Where You Goin' with That Gun in Your Hand?: The True Crime Blotter of Rock 'n' Roll

by Keith Elliot Greenberg

To Alice Cooper, the outlaw quality of rock 'n' roll is little more than theater. “Just because I cut the heads off dolls, doesn't mean I hate babies ” he once said. But others have lived by the criminal philosophy espoused in their work. “The only negative thing about murder is that when you kill someone, they...no longer suffer ” said Norwegian black-metal rocker Varg Vikernes of Mayhem in 1993, the same year he stabbed musical rival Euronymous to death.

His tale is prominently featured in Where You Goin' with That Gun in Your Hand? The True Crime Blotter of Rock 'n' Roll . The book examines a total of 21 fatal crimes tied to the music industry, such as the murders of Marvin Gaye, Biggie Smalls, Tupac Shakur, and Selena. In the case of Vikernes – dubbed the most violent musician in the history of metal – the performer is the perpetrator. In other instances – the deaths of John Lennon or Run DMC's Jam Master Jay, for example – the star is the victim. Other chapters deal with conspiracy theories involving musicians whose lives ended prematurely (e.g., the Rolling Stones' Brian Jones, the Doors' Jim Morrison, and Nirvana's Kurt Cobain).

Each story is written as a compelling narrative, in a style the author perfected while writing several true-crime books, as well as December 8, 1980: The Day John Lennon Died and Too Fast to Live, Too Young to James Dean's Final Hours .

288 pages, Paperback

Published May 1, 2019

About the author

Keith Elliot Greenberg is a New York Times bestselling author and producer for America's Most Wanted. In addition to producing programs for VH1, 48 Hours, MSNBC Investigates, the History Channel, and Court TV, among others, Greenberg has authored more than thirty nonfiction books and written for such outlets as Maxim, The Village Voice, The New York Observer, USA Today, Playboy.com, and US Weekly."

Reviews

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Morbid, but true cases involving many iconic musicians and singers from Sam Cooke to Brian Jones to John Lennon to Kurt Cobain. Greenberg even includes the deaths of little known female Seattle punk Mia Zapata ( at least little known to me ).
The chapters each focus on one or more deaths and are very clear, concise, and to the point using eye witnesses, interviews and other literary sources for information. Fascinating yet odd at times ( Jim Gordon )and at other times mysterious and confounding ( Bobby Fuller ) the book literally has something for everyone though I read the whole thing.

[Dylan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve never had a huge interest in Music stories, but was intrigued by this Book detailing several vignettes of musicians deaths and investigations. I knew about the history of some of these crimes, but this book filled out my knowledge and even explored stories featuring musicians I’ve never heard of it’s an interesting and informative read.

[Fishface · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was okay. Most of the stories were not new to me, but I learned new details of the familiar ones in every chapter I read. The writing was good overall but occasionally strikingly clumsy, in ways that sometimes suggested Spellcheck errors, or sometimes unfamiliarity with English usage and grammar.

[Rene Salomon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Original book. Well researched, goes deeper than most of the information I have heard about these lurid deaths.
Great read, loved it.

[Rebecca Kowal · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book wasn’t too bad, I picked it up on a whim at the local library and did get some enjoyment out of it. While I’m relatively familiar with almost all the cases discussed in the book, there were definitely some interesting details here or there that I was surprised to learn! Unfortunately this book would have benefited from additional editing, at times the spelling and grammar left something to be desired.