1

“Doesn’t mean that much to me

To mean that much to you”

Neil Young is beyond image. He’s lived so long, played so long, that it’s just him, sans trappings. As for his contemporaries…

They feel that they’ve got to convince the audience, overwhelm them, prove that they’ve still got it, are as important as they once were, still as meaningful, you should be wowed just to be in their presence.

But you’re not.

It’s creepy. So many have had plastic surgery. Because that’s the image they want to project, of them in their heyday, youthful, meaningful. They’re in stage outfits. And the production! The hi-def screens and the lasers, they’ve got to have the latest technology, to rationalize the ticket price if nothing else. It’s a veritable assault. By time it’s over you should feel worn out, like you’ve had the experience of a lifetime. But it’s nowhere close. It’s just old people playing old songs.

And then there’s Neil Young.

He seemed to be having fun.

Let’s be clear, he doesn’t need the money. He made that Hipgnosis deal, never mind the cash he’s already got. As for losing that money to his ex-wife… She died and probably left it to his children, so that kind of equalizes the equation. In any event, he’s got a ton of bread.

But what are you gonna do with all that money? Do you need a plane? How many houses can you buy, never mind needing to manage them.

So at the end of the day, you’re a musician.

Let’s be clear, so many are not, especially of the younger generation. They’re two dimensional constructs made to front the work of behind the scenes writers and producers. Did you see who’s headlining Coachella? Sabrina Carpenter, Justin Bieber and Karol G? A big time concert promoter told me he was gonna retire because he was sick of presenting music he didn’t like. I give Paul Tollett credit for changing with the ages, forgetting the old acts that he used to hire to headline, but these acts? The attendees are not going so much to see them as to show off, shoot selfies of their outfits. There’s not much there. It’s showbiz, but more pre-Beatles than anything else.

So Neil Young shows up on stage in the clothing he wears off stage. This was a thing back when he broke through in 1970. But his contemporaries, they started showing up in tuxes at awards shows, wearing dignified clothing on stage. I can’t remember ever seeing Neil in a tux, he’s stayed true to himself when so many have not.

2

So the Chrome Hearts are the best band Neil’s played with since Crazy Horse. No one is hogging the spotlight, everybody’s just doing their job, however, bass player Corey McCormick was really into it, in a way the oldsters never are. He’s bouncing on stage, singing into the mic, he was in the moment, the audience was secondary, he had the music in him.

And Micah Nelson never showed off. Towards the very end he had the spotlight upon him, and he threw off a solo, but otherwise he blended in, which is the goal of a band, right?

As for drummer Anthony LoGerfo… Most drummers are demonstrating their physicality, oftentimes showing off. This guy was so relaxed it was almost like he was playing at a bar mitzvah. I mean it’s the music that counts, right? It is show business, but he’s not the star, he’s just doing his job, simply.

And on keys Spooner Oldham. Reminded me of seeing Chris Spedding playing with Bryan Ferry. A legend as a sideman, amazing!

But that’s all in support of Neil. Not that he’s hogging the spotlight. He barely talks to the audience. Except when someone down front said happy birthday and he said IT’S NOT MY BIRTHDAY! This was not HELLO CLEVELAND!

The focus was on the music.

The opener was “Ambulance Blues.” The last song from 1974’s “On the Beach,” the first record after the live album “Time Fades Away,” which pushed all the soft rock fans of “Harvest” away. Neil continued to make good albums thereafter, but he wasn’t truly up front and center again until 1979’s “Rust Never Sleeps,” with “My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue).” And he sang it last night, but the funny thing is rock and roll has died. Not only in terms of dominance, but in terms of pushing the art form forward.

But if I told you I could hum “Ambulance Blues” before last night I’d be lying, even though I bought “On the Beach” when it came out. “Walk On”? Certainly. But not this.

But Neil’s keeping the show interesting to him. A little of this, a little of that. He’s got a giant catalog. And some were hits, but once you enter this century, none of these old acts have hits. Does that mean you should ignore less familiar work if it’s good? NO!

