. 

“It’s kind of a catharsis,” he said. “Emotionally and lyrically, it’s a very hard record for me. I was not in a healthy place, and I am now — the songs just echo that.” 

Follow editor Roman Gokhman at Twitter.com/RomiTheWriter.