ROCK 'n' CARS Feature in the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News

Wow!

Can I say it again?

WOW!!

Matt Nauman really outdid himself on this one. Today's story about ROCKIN' in the San Jose Mercury News (front page in the "F" section, the weekly feature called DRIVE) is just so comprehensive it's hard not to be amazed, and thankful. (FYI, the Merc is now the Bay Area's largest daily).

Besides which, he chose so many great visuals--the famous Tower of Power CalTrans sign; Marco Almera's Sublime poster; Grego's Crossroads art; and, on the inside spread, much more including Dean Jeffries with the Monkeemobile, Ronny and the Daytonas' rare French EP, and finally the t-shirt art Andy Brizio's company created with Signatures Network for a Bruce Springsteen tour--with a Camaro and an SST.

Wow!

Here's how you can read the whole piece yourself:

www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/industries/automotive/16193031.htm

That's Solomon from DeLauers Newstand in Oakland, where I bought 16 copies (I couldn't resist).

ROCKIN' the KFOG-FM (San Francisco) Morning Show w. Dave Morey

This morning bright and early I headed across the Bay Bridge to make a 7:00 am appearance on the KFOG-FM (San Francisco) Morning Show, hosted by Dave Morey and crew. This was yet another great radio session with ROCKIN' DOWN THE HIGHWAY. Everyone purred over it, asked insanely intelligent questions, and the 30 minutes flew by in seconds.

Morey has one of the great radio voices. He's originally from Detroit, but we adopted him long ago. It was a pleasure being in the same studio with a true legend.

It's all in the tones, I determined. And mellifluousness.

Then hours later, a real bombshell came across the e-mail highway. One of the Morning Show listeners contacted Dorothy Molstad, the Marketing Manager for ROCKIN' at the publisher's office in St. Paul. Susan King wanted to know more about this book everyone was raving about! Turns out she's the buyer for Z Gallerie, a hip home decor store with 74 shops nationwide. Her office is in Berkeley, so I chased down Highway 80 later in the day and put ROCKIN' in her hands. If you're Christmas shopping at Z Gallerie over the next two weeks, you just might see ROCKIN' on one of their tables, all on account of some rather timely (!) listening-in.

big ROCKIN' booksigning event at the Petersen Automotive Museum, Sunday, Dec. 17, Wilshire Blvd. in Los Angeles

Everyone--mark this down on your calendar!!

You're cordially invited to meet me, and Mike Ness (from Social Distortion), at the Petersen Automotive Museum on Wilshire Blvd. in Los Angeles, on Sunday afternoon, December 17th.

Many surprise guests will be there. Big Slice is surely to be there (you read about Slice in the book, right?)

This is very exciting. The Cars, Stars and Guitars (Part II) exhibit is still there, and the museum is replete with amazing vehicles and exhibits.

Hey, there'll be some real GOOD ROCKIN' that afternoon. Yowza!!

ROCKIN' on Sunday morning

This Sunday morning really started nicely. First, I saw in the Contra Costa Times (the major newspaper for the eastern side of the San Francisco Bay Area, extending out into the valleys) that ROCKIN' was put on their "A-List," along with the Dixie Chicks' documentary "Shut Up & Sing," Dr. Mehmet Oz (of the Oprah Winfrey show), and amanita muscaria (the potentially deadly mushroom, which you can eyeball at the Oakland Museum). Nice company!

Tony Hicks, the CC Times rock critic, had this to say under the header "A Perfect Match.":

"Other than women, nothing has been the subject of more rock 'n' roll songs than the automobile. Pinole rock historian Paul Grushkin has done a fabulous and exhaustive job chronicling the relationship between cars and rock in his gorgeous new book, "ROCKIN DOWN THE HIGHWAY." It'll make a great Christmas gift for fans of both rock and cars."

Then, an hour or so later, I went on Dave Marsh's Sirius satellite radio show. Marsh is of course one of the great rock journalists, whose career began with CREEM magazine in Detroit and extended to his biographies of Bruce Springsteen. Marsh and I had a great time--nearly 45 minutes of seamless, easy flow. We talked about everything car-and-rock-related under the sun, from "Rocket 88" to Sir Mix-a-Lot, Detroit heavies Stanley Mouse and Mitch Ryder, and ultimately concluded with Smokey Robinson's "Cruisin'"--kinda the way things were laid out in the book, by theme.