Like “Sun Green.” That’s why I wanted to go, to hear this track from “Greendale,” which I loved. And he played “Be the Rain” from that project too. These songs I know well.

But song #2 was “Cowgirl in the Sand.” I can’t say I bought Neil’s solo debut when it came out, but I did purchase “Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere.” Everybody likes “Cinnamon Girl,” which is great, the outro is amazing, but the best songs on that album are the side closers, “Down by the River” and “Cowgirl in the Sand.” And at some shows Neil has played the former, but at this one he played the latter. You know, with the verses and then the extended solos… This show was not for the faint of heart. If you don’t like loud and noisy, this was not for you. Not every song, but when the number called for it… Neil would pick out notes on his black Les Paul and it was like being in the garage, in that there was no need to get it exactly right, but more to make a glorious sound all together, to be in the moment and feel the music. And there was one additional instrumental section beyond the recorded take before a final hosanna.

And that’s one thing I noticed, how different the experience was listening to these live takes as opposed to the records, which I’ve played ad infinitum. No matter how well they were recorded, they sound different. They’re set in amber, they’re encapsulated, whereas the live versions were truly alive, they breathed, you could feel the humanity within. There are no hard drives, this is all done without a net.

With no production, the music is enough.

3

“Southern Man”?

Check.

“Ohio”?

I wondered if he would change the lyrics, make them contemporary, but it was still Nixon coming.

“Only Love Can Break Your Heart” was never my favorite on “After the Gold Rush,” but it was less sing-songy and more heartfelt here.

And sure, everybody loved “Like a Hurricane,” which sounds like a hurricane, and “Hey Hey, My My,” but some of the biggest applause came after the performance of “Big Crime.”

“No more great again

No more great again

Got big crime in DC at the White House”

Neil’s not afraid.

“Don’t need no fascist rules

Don’t want no fascist schools

Don’t want soldiers walking on our streets”

In a world where everybody with something to lose, a company, a job, is kissing Trump’s ass, Neil sees no need to. And isn’t that the role of the artist, to speak truth to power? We need that now more than ever. And Neil’s fans were on his side. Not that he cared if he pissed a Trumper off.

But the highlight was “Old Man.”

4

“Old man, look at my life

I’m a lot like you were”

The second most famous song on “Harvest,” which dominated the airwaves in the winter and spring of 1972.

Sure, the hit was the mellow “Heart of Gold,” but the other track that stood out was “Old Man,” in an era where the music was for the young people, who believed they ruled.

This was an era where the old people didn’t want to be young. I mean no one wants to die, but believe me, our parents weren’t envying our lifestyles, donning our clothing and listening to our music, no way.

“Old man, look at my life

Twenty four and there’s so much more”

TWENTY FOUR??? Neil is now seventy nine. And how old are you? Most of his original fans are septuagenarians. How in the hell did he write this, record so much great material at twenty four? He was wise beyond his years.

Then again, Neil said the last time he played the Hollywood Bowl was in the sixties, with Stephen and Buffalo Springfield.

So much time has passed, how did we become the old men?

And it was mostly old people in attendance, a lot of gray hair. They stuck with Neil, they were not casual fans, this was a pilgrimage.

“I’ve been first and last

Look at how the time goes past”

It was about winning. That was the culture of the boomers. Sure, it was kumbaya around the campfire, but you wanted to stick out, leave your mark, be a champion.

And now it’s all irrelevant.

All that time has gone past. Can we have some perspective?

For a lot of people, no. They’re the ones going to the show to live the days of yore, subjected to a calcified performance by people stuck in an era long past.

Last night’s show definitely existed in the present.

And it really wasn’t about a show, it wasn’t about what you saw, but what you heard. It really wasn’t that much different from the seventies.

I won’t quite say Neil’s stuck there as much as he never sold out, never forsook his values, he stayed true to himself when almost none of his contemporaries did. And that makes him a revelation.

