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Life in the Fast Lane: Truckin' on the 1970s Rock'n'Roll Road
The 1970s Rock'n'Roll Road is paved with myths and stories. Some of them are mine. In this fictional autobiography, events and names are often changed for privacy, but much of it is mostly true... From 1971-76, I crewed 1,100 shows with over-40 top rock bands, including Led Zepplin , Elvis, Linda Ronstadt, Loggins & Messina, and the Rolling Stones. I was not a musician or a roadie; I was the sound equipment Truck Driver. If I didn't get the sound gear to a gig on time, the show could not go on. I have dozens of tales inspired by my own observations and experiences. I met hundreds of memorable people on the road and backstage. I saw rock stars 'up close and personal, ' as well as their groupies and fans. I learned patience, the value of being prepared, and how a little appreciation goes a long way. In the Seventies, Rock'n'Roll graduated from psychedelics and weed to cocaine and speed. The music venues grew from bar-band dives to 100,000 seat stadiums. Equipment transportation mushroomed from a single roadie's van to 50-truck caravans on multi-city tours hopscotching stages and lighting trusses between three stadiums at a time. Almost 50 years later, interest in Rock'n'Roll's evolution has caught up with me and my 'driver's log' has finally fermented into a brew worth sharing. If you were there (or wish you had been), I hope you enjoy this " backstage pass" to what you won't read in rock star biographies. Glenn's fictional autobiography writing style reminds readers of Hunter S. Thompson and Tom Robbins with a dash of E.L. Doctorow. "Ride shotgun" with Glenn as he tours the 1970s Rock'n'Roll underworld again... "Glenn's years as 'Ace Driver' offer a behind the scenes look and expose which few people have experienced and no one else has meaningfully conveyed to us Rock'n'Roll junkies." Jon Zelazny, writer & Pushcart Prize short fiction nominee "If you love rock and roll, and you want the whole story, then this very real back-story of the music of our lives is a mandatory read. The reality of Glenn Schiffman's Life in the Fast Lane is deep... An amazing chronical of the Rock'n'Roll road." Merel Bregante, country-western music producer; former drummer for Loggins & Messina
- GenresMusic
284 pages, Paperback
Published August 8, 2023
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September 18, 2023
“If you think you’ve got what it takes to drive a big rig…,” a Southern baritone daringly drawled in a trucker school TV spot I always loved as a kid.
Beyond that, I never gave the profession much thought… until I joined the vaunted Studio City Writers Group in 2010, and started hearing the tales of a Classic Rock road warrior named Glenn Schiffman. I was writing about rock too, a novel, set in Swinging London. Some nights, Glenn and I would present our chapters back-to-back, and his stuff never failed to mop the floor with mine.
It was just so fucking real, man! Hilarious and bleak, raw grit and aching beauty, raunchy accounts of truck stop hookers turned into plaintive explorations of Indian spirituality, or comic exposes of phony bad-ass bands like Blue Oyster Cult set against the horror of colleagues gone mad with Vietnam PTSD. God, I wanted my fiction to crackle, beguile, amuse, and gut-punch the way Glenn’s anecdotes did, and as luck would have it, I was privileged to spend seven years workshopping alongside him, and by sheer osmosis managed to gradually up my game.
Is his book fun? At times. But like the job itself, any fun soon ebbs under the weight of internal and external pressures. Glenn— alias Peter Seeman— depicts himself as a no-longer young man beset by so many torments, it’s hard to believe he’s still walking the Earth. And truth be told, I find it difficult to reconcile his volatile, intimidating ne’er-do-well of eons past with the wise, calming, and contemplative Zen master I know today. But don’t go thinking this is some kind of sermon, or How I Got Clean self-help bullshit. It’s not a book of answers, but questions, and doubts, an elliptical, scorching, and often bewildering saga of a fellow engaged in the greatest moral wrestling match since Jacob threw down with the Lord’s finest… an event I wouldn’t be surprised to hear Peter Seeman actually crewed at Buffalo’s Rich Stadium, circa ‘74.
Beyond that, I never gave the profession much thought… until I joined the vaunted Studio City Writers Group in 2010, and started hearing the tales of a Classic Rock road warrior named Glenn Schiffman. I was writing about rock too, a novel, set in Swinging London. Some nights, Glenn and I would present our chapters back-to-back, and his stuff never failed to mop the floor with mine.
It was just so fucking real, man! Hilarious and bleak, raw grit and aching beauty, raunchy accounts of truck stop hookers turned into plaintive explorations of Indian spirituality, or comic exposes of phony bad-ass bands like Blue Oyster Cult set against the horror of colleagues gone mad with Vietnam PTSD. God, I wanted my fiction to crackle, beguile, amuse, and gut-punch the way Glenn’s anecdotes did, and as luck would have it, I was privileged to spend seven years workshopping alongside him, and by sheer osmosis managed to gradually up my game.
Is his book fun? At times. But like the job itself, any fun soon ebbs under the weight of internal and external pressures. Glenn— alias Peter Seeman— depicts himself as a no-longer young man beset by so many torments, it’s hard to believe he’s still walking the Earth. And truth be told, I find it difficult to reconcile his volatile, intimidating ne’er-do-well of eons past with the wise, calming, and contemplative Zen master I know today. But don’t go thinking this is some kind of sermon, or How I Got Clean self-help bullshit. It’s not a book of answers, but questions, and doubts, an elliptical, scorching, and often bewildering saga of a fellow engaged in the greatest moral wrestling match since Jacob threw down with the Lord’s finest… an event I wouldn’t be surprised to hear Peter Seeman actually crewed at Buffalo’s Rich Stadium, circa ‘74.
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