This was a great back and forth chat between two people who've spent a lifetime in rock & roll. Hope you catch it! Gotta say, it was inspired!

ROCKIN with Tom Snook, THE automotive toy man

Tom Snook is my dear friend, colleague, and mentor. As a collector of automotive toys, I've learned everything I know from this man. Tom's now 82. Only a few years ago he had one of the largest automotive toy collections in the world, since pared down greatly. Tom took me to a hundred toy shows, and, as Huck Finn would have said, "learned me good." To this day, I can visit a toy show with thousands of vehicles, and pick out the Top 50. Tom and I even collaborated on a book that's yet to be published, THE WORLD OF AUTOMOTIVE TOYS. Tom was a road-surfacing contractor for many years; the photo of young Tom was taken in 1952, next to his '39 GMC.

It was my huge pleasure yesterday to visit Tom in his Benicia, CA home and give him his copy of ROCKIN'. He enjoyed it hugely. I had a big grin on my face for hours afterwards. There's Tom looking at the page with Annette Funicello's comic book illustrations.

My wife Jane says I can have all the automotive toys I want, so long as they fit in the display case in our dining room. Tom's wife Velma pretty much gave him the same ultimatum (and Tom had two houses full!)--because otherwise automotive toys become a disease that spreads. But I did sneak into my office a wonderful collection of truck cranes!

ROCKIN' thru the Grushkin archives

I'm particularly proud of the psychedelic-era photos featured in ROCKIN'. Why? Because that's MY era. I was a Dead Head and proud of it. So to find a photo of Neal Casady piloting the Prankster bus, or the photo Zane Kesey took of his Dad, Ken, sparking up the ghost of Jerry Garcia . . . well, I can relate to all that big time. Not to mention, my first book was GRATEFUL DEAD BOOK OF THE DEAD HEADS (and Jerry wrote the foreword to that one).

Also there in Chapter Five (on pages 144 - 145) is a photo of Norman Ruth's Terrapin Trailways bus, outta New Mexico. I got to know Norman and the extended travelin' family back in the early '80s, when the DEAD HEADS book was in its formative stages. In the photo here, taken by Ken Friedman of Bill Graham Presents, that's me with Norman outside the Berkeley Greek Theater in the summer of 1984, a year after the book was published. Interestingly (for anybody interested), THE BOOK OF THE DEAD HEADS went through 16 US printings, and was never out of print for more than 23 years. ROCKIN'--I expect no less from you too!

ROCKIN' the front table at Borders

Today I checked in at Borders Books & Music in Emeryville, CA, next to the big Public Market, to see how ROCKIN' was doing. The staff put the book right up front! What a great feeling!

Authors anxiously wait to see where their book is placed. It's natural. You spend two and a half years on a project (as I did with this one) and you hope against hope that your work will be recognized. Now, in truth, all my books have been bestsellers, and the folks in Emeryville remembered that. ART OF MODERN ROCK was a huge performer for Borders. Now, to keep that prominent place in the store, ROCKIN' has to perform too. Gotta think, cars and rock & roll--that oughta work even better than rock posters.

I'll say this: with cover art as striking as Darrell Mayabb's illustration, it's hard to imagine red-blooded car guys not being attracted--"hey, what's that all about??" And, just as likely, there'll be women who respond in kind or instantly think, "I know someone who just HAS to have THAT!"

It's an exciting time. The book's on the big table.

ROCKIN' in the gift guides

Today Autoweek magazine chose ROCKIN' as one of their 2006 Holiday gift recommendations (as shown in the photo). Wonderful news, of course. It's great that the automotive world is learning about the book as quickly as the music world.

What we're also seeing is that the San Francisco Chronicle's review in their gift guide--which also showcased ROCKIN' as one of the year's best--has now been syndicated all across the country to local and regional newspapers. You can tell by doing the Google every morning.

