Creepy Sleepy Show #86 - Interview With Lonn M. Friend
Creepy Sleepy Show #86 - Interview with Lonn M. Friend [53:15m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadIt’s a privilege and an honor to be joined on Creepy Sleepy Show #86 by legendary rock critic, A&R man, author, and spiritual journeyman Lonn M. Friend. With music from the new Michael Franti album provided by the kick-ass team at Guerrilla Management, DHP and Lonn rhapsodize about rocknroll for an hour. Go inside rock history with Lonn Friend and Creepy Sleepy.
The below interview was conducted by another legendary record man, Harvey Kubernik. It’s lengthy, but well worth your time. In this sound-bite culture, it’s refreshing to read an interview by a rock legend, about a rock legend. Harvey’s interview takes Lonn to depths unexplored by main-stream media outlets. Read it, then buy the book.
Lonn Friend interview on his book “Life On Planet Rock.”
By Harvey Kubernik c 2006Lonn is a veteran insider and confidant to artists and executives alike. His memoir, Life on Planet Rock– published by Morgan Road/Random House – was released domestically on July 11, 2006. It has just entered its second printing. Planet Rock was published in August in the UK through Piatkus Books.
A Los Angeles native, Friend is a graduate of Grant High School and UCLA.
In 1982, Lonn Friend began a 13 -year tenure with Larry Flynt Publications as associate editor, and later senior editor of HUSTLER Magazine and executive editor of CHIC. In the spring of 1987, he became editor in chief of the company’s six-month old Flynt startup, RIP, and over the next seven years, built the publication into the most important hard rock magazine of its day.
Lonn hosted his own spot, “Friend at Large,” on MTV’s Headbanger’s Ball as well as the syndicated Westwood One radio program, Pirate Radio Saturday Night. He penned weekly columns for music industry tip sheets, HITS and the Album Network and co authored the Rolling Stone cover story on Slash from Guns N’ Roses (with Jeffrey Ressner). Lonn served as music supervisor for Adam Sandler’s motion picture debut, Airheads, starring Brendan Fraser and Steve Buscemi, and later became vice president, A&R, West Coast, for Arista Records from 1994 to 1998.
He composed the liner notes for Mötley Crüe’s Decade of Decadence, Bon Jovi’s One Wild Night and Dio: Stand Up and Shout (The Anthology) and The Essential Iron Maiden. He is a frequent contributor to VH1 having appeared in 10 Behind the Music/documentary episodes including Metallica, Bon Jovi, The Year 1987, Red Hot Chili Peppers Ultimate Albums, Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magik, Motley Crue, Anthrax, Top 40 Hair Metal Bands of All Time and When Metal Ruled the World. He was featured in the October 2006 E! Entertainment two-hour expose, Celebrity Homicides. In addition, the E! network asked Friend to contribute on another “True Hollywood Story” series profile for future 2007 broadcast.
Lonn relocated to Las Vegas in the fall of 2003 and freelanced for several local publications including Las Vegas Life, Las Vegas Weekly, Vegas Golfer and HRH (Hard Rock Hotel). Friend returned to his hometown of Los Angeles in March 2006. Lonn also acted as consulting producer on the British documentary, Rock Star Families that aired across Europe via the Sky One Network in October 2005.
I really dig Lonn’s “Life On Planet Rock.” It steers you into a collective spiritual, literary, melodic and metallic combo sound pound world never really explored before on the printed page. And from a total Valley dude! Maybe that B.A. degree in Sociology Lonn earned from UCLA actually paid some dividends after all. I can hear it in his book trek and this inviting writing journey.
I interviewed Lonn in Westwood, California the day after we both recovered from an awe-inspiring Rolling Stones’ “A Bigger Bang” concert at Dodger Stadium. Maybe it was my pre-show meal of Canter’s corned beef and Langer’s hand cut pastrami and Lonn devouring a myriad of salads that included extraordinary coconut cous cous inside the band’s Rattlesnake Inn reception (coupled with lounge tablemates fellow triple water Pisces Judy and Libra pal Robert) that later fueled this revealing and healing conversation on November 24, 2006.
Here to serve.
