Richard Bienstock – författare

Spawned in 1991 as a farewell tour for Jane's Addiction, Lollapalooza was a nomadic spectacle, stopping in more than twenty cities across North America. A sweeping success, it offered a diverse ensemble of bands, breaking the barriers of genre and uniting alternative rock, heavy metal, punk rock, hip hop, and even electronic dance music under one grand event.Unorthodox not just in music, Lollapalooza also spotlighted visual arts, nonprofit organisations, and political outfits, offering a tantalising cocktail of culture, art, and activism that reached epic proportions. Echoes of its impact reverberate strongly today – cemented by annual sell-outs, an estimation of 400,000 attendees each July, and a spot among the world's largest and longest-running music festivals. It showcases the transcending power of music through the decades.Bestselling authors Tom Beaujour and Richard Bienstock draw from over two hundred author interviews with members of Jane’s Addiction, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Nine Inch Nails, Sonic Youth, Ice-T, Rage Against the Machine, Patti Smith, Metallica and many more to tell the no-holds-barred history of this iconic music festival.

Through hundreds of new interviews with artists, tour founders, promoters, stage crews, record label execs, reporters, roadies and more, Lollapalooza chronicles the tour’s pioneering 1991-1997 run, and, in the process, alternative rock’s rise – as well as the reverberations that led to a massive shift in the music industry and the culture at large.Lollapalooza features original interviews with some of the biggest names in music, including Perry Farrell and Jane’s Addiction, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Nine Inch Nails, Sonic Youth, Tool, Smashing Pumpkins, Ice-T, Rage Against the Machine, Green Day, Patti Smith, Alice in Chains, Metallica and many more.Conceived by Farrell as a farewell tour for Jane's Addiction, Lollapalooza’s inaugural outing across the U.S. in the summer of 1991 helped to coalesce an ideology and aesthetic that not only washed over popular music but seeped into fashion, film, television, literature, food, politics and more.A nostalgic look back at 1990s music and culture, Lollapalooza traces the festival’s groundbreaking origins, following the tour as it progresses through the decade, and documenting the action onstage, backstage, and behind-the-scenes in detailed and uncensored and sometimes shocking first-person accounts. This is the story of Lollapalooza and the 1990s alternative rock revolution.

The 1980s were an era of musical excess, filled with spandex, makeup, big hair, groupies, and loud, guitar-driven rock ’n’ roll. Photographer Mark Weiss lived at the heart of it all, documenting the biggest and most dangerous bands of the time—legends ranging from Van Halen, Ozzy Osbourne, Aerosmith, and Mötley Crüe to Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Bon Jovi, and KISS, as well as countless others whose sound and image defined the era. The Decade That Rocked showcases onstage and backstage moments and never-before-seen images from the period’s most historic concerts, tours, and multiplatinum album covers—all captured through the lens of Mark “Weissguy” Weiss.Growing up in Matawan, New Jersey, Mark made a deal with a neighbor at thirteen years old to mow his lawn for the summer in exchange for a 35mm camera. He then filled his teenage nights sneaking into concerts to shoot the biggest acts of the ’70s. After being arrested for selling photographs outside a KISS concert in 1977, he walked into the offices of Circus with his portfolio and soon landed his first centerfold spread—a photo of Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler. Soon after, he became the publication’s staff photographer. In the years to come, Mark became a fan favorite and a star in his own right, with a Creem magazine reader’s poll ranking him as one of rock’s top photographers of the era. Throughout the ’80s, his photos were seen by millions, appearing in countless magazines around the world and on the covers of the most iconic albums of the decade. He traveled on tour buses alongside legends-in-the-making as they climbed their way to sold-out arenas and stadiums, living and breathing the rock ’n’ roll lifestyle with unparalleled access to capture it all on film.Dig into Mark’s archives and take a tour through never-before-seen photos of a teenage Jon Bon Jovi during a performance with his New Jersey band the Rest, and behind-the-scenes and unreleased images from the album shoot for Bon Jovi’s Slippery When Wet and the band’s decade-ending historic performance at the Moscow Music Peace Festival. Revisit the 1983 US Festival’s historic Heavy Metal Day. Go backstage with Black Sabbath at Live Aid and with Van Halen during their biggest tours. Travel to Washington, DC, as Twisted Sister’s Dee Snider sits before Congress to combat censorship at the infamous PMRC hearings.Captured from the unique vantage point of a photographer who lived and breathed the ’80s in all its grit and glory, The Decade That Rocked brings to life the no-holds-barred sounds and sights that changed the world of hard rock and metal forever.