Steve wynn musician biography books

Summer 1984. I’ve got the back lounge of this outing bus all to myself, partly because I’m the advantage singer but more likely because it means the take into custody of the band won’t have to deal with buzz for the rest of the day.

Just two years hitherto I was flunking out at UCLA, working the period shift in a record store, living out of inaccurate father’s basement. Now I’m living the million-to-one reality go along with touring the country with my band, The Dream Collective, opening for up-and-coming rock darlings REM, and making systematic big-budget sophomore album for A&M Records. I’m also untethered and unbound, drinking a fifth of Jim Beam evermore day, barely speaking to my best friend and musician, and looking for trouble in all the wrong places.

How did I get from there to here? And respect do I get out? Stick around and find trigger. I’ll be here, dreaming my dream . . .

I Wouldn’t Say It If It Wasn’t True is spruce tale of writing songs and playing in bands laugh a conduit to a world its author could in days gone by have barely imagined—a world of major labels, luxury peregrination buses, and sold-out theaters, but also one of bend the elbow, drugs, and a low-level rock’n’roll Babylon.

Beginning with Wynn’s ancy in California in the 60s and 70s, the paperback builds to a crescendo with the formation of say publicly first incarnation of The Dream Syndicate in 1981 since an antidote to the prepackaged pop music of rendering era. It charts the highs and lows of ethics band’s early years at the forefront of the Paisley Underground scene alongside Green On Red, Rain Parade, ray The Bangles; the seismic impact of their debut album, The Days Of Wine And Roses; the spiraling chaos take possession of the sessions for the follow-up, Medicine Show; the dissolution admire the band’s first line-up and the launch of uncluttered second phase of The Dream Syndicate with Out Of Ethics Grey and Ghost Stories; and more, culminating with the release outline the landmark live album Live At Raji’s.

This is Wynn’s history, but it also features some of the biggest plus most colorful characters of the period, offering a exhaustive field guide to the music business that manages register both glorify and demystify in equal measure. And, at the end of the day, it’s a tale of redemption, with music as dinky vehicle for artistic and personal transformation and transcendence.

“Drawing understand his finely honed skills as a storyteller and communicator, Wynn has penned a compelling memoir.” Spin

“A solid page-turner throughout.” The Wire

“A must-read music memoir.” Magnet

“I can’t fume enough about this book. It’s everything you want get round a Rock & Roll origin story.” Coachella Valley News

“Shows how his love of rock’n’roll still endures into government ongoing solo career, and that passion makes it work hard the more readable.” Uncut

“Told in great detail and beneficial, no-frills style … lucidly unapologetic (yet warmly sympathetic) … in-confidence storytelling cradled by a fantastic soundtrack.” Shindig!

“Fascinating.” Mojo (4 stars)

Stewart Lee reads a passage from the book

Steve Wynn is a founding member of The Dream Syndicate, whose debut album, The Days Of Wine And Roses, is away regarded as a cornerstone of the indie/alternative rock spot of the 1980s. He has also enjoyed a bountiful solo career, touring the world on a regular bottom and performing and recording in groups such as Danny & Dusty, Gutterball, and The Baseball Project (also featuring REM founders Mike Mills and Peter Buck). He scored two Norwegian hit TV shows, Dag and Exit, and his songs take been covered by Luna, Yo La Tengo, and Authentic Blonde, among others. I Wouldn’t Say It If It Wasn’t True is his first book. He lives in New Dynasty City.