Neil Young is not warm and fuzzy. What you see is what you get. At this point he’s not worried about satiating you, he’s not playing to the audience, hell, a lot of the time he was playing to the other band members, but he’s comfortable in his skin and his work and knows enough people are interested that he doesn’t have to grovel for ticket sales. This is what he does and it resonates.

So…

How much longer will he be able to do this?

Today Dave Mason retired. And Robert Redford died. The endless road does not go on forever.

And what is a life about. Think about this, Neil Young devoted his entire life to making music. That’s his mark. And unlike so many he never stopped making albums, wasn’t worried about commercial acceptance, he’s an artist and artists produce.

So…

There were some hits and some deep cuts, you didn’t feel like you were getting a set show, you knew not only that another night would feature different songs, but even the same songs would sound a little different.

The music was alive. That’s the magic of the concert experience, which can never be replicated by a stream.

This was not a finale, but just another stop on an endless road. He’s on his journey and so are we. Last night we connected at the Hollywood Bowl, we’ll reconnect in the future, down the line. With new stories and new songs. The same but different, like life itself.

So roll another number for the road.

That’s what Neil and the Chrome Hearts did before they left the stage last night.

I hope you did too.

It’s all about keepin’ on. With your eyes open. Never forgetting the past, but continuing to think and grow.

Re: Inaccessibility

Hi Bob,

For those that don’t hate Pablo Cruise … at my first meeting with the band, I was immediately taken with their incredible drummer Steve Price, and the original bass player Bud Cockrell. Man could they groove! Bud was a Southern boy and had a wonderful gritty voice that went well with guitarist David Jenkins’ smoother higher voice. The vocal tradeoffs in “Whatcha Gonna Do?” show that perfectly.  But right when “WGD” was flying up the charts, Bud’s wife made him quit the band and start a duo with her.  If the band’s loss of Bud’s singing, playing, and songwriting hadn’t happened, I’m convinced they would have placed a much deeper stake in the ground.

Best,

Bill Schnee

________________________________

Subject: RE: The Mike Campbell Autobiography-1

Hi Bob,

I’m very glad you wrote about Mike’s book. I loved it! And surprise of surprises, I bought the audiobook, with Mike reading it himself. Is he Mr. Elocution? He is not. Is he Len Cariou or one of the premier audio book specialists? He is not. But his reading has so much charm and so much heart and so much down-to-earth honesty that I couldn’t wait to finish it. This is one where I highly recommend you buy the hardcover and pay a little extra to Audible.com and get the audio version as well.

My favorite parts? The story of “Boys of Summer” and his bewilderment at the way Don came up with the lyrics. The story of how he almost sold his house and at the last minute went against his business manager’s advice and kept it. And, of course, his dedication to being a family man in the maelstrom that is the rock and roll life.

Not a Heartbreaker…. this book is a Heartwarmer.

Best,

John Boylan

________________________________

From: Simon Aleman

Subject: Meta is killing Venues

Bob, investigate the targeting changes made by meta this spring.  Small venues can no longer do detailed targeting to get their show adds in front of people who like specific bands.  All detailed targeting has been rolled up into very broad categories like “Indie Music” and “Metal Music”.  Unlike a jewelry store or a brand of clothing, venues need to NOT get the word out to the 500,000-1,000,000 people in their area.  They need to get the add in front of the 20-40,000 people who like particular band and similar bands.  I could go on for days about how this is killing us.  Please look into it and make some noise.

Thanks,

Simon

Owner

The Vanguard Music Hall, Tulsa, OK

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5E0hOXnOc6NmAscL5d2jXu?si=ccae8f0bcea5411a

The music meant more because the people who made it were inaccessible. Now you can reach your favorite artist on social media, or they can make you a birthday greeting on Cameo…is that still a thing? Used to be broke artists scrounged up cash off the radar screen, now they trade on their fame right in front of us.

