ROCK IS DEAD THEY SAY. . . VOL. I explores rock ‘n’ roll’s history, with a focus on rock’s early ’90’s “last wave” as the National Soundtrack, before becoming the B-side to Hip Hop. Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins), Dave Mustaine (Megadeth), Joey Kramer (Aerosmith), Jerry Cantrell (Alice in Chains), and Kosmo Vinyl (the Clash’s major-domo and occasional manager) bare their rockin’ souls in never-before-published COMPLETE interviews, spurred on by the probing questions of writer Mark Barsotti, ex-music critic for Denver’s Westword, whose work also appeared in Musician, D.J. Times, Request, Livewire, Syracuse New Times, Bad News and New Times (Miami).
Highlights from the original stories intro the long form interviews, which are followed by a “Re-Listenability Index” and the writer’s current take, two decades into the 21st Century.
Barsotti’s passionate, sometimes outrageous opinions also crackle through features on AC/DC, censorship, the ’60’s vs. the ’80’s, loads of album reviews, rock’s greatest movies, and his unique take on the past and future of rock ‘n’ roll. . . if – facing the coming Great Die-Off of the ’20’s – it still has one.
But hey. . . What can a poor boy do but TURN IT UP!
“Every party plate of cocaine strapped to a midget’s head cost 10,000 days of dogged, road warrior work, as bands schlepped to gigs in overcrowded vans with no ac but plenty of beer farts and insane drummers explaining that Jackie killed JFK (or maybe it was the Masons). Rockers worked their asses of, wooing their muse and chasing the dream, even if precious few ever rose to penthouse cocaine-midget status. So who better to tell the story than the musicians themselves?”
– from ROCK IS DEAD THEY SAY. . . VOL. 1