This is an exciting time to be an author, with major publicity for ROCKIN' yet to come. But it's also just as pleasing to realize that this book has major legs--that events surrounding the book are already being set for January and February, beyond the holiday season. For instance, I'll be speaking at the prestigious San Francisco Rod, Custom and Motorcycle Show's hall-of-fame luncheon, and signing books at the DuPont booth over three days. That's in mid-January, and it's one of the first highlights of the 2007 automotive year.

Sam Sargent, ROCKIN' s indefatigable photog

Yesterday I visited with lensman Sam Sargent and his wife Mary Merrick, also an esteemed photographer, and presented them with their copy of ROCKIN'. Sam shot all the archival material for ROCKIN'--the hundreds of 45s, 78s, LPs, magazine covers, and related historic paper and ephemera--that designer Brent Rector used so creatively months after the actual photo sessions. Sam and Mary were very interested to see how everything had unfolded since, as you can't quite get a grasp on the overall plan when you're obsessively focused-in on each piece separately.

Sam said the hardest thing about flat-art photography is that you're 'assuming the position' (ie, half bent over, as in the photo above) for hours on end. Patience and exactitude are the requirements here, as you get only one chance to do it right. Sam's work captured magnificent treasures from the collections of Frank Vacanti, Joel Selvin, Barry Wickham, Paul Getchell, Mickey McGowan, Mike LaVella and others (see previous blogs), some in their own homes, some in Sam's Oakland, CA studio.

What pleased Sam the most about ROCKIN' was seeing the fidelity of the capture all the way through to the actual printing of the book. The devil's in the details, and the details of each piece are there in each shot. And many pieces were truly difficult to work with--such as the black-on-red record labels.

The collectors really appreciated Sam's care. We never dropped a piece (I was Sam's positioner and retriever), never scratched a record, never bent a corner, and there were nearly 2,000 such captures made. Whew!

I took this photo in the apartment above Chris Strachwitz' Arhoolie Records vault, where Sam set up shop for a memorable afternoon shoot involving some of the rarest blues 78s in the world. More on that in an upcoming blog . . .

ROCKIN' props to Mike Ness and Christine Marie this Thanksgiving day

Gotta do a shout-out to Mike Ness and his wife, since today's all about givin' thanks.

Mike and I didn't know each other before we got together at his Black Cat car-customizing shop in SoCal. We kinda circled around the cars and bikes, then settled in for a long interview. He spoke frankly and with much insight. At the time I didn't know his thoughts would become the book's foreword, but as time went on it just seemed entirely appropriate.

When we needed an evocative photo, Mike's wife Christine Marie stepped in. Everyone who first sees the book remarks on how her photo so well accentuates the tone that his words set.

Gotta also thank Shane Trulin at Rebel Waltz, Mike's management company, for facilitating the meeting and continuing to work closely with me and the publisher's staff. Here's what Shane later told me: "Mike loved the book, and he thinks it's really cool. He wanted me to thank you." Big smiles!

Thanks also to David Glossner for getting the ball rollin', and snapping the photo of me and Ness. And, thanks as well to photog Steve Melidossian for the photo of Ness on one of his fine machines.

Keep tuned to this blog, because it looks like there'll be a major event at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, where we hope to honor Mike--rocker and gearhead--and help celebrate ROCKIN'in grand style.

ROCKIN' the ABC radio network

Yesterday I spent a totally wonderful HOUR at KGO radio in SF, taping a nationwide broadcast on the ABC radio network. I'm not quite sure when it will air, likely at the tail end of November.

The interviewer was Lucy Tauss, and she was inspired. Great questions, and I was able to stretch out just a little bit, which isn't always possible on radio. The experience reminded me of the interview I did on NPR/All Things Considered when ART OF MODERN ROCK was published in the Fall of '04. The best radio is when you get DOWN, when you tell stories. And ROCKIN' is of course full of great stories.

To be a good interviewer, you have to be a good listener. I thing one of the reasons why ROCKIN' resonates is that there're good ruminations throughout, which I set up and handled to the very best of my ability, just like Lucy did for me.

Happy Thanksgiving to one and all. The next day, if you haven't already . . . check out ROCKIN' at your local bookstore.