(Harvey Kubernik is the author of the hardcover books, “This Is Rebel Music: The Harvey Kubernik InnerViews” and “Hollywood Shack Job: Rock Music In Film and On Your Screen” published by the University of New Mexico Press. Kubernik in 2006 also penned the liner notes to the CD reissue of Allen Ginsberg’s “Kaddish” album released by Water Records. His interview with the Doors’ Ray Manzarek will appear in “Goldmine” in early 2007).
Why write this book?
I fall back on the old adage, ‘write what you know.’ Over the
past few years of professional ebb and flow – in and out of gigs,
random essays and compositions with no publishing destination to
fatten the wallet – I came to the realization that my life has been
a pretty crazy ride, especially the RIP magazine years from 1987 to
1994. In April 2002, my friend Rob Hill gave me a copy of Henry
Miller’s Tropic of Cancer. It knocked me out of a literary stupor
and directed my pen into the first person. Miller wrote for 50 years
almost exclusively in empirical first person. He wrote his life.
Unbeknownst even to me, I had started to write mine.
2. How did the concept come together?
Planet Rock unconsciously began as a bi-weekly musing called Breath
of Fire that I would send to my email list back in the summer of
2000. My online Rolodex of various music/entertainment industry
individuals, friends, family and freaks numbered around 800 back
then. It’s about two and a half times that now. Some of the pieces
were posted on websites. I didn’t get paid but the feedback was
inspiring. “Are you going to compile these this stuff for a
book?” they would ask. Then in the summer of 2003, after I lost the
biggest writing assignment of my career, the Tommy Lee autobiography
– which I can’t talk about because I signed a non-disclosure
agreement — I descended into deep depression, left Los Angeles,
relocated to Las Vegas, went through divorce, and started sketching
ideas for a book. The outline and proposal came as the result of
meeting record producer Bob Ezrin’s daughter, Jennifer Repo. A
professional book editor, she’d made the career shift to literary
agent. Jennifer helped me craft a detailed, 70-page proposal and
shopped it to publishers. The original title was Rock A Mile:
Adventures and Observations of a Music Journalist. The Rock A Mile
theme began as a TV demo I produced myself for a proposed VH1 reality
show about a wandering rock scribe that ventured into the lives of
artists in search of the soul of rock n’ roll. I made the 27-minute
clip with Bon Jovi in June 2001. A piece of it I finally posted on
You Tube this past spring. It cost me 10k of my own money and no one
ever saw it. It’s gotten thousands of views from fans. Anyway, I
never got the show but kept the title for the book pitch. I was
signed in the winter of 2004 by a new imprint at Random House, Morgan
Road Books, run by Amy Hertz, the Dalai Lama’s publisher! I felt
the Universe had placed me exactly where I was supposed to be. Amy
‘got’ me after one meeting. She saw my collection of fly on the
wall anecdotes as something more – a memoir. In self-imposed desert
exile, I wrote and re-wrote the manuscript until Amy was happy. Her
marketing people weren’t crazy about ‘Rock A Mile’ so I came up
with the alternative title, Life on Planet Rock, which everyone loved.
3. Tell me about Lars Ulrich writing the foreword for the book.
Metallica came through Vegas in December 2004. Lars called me from
the plane as the band was on approach to McCarran Airport. “Hey,
man,” he said. “I hear you’ve been going through a tough time.
Listen, come out tonight, bring whomever you want. We’ll talk.”
I had ten people in tow with me that evening including my younger
brother, Michael, and several hard-core fans whose dream it was to
meet Metallica. I’ve been the make-a-wish concert fulfillment guy
many times over the course of my all-access career. It’s the most
genuine torch I’ve carried. Dreams were realized that night, photos
were taken, and when I had a minute, I pulled Lars aside and told him
I was thinking about writing a book. “If I get this together and
can find a publisher, will you write the foreword?” I asked him. He
didn’t hesitate. “I’d be honored,” he said. He was sincere.