So we were cruising down the 101 and Pure Prairie League’s “Amie” came on. A fantastic song that I may have heard too much, but as I let it play the lyrics came alive in a way they never had before.

“I can see why you think you belong to me

I never tried to make you think or let you see

One thing for yourself

But now you’re off with someone else and I’m alone

You see I thought that I might keep you for my own”

The sixties ushered in the era of free love, as a result of the birth control pill. But so many of the social mores didn’t really change until the seventies. In the sixties, you might still get married out of college. By the seventies? You probably had multiple relationships before you settled down.

Like with Amie.

But he treated her badly and she moved on. This is something controlling men frequently cannot foresee. They think everything is copacetic, but that’s just because their significant other is living in a box, wherein she cannot express a contrary opinion, cannot go out without giving you notice, and will then be questioned ad infinitum. And by time the ex moves on…she’s been gone in her mind for a long time, it’s just a matter of making the move, and despite the protestations of the man she’s never coming back. People don’t come back to controlling relationships after they’ve gained their freedom.

Once again, controlling people usually don’t realize it. They control the other person to assuage their anxiety, but life is all about anxiety, nothing is solid except the ground under your feet, and sometimes that shakes.

So who was Amie? This had to be a real story. All these songs are. Which is another reason why oldsters have a hard time writing new material, their lives are not in flux, they’re not busy figuring it out, constantly in different situations, they’re settled.

And as I was listening to “Amie” I realized that they don’t make records like this anymore. First and foremost, because today’s music requires more edge, but also the economics were different. By time we hit the seventies, if you had a deal you made your album in a multitrack studio and had enough money and time to get the sound right. Almost no one is given that money today.

So the records were listened to were professional. To the point where when the Ramones came along, it was about undercutting the perfection of the years before.

But perfection carried on.

I also heard Pablo Cruise’s “Watcha Gonna Do.”

Now I came to love Pablo Cruise’s “A Place in the Sun” because of its sync in “An Unmarried Woman,” a Jill Clayburgh film that’s been lost to the sands of time. She’s gone, as is the filmmaker, Paul Mazursky. They don’t make this kind of story anymore, but once upon a time…

Jill finds herself suddenly single in the apartment. And then the music starts to play and her mood completely changes, she starts to dance.

“Love always promises to last forever, but sometimes it just don’t work out

‘Cause laughing lighthearted tunes, oh, sometimes they turn to blues”

Ain’t that the truth. And you have to find your place in the sun.

And I know people hate Pablo Cruise, and I was not a fan of their hit “Love Will Find a Way,” but I found a promo copy of the “A Place in the Sun” album and I’d drop the needle…

“Everybody’s heart needs a holiday sometime”

Yes, but then the album segues into “Watcha Gonna Do.”

“Watcha gonna do when she says goodbye

Watcha gonna do when she is gone”

What are you gonna do?

“So you’re having trouble with your romance

Well, you better check it out before it goes, yeah

‘Cause you might not be seeing things just the way you should

And you don’t recognize what everybody knows”

Hmm… Isn’t this the same message as “Amie”?

And one thing is for sure, these Pablo Cruise cuts were not made on the cheap. You spent the bucks in the hope you’d get a ton of bucks in return.

All the big recording innovations had already taken place at warp speed in the sixties and early seventies. From mono to stereo to four track to eight track to sixteen to ultimately twenty four tracks.

Then it became about software, i.e. the music.

Like in tech. From 1995-2005, maybe 2010, it was an explosion of innovation. But in music, streaming won, and now it’s a matter of the software once again, the music.

And I’m thinking of the billions of streams of “Blinding Lights.” That’s big, but not as big as the music used to be.

You can see Abel in a bad television series and movie. There’s no mystery here. Kendrick Lamar boosted his career by talking about the private life of Drake. The whole world was backstage, but in the seventies going backstage was a near impossibility, and if you got there whatever happened was off the record, there were no smartphones recording video, it was a secret society and a secret life.