ROCKIN' with pinstriper Herb Martinez

Herb Martinez--one of the leading pinstripers in the world today--and I've been motoring around in the same circles. Although for years he's known of my work, beginning with THE ART OF ROCK, we first met, formally, at the annual TRPS rock poster show (that's The Rock Poster Society) at the Hall of Flowers in San Francisco two months ago. That's where Herb first saw ROCKIN', amongst an acre of spectacular rock & roll art.

We met again at the SEMA convention in Las Vegas, signing books at Bob Larivee's Art and Heritage section of South Hall. Herb was promoting the excellent PINSTRIPE PLANET: FINE LINES FROM THE WORLD'S BEST (Motorbooks, 2006), for which he's General Editor. Herb's work is featured inside, alongside luminaries like Von Dutch, Tommy the Greek, Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, "Dirty Donny" and many, many others.

Herb then invited me to sign books at the "Anatomy of a Hot Rod" exhibit at the Bedford Gallery (inside the Dean Lesher Center for the Arts) in Walnut Creek, CA, curated by Oakland Museum's Phil Linhares. That's Herb with ROCKIN' next to a cherry '33 Plymouth which he pinstriped. And there's me and Herb admiring a nicely pinstriped rear lid on a rod outside the hall.

Oh, and we we sold the most books of all the participating authors!

ROCKIN': "one of the best books of the season": SF Chronicle

The San Francisco Chronicle named ROCKIN' as one of the "best books of the season" in their holiday book review yesterday. Here's what deputy editor Regan McMahon had to say:

"It's a natural connection: cars and rock 'n' roll. But it took Bay Area author-archivist Paul Grushkin ("The Art of Rock") to put them together in a book, and draw from R&B, country, punk, funk, and hip-hop as well.

"Lavishly illustrated with photos, memorabilia, albums, singles, and magazine covers, and lots of photos of recording artists in their cars, from the Beach Boys and Elvis to the Ramones and Snoop Dogg, this comprehensive compendium highlights classic car songs from Jan and Dean's "Dead Man's Curve" to Springsteen's "Racing in the Streets."

"There are cars as metaphors, cars as boy toys, cars as teen freedom, hot rods, Caddies, limos and tour buses -- if it's got wheels and there's a musician anywhere in the vicinity, it's in here."

Couldn't have said it better myself.

ROCKIN' in ROLLING STONE: "Amazing vintage photos"

Rolling Stone has always done me proud, going back to reviews of my first and second books, GRATEFUL DEAD BOOK OF THE DEADHEADS (Wm. Morrow/HarperCollins, 1983) and THE ART OF ROCK: POSTERS FROM PRESLEY TO PUNK (Abbeville Press, 1987). Now, ROCKIN' has joined the party.

Jann Wenner, publisher of Rolling Stone, was sent a copy by Bob Merlis, our ace publicist. Wenner, a man not easily impressed--but very taken with ROCKIN', I'm told-- then gave it to Andy Greene, who e-mailed Merlis "Got it! Love it! Gonna review it!"

Sometimes it all comes together, and that's how people learn about your books.

ROCKIN on the Tonight Show stage with car guy Jay Leno

This afternoon Jay Leno--who apparently knew all about ROCKIN' and was very anxious to see it--finally got his copy . . . directly from me! We both look pretty pleased, standing there on The Tonight Show stage.

Ace publicist Bob Merlis put the two of us together, helped by a number of people on Jay's staff. What was very touching was that Leno must have come up to me and thanked me at least four times, following the taping of the show. I get the feeling he's gonna like the book, and tell a lot of friends about it. He's one of the all-time car guys, with a fantastic fleet of his own and two hanger-size buildings to house 'em, near the Burbank airport.

Kinda reminds me again of the Englewood, NJ Public Library bookplate, "Books are friends." Sure are! You rock, Jay.