We shared so much history. Back in the day, no rock journalist was
closer to Metallica than I was. And Lars was the media voice for the
band. I also considered him a friend. I thought about asking Steven
Tyler if Lars said no but I didn’t need to, which I’m glad about
because Tyler has gotten too fabulous and insulated. I can barely
get to him any more. We had such a dear and close relationship, or
at least I thought we did. Tyler always let his guard with me,
revealed his inner truth, and rarely was tape rolling. I understood
him. Still do even though I get no face time anymore. Lars is
fabulous, too, make no mistake, but he’s accessible to me. We spoke
three times prior to his penning the foreword. When he finally
emailed me the document, his words blew me away. I was both humbled
and amazed that he and I had evoked the same moment in time – a dark
night in Munich, 1991—where our relationship shifted. He never read
one word of my manuscript before composing what he did. “Don’t
send me anything not even the Metallica chapter,” he requested.
“I just want to write it from memory; from the heart.”
4. Explain writing about music. Can you really capture it in the
printed page what you really feel about a show or a piece of music.
I’ve never been a critic. Critics to me are misanthropes, oft times
frustrated musicians who pass judgment from lofty perches in tiny
apartments. Most never seen the inside of a tour bus or sat in a
recording studio at 3 am watching a guitarist lay down the same riff
over and over until he and the producer are satisfied. A rock
journalist shares that sacred space, grabs the joint when it’s
passed, stands in the shadows at the side of the stage ten feet from
the front man or walks the arena, high-five-ing the fans, the life
force of rock n’ roll. You have to be out there to feel it, to
understand it, the effect music has on the soul. When I waxed on Bon
Jovi’s comeback performance in Chicago in November 2000 for
KNAC.COM, my perspective was from deep inside the belly of one of
rock’s most successful touring beasts. That piece led me to
composing the liner notes for the bands live LP, One Wild Night. Jon
said I captured the band’s live thing like no one else had ever done
before. And those liner notes led to ten days in Europe with my
digital camera and unfettered access that birthed the Rock A Mile TV
demo. What’s funny is, I was writing from a fan’s POV. I channel
their passion and position. Professionally, Bon Jovi is a group
I’ve known very well for almost 18 years. I can write what I feel
through the eyes of a fan. Personally, my heart is more closely
attached to Peter Gabriel, U2, the Rolling Stones or the remarkable
Spearhead when it comes to pontificating on the glory of live
performance. Michael Franti has an almost hypnotic effect on a
crowd. You can literally feel the audience elevate as one to a
higher plane. He is, in my opinion, the only authentic altruistic
rock star out there. He truly wants to heal the world through music.
Jon Bon Jovi’s first priority is Jon Bon Jovi, then come the fans
and the rest of the world. He is an exhilarating live performer but
his message does not bring the mountain to Mohammed. Franti’s
does. Bono’s does. Ben Harper’s does. Lester Bangs understood
the paradigm. He wrote about musicians, their agendas, their songs
and purpose, and he separated himself from their personal foibles.
“Don’t make friends with rock stars,” he warned in Almost
Famous. That’s where I fucked up…or succeeded, depends on how you
interpret my sojourn. Did waltzing behind the ropes enhance or
corrupt my journalistic objectivity? It doesn’t matter. I’ve
always tried to bring the fan into my space and articulate to the
best of my ability what I’m seeing, feeling, smelling and
experiencing. In 1990, there was no more mythical place on Planet
Rock than backstage at a Guns N’ Roses concert, witnessing the magic
and the mayhem up close and personal. Nowadays, transport me smack
dab into the middle of a bouncing crowd of Spearhead fans and I’m
good to go. Good to fly, I should say.
5. What drew you to mostly metal bands for chronicling although there
are other genres covered in your book? Do metal and hard rock bands
and people provide colorful scenes to check out and chronicle?
I did not choose metal bands as my journalistic forte. They chose
me. RIP’s appearance in the summer of 1987 and my serendipitous
editorial transition at Flynt Publications from Hustler to the soon
to be ‘Bible of Bang’ proved to be the perfect gig for the most
prurient moment in rock history. I was given the keys to the loudest,
ludest kingdom in rock history. And I turned that key with integrity
and pride because the metal fans deserved a slick, courageous,
adventuresome magazine to call their own. The music and the players
were multi colored and anything but boring. Chronicling the exploits
of Guns N’ Roses, Def Leppard, Motley Crue, Poison, Iron Maiden,
Anthrax, Metalica, Pantera, Ozzy and so many other hallowed, hairy,
hedonistic head cases of the era was a blast, the wildest ride of my
career. I never scripted any of it and did my damndest in the book to
chronicle the course of events that landed me in the middle of the
metal maelstrom, the reluctant head banger, chosen by God (and that
other dude) to document the decadence. Or at least, a small slice of
it.