We were exposed on the radio. We bought records and went to see our favorite acts live.

And it wasn’t entertainment, it was a religious experience. They were right there, on stage, playing your favorite tunes!

Ironically, all these years later so many of these same people are plying the boards, living in the past, and it’s kind of creepy, but…

Back then if you were a listener, you were anonymous. You couldn’t hate on people online. You had no belief you were equal to the stars, no way. And there was no bigger star than a musician, the biggest of whom wrote their own material, told their story, revealed their inner life and all you could do at home was listen, the backstory was mostly hidden. And therefore the stars were higher and the hoi polloi were lower.

We’re never going back to that era, we can’t.

But it was different.

1

This book is bumming me out. Because that’s the way it was and it’s not that way anymore. There used to be a rock culture with defined steps, you buy an instrument, form a band, play in bars and then try to move up the ladder, get a deal and become a success. Now all those steps have been eliminated, now you try to become a POP star, and having played in a bar is irrelevant, you may not have played live at all!

And if you cut in a big studio, it’s only basics. The business is decentralized, done in various home studios.

And if you strike it big, you no longer become rich.

Scratch that… The Heartbreakers weren’t getting rich even after they had hits. They were essentially destitute. Living on mattresses on the floor of houses with no furniture. Actually, that was when things were looking up! Before that you might be living in someone’s garage, or sleeping on a couch…

I don’t want to say no one lives that way anymore, but the standard of living in America has gone way up. As have expenses, affecting mobility, but the concept of struggle is different. I grew up in a classic split level, with all five of us on top of each other with three bedrooms and one bathroom. We added an addition in ’62, but really… Today everybody seems to live in a mansion! The average person can live in a 4,000 square foot house… That was unfathomable back then, those domiciles didn’t even exist!

But it’s harder to live than before, costs are through the roof, which means a struggling musician…can’t.

That’s one thing no one acknowledges about today’s college students, how savvy they are. I graduated and moved to Salt Lake to become a ski bum. Not a single person I knew was on the corporate track. But today? The kids know you’re either a winner or a loser, and you don’t want to be a loser without a leg up, no way.

Which means that so many of the middle class don’t go into the arts, the odds are too long. Therefore, you get those without portfolio playing the game, who are malleable, who will do what their label and handlers tell them to.

Unlike Tom Petty.

Are you willing to put it all on the line, risk everything, your career, to protest a raw deal? Tom Petty did. Today you work with cowriters, do a cover, anything for a hit, the label has invested and it wants a return. And it was always a business, but more money was thrown around and more acts were making money…more acts were signed!

But how do you get signed?

2

It all started with the Beatles. Sure, there were Americans born in the forties who just happened to be players who benefited from the success of the Beatles, but those of us born in the fifties…we saw the band on Ed Sullivan, we heard the records on the radio, we wanted IN!

So everybody bought an instrument, and everybody played.

And everybody was forming bands.

And then you tried to get gigs. And there were a ton of gigs available. Not so every band could work, but if you were good…

There were school dances, sock hops. Battles of the bands. Bar and bat mitzvahs. Proms. Bars. There was seemingly an endless number of places to play. And now there are fewer and most want to spin records, they want a deejay. Why hire a not fantastic Top Forty cover band when you can play the records themselves, in a world that venerates the deejay?

As for bars…

They’re a business, first and foremost. The entertainment is there to sell alcohol, that’s it. They’re not a service. And somewhere in the past decades, most of the public rejected live music by bands playing original material. There was no leeway whatsoever. Especially now, when the hits are available on everybody’s phone.

And was it a good business proposition? Was it worth it to the bar to pay the band, did it get enough in return?

And even weddings now have deejays instead of bands. No one pooh-poohs the affair.

As for clubs… Even the ones that showcased talent with a deal have fallen by the wayside, even the Bottom Line closed. The economics just didn’t work. People want to see and hear music, but they want to hear the STARS! They’ll pay big bucks to see their favorite in an arena, but to see an up and coming act, wet behind the ears, play in their local watering hole? That’s viewed as a bad experience.

