Three years after rising country music star Luke Bell died, more than two-dozen of the promising Wyoming country artist’s songs are being released to benefit those who struggle with the same depression and darkness that claimed him at 32.
Carol Bell, the Cody singer-songwriter's mother, said proceeds from her son’s official sophomore album “The King Is Back” will go to the Luke Bell Memorial Affordable Counseling Program that offers mental health counseling to those who can’t afford it in the Big Horn region.
“His sister Jane and I have been trying to get his music released with the help of a lot of people, and today his first single from his double LP, which will be released on Nov. 7, is out,” she said. “I wish it were true that the king is back, but it’s one of my favorite songs from the new LP, but there are a lot of treasures.”
The 28 studio tracks are mostly unreleased songs that were recorded between 2013 and 2016.
The title song “The King Is Back” features a hard-driving beat, toe-tapping electric and steel-guitars and lyrics maybe meant as a prophesy for what was and could have been if he had overcome his inner demons.
“I’m sure you’ve all been dying to see
I bet you’ve all been wonderin’ where I’m at
I heard things just ain’t the same without me
Hold your hats, the party’s on
The King is Back
*****
I’ve been slummin’ in the hard parts of the city
I’ve been gnawin’ on the bones to find some fat
I’ve been poor and I’ve been angry I can guarantee you that
Hold your hats, the party’s on
The King is Back”
With a voice compared to Lefty Frizzell and songwriting rooted in realities and melodies that Hank Williams might have penned, those who knew Bell witnessed both his talent and the fragility of his soul that became bound up in mental illness and self-medication.
Carol said he recorded the title track by the fall of 2015, and it was something his manager wanted him to release after her husband died. She agrees that the song is “prophetic.”
‘Moody Kid’
When she first heard the song, Carol considered that he was a “moody kid,” and it was something he wrote about “feeling great after a few days of feeling in the depths of despair as we used to say in our family.”
“And he said something on a hike one day about worrying if he released this song, people would think he was Jesus and try and kill him,” she said. “Instead of listening and being present to the pain that he was in, I kind of brushed it off as Luke being a grandiose thinker … and then he was fine for a while.”
She calls “The King Is Back” one of her favorite songs on the album.
Luke’s mother saw a young man who started drinking heavily after his father, David Bell, died in 2015, and she believes that loss helped fuel his downward trajectory.
His mother said in 2016, her son started to try and hide what was happening and even avoided her and other members of the family.
She said she went to Nashville in the fall of 2016, and he “ghosted” her during the visit. As she looks back, she understands that he was experiencing a psychotic episode.
When Carol realized her son was grappling with mental illness, she enrolled in Regis University in Denver and got her master’s degree in behavioral health counseling.
Prior to her son’s death by accidental fentanyl poisoning on Aug. 26, 2022, in Arizona, she's thankful that she and other members of the family had come to better understand him and show him “acceptance and love” in a way he understood.
“But there was nothing we could do to make him feel safe,” she said.
In 2024, Wyoming PBS used Luke Bell’s story as part of its series “A State of Mind: Confronting Our Mental Health Crisis.”
His Beginnings
Bell grew up helping run cattle on his mother’s family ranch in Shell.
He attended the University of Wyoming until his junior year, when he dropped out and moved to Austin, Texas. There he worked on his craft and produced his first self-titled project using a Kickstarter campaign in 2012.
Gigs in bars and dives and then a move to Nashville was followed by his second self-produced album “Don’t Mind If I Do” at the Bomb Shelter studio. The studio uses classic analog recording gear.
In 2016, he signed a deal with the Thirty Tigers label distribution and management company and had the national release of “Luke Bell” that included “Don’t Mind If I Do” and newer songs from a second recording session.
His talent garnered him opportunities to open for Willie Nelson and Dwight Yoakum.
But those who knew him saw a man who would not be lassoed in by the structure and demands of Nashville’s scene.
“He was a wild man from the West, and he made country music through that lens,” said Stephen Daly, who played guitar in Bell’s band. “If you told him what to do, he would do the opposite. If you tried to rein him in, he’d push away. He always did what he wanted to do.”
In and out of hospitals and with some time spent in jails, Bell was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, schizophrenia and bipolar II with psychotic episodes.
A genetic liver disorder meant Bell failed to process toxins properly, his mom said. But she believes all the diagnoses don’t really mean much because there is so much yet unknown about mental illness.
She does understand people who have the disease often turn to alcohol and other drugs to “self-medicate.”