6. “RIP” magazine made a dent in the pop culture. How much did “RIP”
inform this book? I know a lot of your early friendships and
connections with a lot of those in your book were birthed at “RIP.”
At the core of Planet Rock is the seven-year RIP campaign, that also
included my tenure on MTV’s Headbanger’s Ball, Pirate Radio
Saturday Night, Hits Magazine, Album Network Magazine and music
supervision of the motion picture, Airheads. It’s the reason for
the sub-head, “From Guns N’ Roses to Nirvana” yada yada yada,
the debauched decade and all that sexy scandalous imagery. Morgan
Road felt I had to attract the head bangers first, the readers of
RIP, who numbered at its peak about 150,000 per month. The other
media opportunities all came from and promoted RIP. I can tell from
the My Space messages I’ve gotten since the book hit stores last
July that RIP was not just another hard rock magazine. It was the
best of its kind and it made an impact on those who read it month
after month. To be lauded by fans and artists alike was a sacred
trust. I envisioned RIP as a hybrid. Part Kerrang!, the superior
British metal fan mag, part Rolling Stone, journalistically credible,
worthy of editorial respect. Our freelance writers and photographers
were the cream o’ crop. I donned the hat of promoter; constantly
developing relationships and pulling the coups that set us apart from
the competition. No other mag could get Axl to wear their tee shirt
in a video but my senior editor Del James could. We were invited to
the set of “Patience.” Del handed Axl a RIP tee and he threw it
on without batting an eye. I even got a cameo at the beginning of the
clip. Just happened. Right place, right time. It was about trust.
Consider the period. No other metal mag editor was born in porn. The
progression from Hustler to RIP was effortless. The ethos of
decadence united both worlds. Some of my closest friendships
between ’87 and ’94 spawned simply out of my having access to X-
rated entertainment and being generous about passing the goods on.
7. Tell me about titling each chapter. Tell me about the writing
process on the chapters. Did you spend a lot of time editing? Comment
on the sequencing.
It’s like a dream state when I think back to how this book came
together and there are so many external factors involved, it’s
impossible to articulate a concise process. Some of the chapters
originated as Breath of Fires, like ‘The Screamin’ Prophet’
and ‘Chicken Soup for the Rubber Soul.’ These pieces were first
composed during my early days of Kundalini yoga, a time of intense
spiritual exploration and personal deconstruction. Many of the
titles therefore have a metaphorical ring for this reason. Others
like the Seattle/grunge era chapter, ‘Band of Golden Words,’ were
composed in one, long take. I wrote that one in a Starbucks on the
corner of Warm Springs and Green Valley Parkway in Henderson, Nevada,
when I was living with the resident director of the Blue Man Group,
Carrie Ann Hanson. She was not just my landlord and lover, but also
my frontline editor. When she thought the chapter draft was cool,
I’d set the document aside and move onto the next one. There were
about 33 chapters in the works when the process began. When I handed
in the manuscript, Amy and her assistant, Nate Brown, put me threw a
grueling revision. Many chapters disappeared completely and several
news ones manifested: ‘Live and Let Clive,’ and ‘That 70’s
Chapter’ were composed because Amy insisted I go ‘deeper’ into
where I came from as a music fan mixed with the human journey of my
so called life. That’s when the book went from a collection of rock
stories to a memoir. The pacing is non linear because I’m not a
linear person. I’m random and chaotic so my book reflects that.
It’s like a camel’s back. The early, juicy RIP tales, then
flashbacks to growing up with the Beatles and the Who, then the
‘lost’ time at Arista Records, the awakening embodied in the Doors
chapter, ‘Easy Riders on the Storm,” and the second hump at the
back of the book, Aerosmith and Bon Jovi. KISS provided a nice
conduit between the 70s and Clive. In the end, with immense guidance
from Amy, Nate and Carrie, the book came together. It is what it
is. It’s imperfect, just like its author. Maybe I’ll get it right
next time.
8. What about the conflict and/or collaboration of your spiritual
trek in and out of a world of commerce, ego, power trips and money?
You combine the two paths in your book.
