Ben Stalets: BitCoin and Broken Hearts

Check out the second single from the Toledo’s outlaw troubadour; full-length album due August 27th

August 5, 2021August 6, 2021 Ron Hart 0 Comments Ben Statlets, Bill Callahan, Bitcoin, John Prine, Smog, Toledo

Ben Stalets (Art: Ron Hart. Photo: Drew Rochette)

The Internet Age and the Bitcoin Gold Rush have both been around long enough to merit from the catharsis of country music.

Fake IDs, meanwhile, are as old as the oldest country song, practically. These factors all factor into the story of Ben Stalets, fresh from a two-year probation stint with 60 days of home confinement after being convicted for his role in one of the nation’s largest fake ID rings which used a Reddit Forum to make sales. Amongst the evidence seized in the case included gold and silver coins and bars, $7,000 in cash, and $4.7 million in Bitcoin currency, all of which now belong to Uncle Sam.

Ben Stalets Everybody’s Laughing, Whistlepig Records 2021

Unfortunately, Stalets fell into this crime ring after responding to an online job post by the operation’s convicted leader, and soon found himself culpable after ordering the fake ID equipment at his residence and visiting a Bitcoin terminal in Toledo.

“I wasn’t an integral part of the operation – I was piecemeal, and everything I did seemed legal at the time,” Stalets tells Rock & Roll Globe. “For example, I’ve never (knowingly) seen a fake ID, and I’ve never had any Bitcoin to my name. I did, however, order a printer from Amazon and run to and from a Bitcoin ATM, etc. At first it seemed perfectly normal, but I didn’t see the forest for the trees.”

The result of this ordeal, however, inspired Stalets to record an album, entitled Everybody’s Laughing, which comes out on August 27th and whose second single “Rock N Roll Song” we are proud to premiere today on the site.

One might call Ben an outlaw troubadour, given how tender his delivery is on this acoustic number, which takes its cues from the calm of such acclaimed artists as John Prine and Bill Callahan.

Listen to “Rock N Roll Song” below.