Trouser Press Books has announce Backstage & Beyond Volume 1: 45 Years of Classic Rock Chats & Rants, the first-ever anthology from award-winning music journalist Jim Sullivan, to be published in paperback and e-book on July 21, 2023.
With over 26 years writing for the Boston Globe and two decades more writing for national publications from Creem to Newsweek, Jim Sullivan has interviewed and reviewed countless musicians, some multiple times.
Backstage & Beyond Volume 1 now gathers Sullivan’s writings on an array of artists, 21 of whom have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, whose music came to prominence in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.
Over the course of 350 pages, Sullivan shares profiles of Jerry Lee Lewis, Tina Turner, Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, Nico, Brian Eno, Neil Young, Richard Thompson, David Bowie, Peter Gabriel, Warren Zevon, Pete Townshend, Ray Davies and the Kinks, Dave Davies, Ginger Baker, Leonard Cohen, Marianne Faithfull, John Fogerty, Ian Hunter and Mott the Hoople, Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music, Robert Fripp and King Crimson, Darlene Love, Alice Cooper, Peter Wolf and J. Geils Band, Joe Perry and Aerosmith, Lemmy and Motörhead, George Clinton, Tangerine Dream, Joan Baez, and Roy Orbison.
Rather than simply collect previously published articles as they originally appeared, Sullivan went through his archives to find everything that he had written about each artist, reworking the original pieces into more expansive takes on these musicians, “chronicling their changing situations, outlooks, and experiences through the passage of time and his own unique perspective.”
A second volume, titled Backstage & Beyond Volume 2, which focuses on artists spanning Ramones, Sex Pistols, The Cars, and The Clash to The Cure, The Police, Beastie Boys, Puff Daddy, and Talking Heads, will follow in October.
Jim Sullivan writes in the book’s preface:
My hope is that the recollections contained here trigger some memories, bring you back to where you wanted to be – backstage and beyond, as it were. And if you weren’t around then, I hope this transports you back to several golden ages of rock and roll.