You have identified the paths define my life here and now and
probably will forever more. When the student is ready, the teacher
will appear. That one hit the psychic radar in back in ‘98 and it
still vibrates like the fading reverberation of a struck gong. My
‘teacher’ appeared when Clive Davis set me loose with a parachute
that couldn’t hold a squirrel falling out of an oak tree. After a
consistent 18 year professional trek, I was in the blink of an eye,
for the first time since before college, out of a gig. That pause
sent me inward. I had very little choice in the matter. No one was
calling or paying and the Universe was shouting in silent, sweet
tones that it was time to fall apart. ‘First you must lose your
way’ sayeth the Oracle. So I did. Until December 1999 when Bob
Ezrin and Rob Jones found me and hurled me back into the bowels rock
journalism by making me editor in chief of KNAC.COM. I began
interviewing bands again and assembling brave new content for a
streaming audio community of head bangers on the web. It was
exciting, the new technology frontier, dot com promise of
professional resurrection. I quickly realized that I wasn’t the
same old ‘dude’ Lonn Friend. And it was reflected in my Q&A
style. I talked to Rob Halford from Judas Priest about the UFO he
encountered as a teenager in England and Phil Anselmo from Pantera
recounted the ghost he’d seen in his New Orleans kitchen. Wayne
Static (from Static X) and I chatted about quantum theory. I even
confronted the irascible Gene Simmons on God. It’s in the KISS
chapter titled, “Dr. Stanley and Mr. Simmons.” I created a
streaming video series titled, “Conversations with Lonn,” a play
on the Neale Donald Walsh new age classic I’d read in the summer of
98. And I launched a weekly radio experiment called Breath of Fire,
which led to the column that bequeathed the book and yeah, it’s all
connected because Synchronicity rules my world of perception. There
are no accidents. The mission is one of awareness. Raising the bar
of consciousness by uniting music and artist to fans for a higher
purpose. Meditation replaces mental masturbation. What’s going on
inside the molecules of today’s performers? Why is there so much
greed amongst the artist community? Tours priced in the stratosphere
by acts that can’t deliver half the bang for the buck they used to.
The Stones deserve their due. Most other bands don’t. I can’t
stomach egos anymore from rockers or their handlers who believe their
false sense of entitlement places them further up on the human food
chain than the rest of us. I have been humbled by financial ruin but
beyond that – way beyond that – mine eyes have seen the glory and
the story. If your aim as a musician is to travel Planet Rock, you
best do it with grace and make damn sure you give it back when your
cup is so fucking full, you can’t fit another Mercedes in the
garage. Okay, that’s enough fire and brimstone. Can we lighten this
up a bit? Next question…
9. Your current book tour. What do fans want to discuss with you? How
are the radio visits? Alice Cooper and Sirius, for example.
Fans want to know what it’s like being with ‘them’ the rock
stars. They are in awe of the places I’ve been and the icons I’ve
broke bread with. I respect this deeply and try and pull out the best
stories I can, not just to entertain but perhaps also to impart a
lesson. I must consciously curb my cynicism sometimes because I know
the truth, that many of these warriors of song that fans place so
high on the pedestal are just as fragile, human and lost as they
are. Not to mention self absorbed and conceited. But you see, they
just have these really expensive smoke and mirror machines operating
24-7 to maintain the illusion. “Worship the art, not the artist,”
I’ve said to fans. There are the good guys, and I speak personally
about those who didn’t write me off when I lost the gig (s) that
helped further their careers. Real friends like Anthrax’s Scott Ian
and my high school buddy, Steve Lukather. I’d take a bullet for
these blokes. Lose your platform and you’ll discover who you’re
real friends are. The book examines my last name, what it meant back
in the day. During the revision, another significant theme emerged
and that was Lonn Friend the chameleon. I’ve been a personality
shape shifter much of my adult life. Stems from approval issues,
wanting to fit in, be accepted by whatever gang or rock genre was
filling my space at the moment. The Nirvana chapter addresses this.