OF COURSE there are exceptions. But there used to be a whole culture of developing bands in every region of the country, honing their chops, trying to make it.

You knew every player in your town. The bands were rarely static. Members were replaced, maybe because they weren’t good enough, oftentimes because the players felt it was no longer worth it, they wanted to grow up, they wanted to have some MONEY!

3

Mike Campbell grew up relatively poor.

Even at this late date when someone says they grew up poor, don’t believe them. They’re oftentimes lying to embellish their credibility. You went to prep school? You couldn’t have been poor. Your father was an attorney, or owned a car dealership? I’ve heard these stories from multiple musicians. You pierce the surface and you find they’re lying. Because no one wants to say they were rich and comfortable, that goes against the ethos.

Benmont Tench came from money.

But Mike Campbell really had next to nothing until the band hit. I mean really hit, with “Damn the Torpedoes.”

Mike made it. But a lot of the other people he played with in the band did not. And then where were they? Broke, with few options, too old to start over and go to college.

As for Tom Petty?

His image is pierced in this book. He was not a lovable everyman. He knew what he wanted and you couldn’t stand in his way. And sometimes he’d poke you, needle you, make fun of you, just for the sport of it, with no goal whatsoever other than to make you uptight. Stars are a different breed. It’s not only Tom, it’s most of your heroes. Because do you know how hard it is to make it? To sacrifice everything for your dream with odds of success so damn low? Tom Petty made it, you don’t know the names of all the people who tried and didn’t.

As for the 50/50 deal…

Mike had told me this, but when you read about it in the book…

Tony Dimitriades brought in Elliot Roberts as co-manager. And a band meeting was called. And everybody was there except Tom. And Stan Lynch immediately senses that something was up.

And then Elliot told them. Going forward, Tom got 50% of the money and the other four spit the remaining 50%. And this didn’t go over well with the band, they wanted to quit, after all, it was a BAND, they believed Petty couldn’t do it on his own. HOWEVER, Mike reminded them if they stood on their principles and quit, where would that leave them? Right and broke without a band? Or should they suck it up and stay with Petty who had a deal and some success and was a great songwriter and frontman.

What Mike did not tell me in our podcast was that the resentment lasted for YEARS!

Ah, bands.

4

So what you’ve got here is the story of Mike Campbell begging for a guitar, and not getting one until he was already in his teens. And then he dedicated himself to it.

But he didn’t believe in himself. He knew he was practicing, but how good was he? Not that good, right?

But when he got a chance to play with others they were impressed, and this ultimately led to working with Petty and getting a gig at a popular bar where everybody would end up with $100 a week, but…

The main draw was not the band, but the STRIPPERS! And the wet t-shirt contests. Ah, the seventies. Do they even have wet t-shirt contests anymore? As for nudity, just fire up Google!

And they’re playing for YEARS!

And make a demo which generates nothing.

Ultimately Tom goes to California and goes to the labels and London might be interested, but then he gets a call from Denny Cordell at Shelter who is ga-ga, wants them to come to Tulsa and meet.

You’ve got to understand, he may have ended up as Tom Petty with his Heartbreakers, but at that point you’re hanging on by a thread. If this guy isn’t interested…there’s not another person. You’re nowhere.

And after signing with Shelter and being in the studio…

Nothing happened. The band broke up. Everybody was on their own other than Tom, who convinced Denny to throw a little cash at Mike too…very little cash.

This is the way it WAS!

And it’s no longer that way anymore.

Even after the band starts to gain traction… They talk about Robert Hilburn writing about them and that having a positive effect. If it weren’t for the efforts of promotion man Jon Scott, would ANYTHING have happened in America?

5

So I don’t read most rock biographies, because usually they’re print versions of “Behind the Music.” They’re not honest. You don’t really see the struggle. You see the arc, and that’s important, but not everything.