Two ROCKIN' guys at Motorbooks

This is the fun part, the homestretch, as we head toward Thanksgiving and then Christmas '06. Hearing that people everywhere are discovering your book. Today the author-publisher team achieved a major milestone at Amazon.com. There, you can see a book's ranking every hour of the day, and the lower ranking your book achieves, the more copies it's selling. A book enters Amazon with a ranking in the 300,000's. A ranking under 10,000 is considered, in baseball analogy, a decent hit, maybe even a double up the alley. Under 5,000--you're sliding into third base.

Today ROCKIN' hit 3,504 (meaning, on Amazon, only 3,503 books are selling better). As a reference point, my previous book, ART OF MODERN ROCK, achieved the incredible ranking of 136, Christmas week, 2004. You can bet I'm watching every day now.

Now you gotta think . . . cars and rock & roll . . . that has to be a winner! I'm hopeful, that's for sure. As an author who spent two and a half years producing ROCKIN', I want as many people as possible to discover it.

Two people at Voyageur Press--the new imprint of MBI/Motorbooks Publishing, under which ROCKIN' has been published--deserve particular credit for what's now happening in the marketplace. Meet Randy Roland (left), the president-CEO guy, and Dennis Pernu (right), my esteemed editor. Both are holding Mike Martin's skull-engine, the poster art which opens up Chapter Two. Good juju all around!

Alison Zawacki, ROCKIN' artist

A few blogs ago I showed you photos of the staff at Ear X-Tacy in Louisville, KY admiring Alison Zawacki's interpretation of Tracy Chapman's "Fast Car." Not only is it an inspired painting, Alison also provided her own personal reflections on what the piece meant to her. It's not easy explaining art--especially an artist shedding additional light on what's by nature a vision--but Alison's thoughts are welcome indeed.

Here's Alison with one of her most famous concert posters, for Alicia Keys. I'm proud to tell you Alison's a much-sought-after commercial artist (and a fine artist as well), and her studio is in Sacramento, CA, not far from Brent Rector's office (Brent of course designed ROCKIN').

ROCKIN' the Twin Cities and all across the Land O' Lakes

"Are You Ready for a Brand New Beat?"

Dorothy Molstad, ace Marketing Manager for Voyageur Press (ROCKIN's publisher), has pulled out all the stops in getting the word out in the upper midwest.

She just sent me photos from Terri Schlichenmeyer's (aka THE BOOKWORMSEZ) top-rated Saturday segment on KARE, the powerful NBC affiliate in Minneapolis-St. Paul. Terri told Dorothy she's also planning to include ROCKIN' in her holiday gift column, going out to about 200 newspapers across the country.

"They'll be dancing in Chicago, down in New Orleans."

ROCKIN' the homefront

Today I did my duty as 'local author' and signed dozens of copies of ROCKIN' at the grand opening of the new Hercules, CA public library, in the town next to mine. My Mom, Jean, is a paraprofessional librarian at my hometown library (Englewood, NJ) and I never miss a chance to support the library. As the bookplate in Englewood has read for 100 years, "Books Are Friends."

When I got back to the house, there waiting in the mailbox was the Barnes & Noble Holiday Catalog for 2006. It's always a nervous moment opening it, hoping (of course) that your new book will be featured somewhere within, but there it was, on page 62, next to "Orange County Choppers" and "Awesome Bill (Elliott) from Dawsonville." Hey, hey, hey!!!

Selling books requires that author, publisher, and bookseller do everything possible to get the word out, especially at holiday time. ROCKIN's publisher, Voyageur Press (an imprint of MBI/Motorbooks Publishing), has gone the extra mile for weeks and weeks now, and it was a joy to see the book promoted in this essential catalog.

ROCKIN' at ear X-tacy in Louisville, KY

I was in Louisville, KY last week helping my artist friend Jeral Tidwell with a publishing venture. He took me over to one of the GREAT independent record stores in America, ear X-Tacy, on Bardstown Road, where they'd just received ROCKIN' and were displaying it very nicely in their large book section.

I strolled over to the counter and told the staff how proud I was of the new book. Some of them had not seen it yet, so I opened a copy and had them take a look. Dani (on the left) and Alex (right) were especially pleased with the art contributed by Eleanor Grosch, Kathleen Judge, and Alison Zawacki (Dani is pointing to Alison's piece). The book resonates on so many levels.