Planet Rock is a fun read, yes, but there are also moments of pain
and despair. When you write a memoir going though divorce, it’s a
challenge to be horn’s up heavy metal happy on every page. I had to
legitimize my own position if I was going to call out Clive Davis or
Jon Bon Jovi for a perceived flaw in their character. Truth is, the
shortcomings I identify are reflections of my own shadows. Writing
the book was tough. Talking about it, however, has proven to be
relatively enjoyable. I love doing radio. I visited Jim Breuer’s
Sirius show, Breuer Unleashed, in New York last month. We went into
dueling ‘Lars’ impressions. Jim is such a dyed in the wool metal
head; I could have done three hours with him. And he’s so fast and
funny, it makes it easy to get down and stupid. That’s the
balance. The sacred and the sinister, though not ‘evil’ sinister
but more, wicked fun. I still love to laugh. Hardest thing about
going through the change, getting lost, the emotional and mental
collapse, etc., is losing your sense of humor! That sucks. But I’m
coming back and so are the laughs. I’ve got stand up comic friends
like Patton Oswalt, Brian Poeshn, Craig Gass and Mishna Wolff to help
me keep my humor groove. I took Mishna to an Anthrax show in
Hollywood. She was like a kid in an apocalyptic candy store.
“Dude, I HAVE to go down to the pit!” she yelled in my ear.
Mishna got in a car accident and busted a couple ribs this past
summer. She was really messed up for a few weeks. She called me in
serious pain one day. “Dude, I can’t go to any shows,” she
whimpered. “It hurts not to rock.” Now that’s a fan! Alice
Cooper has always maintained a great comedic side. Must have gotten
a good chuckle when he threw those ten-year-old used Big Bertha irons
in the mail to me for my 50th birthday. “I’m going to set you up,
Lonn, no problem. There’s a package coming!” I love Coop.
“Wonder in Alice Land” is probably the biggest hearted chapter in
the book. A new set of Callaway’s would have been nice. Maybe
they’re inlaid with gold or something. I am also a little hurt that
Alice scored a half million-dollar book deal with a couple writers
from an industry radio tip sheet and I was never even considered for
the gig. I don’t think anyone in my field knows the Coop, I mean
really knows him, the way I do. But it wasn’t meant to be so I wish
him the best with his tome. Just hope it’s honest and soulful, like
the man himself. I’ve really enjoyed doing radio. KOMP in Las
Vegas has a standing invitation for me anytime I’m back on the
sands. Last visit there I was live in studio for an hour and twenty
minutes. On a roll, as they say. They told me I broke Ted Nugent’s
record for length of guest appearance. I was honored! KOMP is one
of the last great rock stations in America. Terrestrial radio is
going the way of the dinosaur but it remains an important force.
It’s been hard getting some Program directors to even return phone
calls. They’re almost as fabulous as the stars themselves. Fuck
that. Go where the love is. I wrote a blog on My Space with that
title after the entire L.A. metal rocker community bailed on my
Border’s in store launch last July. The fans, and me I hope we’re
in sync. I wrote the book for them, anyway. I’m hoping Breuer puts
in a good word for me with Howard Stern. Now that would be a nice
kick in the ass for my Amazon numbers.
10. The “fly on the wall” reporting and documentary style seemed to
have been encouraged by your editor. Was that always there or
something you incorporated as you wrote this book. Was there ever a
conflict or a situation where the religious and the spiritual clashed
with your music journey, even in preparing the manuscript?
The narrative and themes of the book evolved through the revision
process. The greatest lesson Amy taught me was, ‘Show, don’t
tell.’ In other words, don’t go off on a rant on how cool or
disgusting this or that event was by telling the reader. Instead,
paint the picture, create the scene, show what transpired and let the
reader follow you down the yellow brick road to wherever it is
you’re taking them. Regards the ‘spiritual’ in conflict with
the musical journey, I did compose an entire chapter about my
‘awakening’ called “Fucking Stonehenge” that did not make the
cut though several threads were embodied in other chapters. Amy felt
an entire chronicle of my metal-physical meltdown inhibited the
narrative. I surrendered to her wisdom and the process. There was
no need to beat the reader over the head with where MY head was at.
It organically appears in several parts of the book. This fused well
with the more ribald anecdotes. I just hope that as a whole, the
memoir is a good read and makes some sense. From the emails,
messages and reviews thus far, I guess I did okay.
11. You did a lot of writing in Las Vegas. How did the desert impact
the writing and memoir elements of the book? Did you use journals?