Luke Bell poses in a black and white shot in the South. (Courtesy Bell Family) 
Luke Bell in the last years of his life struggled to cope with mental illness. (Courtesy Bell Family) 
Luke Bell poses underneath the border sign leading into Mississippi. (Courtesy Bell Family) 
Luke Bell’s new double album is titled “The King Is Back.” The vinyl LPs will be released on Nov. 7. (Courtesy Bell Family) 
Luke Bell performs at Tree Town Music Festival on May 27, 2017, in Heritage Park, Forest City, Iowa. (Photo by Rick Diamond via Getty Images for Tree Town Music Festival)
Liner Notes
As part of the new album, Luke’s mom agreed to write liner notes and provide photos for a 24-page booklet. She calls it the “hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life.”
It triggered a lot of memories.
“Thinking about how sad and terrifying it must have been for my son to be hearing voices, to be feeling like people were after him,” she said. “And to be experiencing these things in a community of people who had zero understanding of what he was going through.”
Carol said she experienced a lot of “grief and sadness” with the loss of her husband and then Luke during a seven-year stretch and that walking through those years again was “really painful.”
While the double album to be released by Thirty Tigers has been a “bittersweet project,” Carol is thankful for the work by Thirty Tigers as well as support from many people, including Brian Buchanan, Luke’s manager, and his wife, Tiffany.
“(Brian) has kind of helped keep his music out there since Luke’s death and during Luke’s illness,” she said. She also credits her son’s musician friends, stepdaughter and family for their efforts to see the project through.
Buchanan points out that the new album will give listeners a window into the man who “wrote everything alone, without any co-writers.”
"Everything you hear is 100% Luke, and you can feel his shifting moods with each session. You can hear some of those mental issues start to come through,” he said. “Some of these vocal performances are rough, because Luke didn't have time to go back and fix them. Still, Luke's B sides are better than most of what's out there from other artists.”
The album was produced by Andrija Tokic, Justin Frances, Daly and Luke Bell. It is available for pre-order and includes the double LP pressed on cloud-covered vinyl in a deluxe gatefold jacket, and liner notes written by Carol.
Country musician Luke Bell and his mental health struggles are the focus of an episode of A State of Mind on Wyoming PBS. (Courtesy Photo) 
Luke Bell's self titled album was released in 2016. (Courtesy Photo) 
Luke Bell sings with his sister Jane Bell in 2016. (Courtesy Photo) 
Musician Luke Bell performs onstage during the 2016 Stagecoach California's Country Music Festival at Empire Polo Club on April 30, 2016, in Indio, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison, Getty Images for Stagecoach)
Nashville Tribute
In addition to the album, Carol along with daughter Jane, and other Wyoming musicians are going to be in Nashville on Sept. 11 for “A Tribute to Luke Bell” during the city’s AmericanaFest.
The tribute will be in Nashville’s The Basement East and performers will be backed by members of Luke’s band.
Carol said performers are going to play some of Luke’s songs, but not the ones on the new album. She also will be talking with a reporter from Rolling Stone Magazine about the album while in Music City.
After her son died, Carol and Jane launched the Luke Bell Memorial Counseling Program in 2024 that allows people to apply for financial help if they make $65,000 a year or less and whose insurance does not cover mental health counseling.
She said those who apply agree to make a co-payment of their own choosing between $25 and $65 and the Memorial Counseling Program pays the rest of the fee for a therapist the person is free to choose.
Carol was amazed by the royalties that came in from her son’s music and the fan base that he had achieved.
Bell said she believes the program now is able to fund 60 to 70 therapy sessions monthly involving therapists and residents in the Big Horn Basin. Those who use the program must live in the Big Horn Basin.
When she and Jane started digging into how many songs Luke had recorded and not released, Carol was surprised by the number. She said there may be a few other songs out there that they do not yet know about, but probably not an album’s worth of material.
She is thankful for the surprises, such as a Facebook post from one Luke’s high school classmates who wrote about his kindness, that continue to come in from time-to-time to reveal the positive impact her son had on other’s lives.
Carol said in addition to the songs, her work on a video for the album project that involved photos of her son when he was healthy was a morale boost as well.
“It is a comfort to me to remember how much of Luke’s life was happy and joyful, and also to be reminded that he did realize his dream,” she said. “So, a lot of what I’m feeling as I watch the video and listen to his music is just so much of the last years of Luke’s life were so sad and hard to watch, and it’s really nice to be reminded of how much of his life was full of joy.”
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