Mike goes into some of the details of playing the guitar, of instruments themselves. And it’s not too much if you’re a casual fan, and if you’re more than that, you’ll eat it up.

Mike was a fan. He knew the records, the ones you played, and he knew the labels and the business…all from afar. And he was not the only one. Back then there was a plethora of those people, maybe you too, reading this. We lived for the music and more, the whole penumbra. We just wanted to be involved. But one thing about the music business, they didn’t need us, they didn’t need ANYBODY specifically, they just needed people who could generate cash, and they didn’t really care who that was.

So Mike is a shy, quiet guy, not the life of the party and not a ladies man… What was it like to be in the game, but trading only on your ability, that’s it. Mike doesn’t sound like a star, he sounds closer to you and me.

6

Now I’m halfway through the book, they’re recording “Damn the Torpedoes” at Sound City with Jimmy Iovine and Shelly Yakus, and it’s interesting, but not as interesting as what came before.

We’ve seen this movie in its various permutations. Making records, making them into successes. But what came before? That hasn’t been heavily delineated, and that’s what makes the first half of the book so interesting. Because if you were paying attention back in the late sixties and early seventies…YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHAT MIKE IS TALKING ABOUT! You didn’t even have to be a player, just a listener, the vibe… It was a different era. Music was everything, we were all paying attention and you could struggle and figure out who you were and wanted to be on minimum wage. You couldn’t live like a king, but you could get by.

And at that age, your late teens and early twenties, it’s all about meeting people and their friends. Making connections, going places, taking risks. You’re out and about, not always sunny and happy, but life was an adventure, anything but plotted out. Who could you believe in, who could you trust?

And if you were living in L.A. in the mid-seventies, what Mike talks about will resonate.

There was a free-flowing atmosphere. You could see the billboards, go to the clubs…where you might run into someone famous. But you knew behind closed doors it was a mobile society of studios and hanging out and doing drugs and…

It’s not that way anymore. Now it’s about being a brand and making money. Back then, just playing the music was enough.

Sure, sure, sure… There are still rock bands. But very few break through to big time success, they’re niches in backwaters. Blues Traveler was on MTV, today you’re either a Phish fan or you’re not. There’s a jam band scene, but there’s no crossover. So everybody in America knowing your name and your music…it’s nearly impossible. And whatever success you have either comes instantly, if you’re a pop star, or takes a really long time if you’re anybody else.

7

Yes, this book depressed me, but not all the way through. But there would come times when Mike was talking about situations I was in. Parallel societies, even in Los Angeles. And one thing is for sure, it’s not that way anymore. There will always be a music business, always be hit records, but the stars of yore…they were different, don’t let anybody tell you otherwise. Sabrina Carpenter, Olivia Rodrigo, even Miley Cyrus? Musicians didn’t start out in the mainstream, anything but. And they had contempt for those in the mainstream, you listened to FM rock, not AM pop drivel. You worked your way up from the bottom. It was unfathomable to be on a TV show and then leverage this into a musical career. Ricky Nelson was a progenitor, and pre-Beatles, and the Monkees were fabricated and whatever you think about their music today, many had disdained these acts back then.

No, you wore your jeans, smoked your dope, played your Telecaster to the hits of the day and constantly thought about original material, which was the only thing that would give you a chance, a break. And to form a band that could get by on original material only? That was the dream, but that was rare, VERY rare.

But a few broke through.

And it was a knife edge. It’s not like everybody was clamoring for Tom Petty. He got a chance, and it ultimately paid off, but it just as easily could have gone completely bust.

So if you’re thinking about the story of Tom Petty…

This is the story of the guy one step away. Who wrote some of the music and was there and it’s a different perspective.

And at times it was so true, resonated so much, that I truly almost put the book down, it hurt too much. We lived through this and it is never coming back, this era is going to die with us.

So, if you have any interest at all in Mike’s story…READ THIS BOOK!