Did you call people for information to aid the re-constructions?
Las Vegas Weekly and Las Vegas Life were my outlets for expression,
profile writing and storytelling. They were invaluable platforms for
me to keep the pen sharp and the mind in tact during the most painful
two and a half years of my life. I was allowed to bring subtle
symbolism into my pieces; the ‘seeking the light in the shadow lands
off Sin City’ theme was recurring and in hindsight, helped me to
clarity my literary ‘voice.’ I did not succumb to the jackals and
gargoyles of Vegas but rather got healthy in mind and body, gaining
strength each day by holding my daughter back in Los Angeles firmly
in the left ventricle. There were times I almost lost faith, didn’t
believe I would finish the book or even survive the separation.
Carrie kept me going. Her support was unwavering. When it came time
to return to L.A. and Megan, she understood and we morphed into a
beautiful, enlightened friendship. As far as journals go, I did not
keep one in the literal sense but for the first year in the desert, I
wrote nightly, oft times bloody ramblings to a dozen of my closest
friends that I called The Fellowship. Purging my shit, my guilt,
proved cathartic. That and listening to the Power of Now CDs each
night before breathing myself to sleep. Carrie also took me to a
mystical, crazy ass healer of rare and authentic gifts named Dr.
Randall Robirds. He ‘released’ some very old demons and other
stuff mucking up my energy field. During the writing process, he told
me that Prometheus and Jean Paul Sartre ‘etherically’ visited me.
Sure, it sounds whack, but you asked!
12. Vibe and respond to the integration of the quotes/lyrics that
start off each chapter. Like the incorporation of Whitman, Rilke.
Tour guides? How do the chapters coincide with the “cautionary” or
“educative” quotes, like from Buddha that jump-start each chapter?
The epigrams are something I picked up on when I read the Artist’s
Way in the spring of ‘98. Post Faust, I mean, Clive. For the most
part, they are ‘tour guides,’ symbolic breadcrumbs that hopefully
guide the reader into the adventure. I did not really write until I
began to read. Yes, I’m proud of the features I wrote as editor of
RIP. That was probably the best fly on the wall reportage of my
career. But I became a better writer when I was writing without
compensation, for self-expression’s sake, the Breath of Fire rants.
I must have read a hundred books between 98 and 2000. Non-fiction,
internal journey works like Way of the Peaceful Warrior and Seat of
the Soul. I’ve devoured Miller and Gibran. As a youth, I spent my
life in records stores. The past few years, you’re more apt to find
me in bookstores. Frank Meyer, who works for the G4 TV network now
and was my managing editor at KNAC.COM, gave me Rilke’s Letters to a
Poet. It resonated like a lightning bolt during a desert monsoon.
Philosophical, thought-provoking reads have given me a priceless
ecumenical way of looking at reality. Or what we think is reality.
I’m not sure of anything anymore except the moment. That’s real.
Be here now, wrote Ram Das. Oasis took the mantra and slapped it on
the cover of the best LP they ever released. Ekhart Tolle processed
the theme into global literary phenomena. Dave Navarro once told me
that he and Carmen Elektra both guided their lives by the Power of
Now. So why did they break up? I mean, how bad can the moment be
gazing down at Carmen on your bearskin rug? It’s all a cosmic
crapshoot, man. One minute, we’re pain free, on our feet in rock
rapture hailing the vocal acrobatics of Eddie Vedder or the
wunderkind axe wielding brilliance of Steve Lukather, Pete Townshend
or Jeff Beck, the next, we’re home staring at our stack of bills and
wondering how in the fuck we’re going to cover the nut this month.
Is the Aeromith/Motley Crue tour a banking exercise or do they
really, really still feel it, down in the coils of their colon? Do
rock stars care about their fans the way the fans so loyally care
about them? I may not edit a magazine anymore but I’m still
exploring these questions. New platforms are about to manifest for
me to sit down with the icons old and new, and discover where the
truth lies. But for now, I’m going to turn off this blasted,
pixilated platter, grab my iPod, slap in my new pair of customized
high end Ultimate Ear ear phones, scroll down to Pink Floyd’s Wish
You Were Here and disappear. And to all the crazy diamonds of Planet
Rock shine on. Shine on.
Lonn Friend
11/24/2006
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