Singer-songwriter Beth Hart to play at The Space at Westbury

Singer-songwriter Beth Hart loves getting older. On the day after her 45th birthday, she embraces her earned years as a badge of honor.

“What I love about getting older is you get to learn a new way to grow every year,” says Hart, who plays The Space at Westbury on Feb 19. “I made it, man. I’m not dead yet.”

Hart entered the music scene in the mid-’90s when she was signed to Atlantic Records. By the end of the decade she broke through with a radio hit, “L.A. Song.” However, things fell apart.

“I was really sick,” she says. “I had major drug problems mixed with undiagnosed mental illness and major eating disorder. I was in and out of psych wards and rehabs.”

After a regulating her medication, practicing transcendental meditation and finding religion, Hart was able to rectify her troubled past. But, she was a bit lost musically as her career was relegated to performing in Holland, Denmark and Norway.

“I was thinking about quitting,” says Hart. “I had done the rock and roll thing, I had done the singer-songwriter thing and I didn’t know where else to go or what else I had left to say.”

Then she discovered the blues. Guitarist Joe Bonamassa called Hart to collaborate on a 2011 covers collection, “Don’t Explain,” which rebooted her career.

“At first, I didn’t know if I could do it as a singer, but I knew I loved the music. However, once I started, I had the best time,” says Hart. “Everything was new again and challenging.”

Her new blues album, “Fire on the Floor,” is a passion project for which she recorded a dozen originals in three days with producer Oliver Leiber, with whom she made “L.A. Song.”

“As I wrote I started to get below my many layers of denial that kept me in my safe cocoon,” says Hart. “All the sensitivity and vulnerability that I didn’t want anyone to see is where my strength is. Now that is coming out way more in my music and my live show.”

By David J. Criblez

david.criblez@newsday.comDavidJCriblez

David J. Criblez is a reporter for Newsday's exploreLI, covering entertainment-related events from local music to stand-up comedy to festivals.