Off My Rocker

by Kenny Weissberg

Overview

He messed with James Brown's perfect hair. He cured a dying sparrow with Joan Baez. He counted a pile of cash with Aretha Franklin. He got bamboozled by Chuck Berry.

Kenny Weissberg followed the music his entire career. A disc jockey, critic, rock singer, bandleader, and concert promoter, he lived all his childhood dreams - some of which turned into nightmares.

In Off My Rocker, he presents a rollicking, backstage look at the joys and painful realities of a life devoted to music. During his early years as a radio personality, he basks in the creative glow of the free-spirited, post-Woodstock era but later rebels against the soulless corporate takeover of the music he's loved forever. Along the way, he detours to the dark side, succumbing to the greed, deceit, theft, and drugs so rampant in the entertainment industry.

Equal parts spicy confessional and pop-culture adventure, with trenchant insights throughout, this page-turner of a memoir will stay with you long after the closing credits.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780985581565
Publisher:	Sandra Jonas Publishing House
Publication date:	09/23/2013
Pages:	311
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.30(d)

Table of Contents

Author's Note vii

Part 1 A Kid From Jersey

1 December 10, 1967 3

2 When Radio Mattered 8

3 Hyde Park and Woodstock 15

4 Pit Stops on a Bumpy Road 28

5 Head East and Westward Ho! 37

6 Circuitous Routes 41

Part 2 Behind the MIC

7 Me on the Air? 47

8 If at Flirt You Don't Succeed 55

9 Let's Do It … Let's Fall in Love 59

10 I Begin Asking Questions 68

11 Kenny & the Kritix 90

12 The Second Incarnation 108

13 Back for More 114

Part 3 Unstable Cliffs

14 My New Best Friend 123

15 San Rafael 129

16 America's Finest City 133

17 El Tio 138

18 Doing the Laundry 141

19 1984 145

20 We Gotta Get Humphrey's 151

21 Miles in the Rain 155

22 Transition 161

Part 4 Backstage at the Bay

23 Gonna Be Huge 171

24 It's a Bird, Mr. Charles 176

25 The Domestic Goddess 181

26 The Fat Man's Baggage 186

27 Pretty Woman Running Scared in Dreams 196

28 Extortion Chuck Berry Style 201

29 Static from the Godfather 211

30 A Higher Voice 215

31 Lady Soul at the Hotel Del 221

32 Diva Demands 227

33 Angels 242

Part 5 Hard Lessons

34 Music Without Boundaries 259

35 Station Hopping 265

36 The Final Episode 276

37 Playing the Game 282

38 Denouement 292

39 What's Next? 301

Acknowledgments 307

About the Author 311