VERDICT An extensive insider's knowledge of rock that offers new insights into the genre's legends. Readers will find this book fascinating and entertaining.--Library Journal"These are wonderful stories across the whole range of popular music, by one of rock’s finest journalists. As history lengthens, and some of these legends move on. these become increasingly precious fragments of lives lived at the sharp edge of music."--Richard Thompson"You can’t beat Jim Sullivan’s writing for insightful, intelligent glimpses into this rock world we inhabit. And his new book, in addition to inviting us behind the scenes to get to know the artists, ties together the various personalities, and their music, to further enlighten. Notably, the people he interviews really like him. That matters."--Tony Levin of King Crimson"I have spoken to many journalists in my time, some good, some bad, some terrible. And it is lovely when you meet someone who is just like you.....A huge music fan! Jim Sullivan is a music fan. I knew it very quickly after our first meeting in the early 80's. He is friendly, knowledgeable, forthright, and opinionated! An expert in his chosen field. Meeting him now is like meeting an old friend and one of the highlights of any American tour. He is no pushover....If you have faults or are resting on your laurels, he is the first to tell you off."--Peter Hook, formerly of Joy Division and New Order"Jim has amassed quite a collection of experiences during his career as a journalist and now we get to hold them in our hands and enjoy them. He’s been really successful at getting a huge list of artists to open up and share what makes them come up with the music we’ve been loving to listen to for decades. But musicians aren’t just musicians. Jim has a knack for peeking under the blanket and finding out what makes them human and sometimes inhuman. That’s what makes the book so much fun to read."--Tom Hamilton of Aerosmith“Jim Sullivan is an expert interviewer with an uncanny ability to connect with his subjects. In Backstage & Beyond, he brings out the humanity in a host of rock and roll icons who are too often portrayed as godlike figures. This is an intimate and revealing look at many of the major personalities of the classic rock era.”--Tom Perrotta, author of Election, Tracy Flick Can't Win, The Leftovers and Mrs. Fletcher"Having been on both ends of his many years of reviews and interviews with all manner of artists - subject and reader - I am always drawn to [Sullivan's] writing; because I know he won’t have ambushed anyone or left them (us) feeling caught out, yet still end up with insight and history shared and some great stories. For isn’t that what we essentially do? We tell stories - soft and loud, inane, fierce, pointed, reflective, sometimes embarrassing, sometimes regretful; some of us are ranters, some shouters and pointers, some reserved and mostly private off-stage. We are the world. With Jim’s writing, it always feels like the interviewee thinks, “Well, that was pretty good.” at the end. I’ll take it. So should you. Well ... you should buy it, I mean."--Hugo Burnham of Gang of Four“There’s a lot of history here, and a lot of reflecting on that history. For me, it’s interesting to see the conflict many artists have as they try to evaluate their own work and its place in the scheme of things. Jim Sullivan has been able to coax some of those reflections out of a broad spectrum of artists and it’s fascinating to read. I’ve always known Jim to be a witty and insightful writer."--Greg Hawkes of The Cars“In Backstage & Beyond, the latter word is of most import. We may have listened to the records, experienced the concerts or wandered backstage for brief encounters, but Jim Sullivan penetrates the minds of the artists. With candor and intimacy, these musicians reveal themselves to him. He takes us beyond the revelatory to the very creative process itself.”--Oedipus (Boston DJ/radio Program Director)"The marquee names first draw you in, but it’s what’s behind the storefront that’s really the main attraction here. Sullivan fashions a kind of extended narrative from interviews, performance reviews, and his own thoughts and rethoughts on the music and the musicians who make it. The Jerry Lee Lewis chapter (itself worth the price of admission) segues to one on Mott’s Ian Hunter, whose hero was Lewis, which leads to Bowie, who made hitmakers of Mott, then to Bowie, Iggy, and Lou Reed, and… Sullivan’s informed commentary, and the professional and personal revelations he elicits from his subjects place Backstage & Beyond several leagues above the average rock read. At this late date, that’s saying something."–author, critic and broadcaster Gene Sculatti"Jim Sullivan has been on the frontlines of rock and roll for 40-plus years, armed only with a notebook, a tape recorder and a deep knowledge of the music he fell in love with as a kid. The veteran journalist has had bracing encounters with pioneers, classic-rock icons and punk upstarts, cult artists and arena acts, guided only by his discerning taste and his ability to ask the right questions in the right way no matter how difficult or ornery the subject. These chats and rants go beyond the surface bromides we already know about these larger-than-life personalities and unlock the deeper stories they rarely share -- by turns triumphant, tragic and never less than illuminating."--author, journalist and syndicated broadcaster (Sound Opinions) Greg Kot"With a twinkle in his eye, Jim cuts through the business, and speaking from his heart, he gently gets you to do the same. You learn a great deal about an artist from a Jim Sullivan interview, including yourself!"--Dave Wakeling of the English Beat"Maybe Jim Sullivan will never write a song as good as 'Accidentally Like a Martyr' or 'Space Oddity' but he contributes his own mark on the community by shaping, categorizing, adding and subtracting focus to the ones he (and most of us) consider the greats. That’s an art form all in itself.Cantankerous shrink, besotted instigator, fly both on the wall and in the ointment, Jim delivers the goods."--musician Steve Wynn (solo/Dream Syndicate)
