Die Young With Me Blog Tour: Guest Post + Giveaway

Welcome to Day #5 of the Die Young With Me Blog Tour!

To celebrate the release of Die Young With Me by Rob Rufus (9/20/16), blogs across the web are featuring exclusive content from Rob and 10 chances to win a copy of Die Young With Me, as well as two chances to win a Punk Rock Prize Pack in the Grand Prize Giveaway!

Top 5 Favorite Music Books by Rob Rufus
  Books about music, be it novels or rock-bios, are never really about the music.  The music is there, sure, but that isn’t why we turn the page.  We want the depravity!  The drugs!  The sex!  The violence!  The wasted money!  WE WANT THE GREEN M&Ms! So below is a list of five music-centric books that I love, which are sure to fulfill our collective lust for watching rockers crash, burn, and then do it all over again.   1.) HIGH FIDELITY – by Nick Hornby As a dorked-out record collector with a slew of regrettable relationships behind me, I may be a little biased on the merit of this book.  But it is hilarious, honest, and horrifyingly accurate.  The characters perfectly contrast the sleeziness of rock-n-roll with the pure, painfully nerdy cult of fandom.  Anybody and everybody should read this (and see the movie, if only for the Springsteen cameo). 

2.) S.T.P.: A JOURNEY THROUGH AMERICA WITH THE ROLLING STONES – Robert Greenfield Keith Richards was mega-pissed about this book, so you know it’s gotta be good.  Robert Greenfield joins the Stones Touring Party as they hit the road on their 1972 North American tour.  There are all the things you’d expect, of course – drugs, groupies, hilarious stories about celebrities, sex, jail, and, once again, drugs.  Rock-n-roll is on display at its hedonistic best.     But what really makes this book interesting are the interviews Greenfield does with the fans – kids who hitchhike from show to show (suffering everything from the elements, to physical and sexual abuse) just to watch Mick Jagger throw rose petals around on stage one more time.  The juxtaposition of the fans’ experience to the band itself is staggering, and leaves the reader knowing who the real “Rock-n-Roll Outlaws” are (spoiler: they aren’t the posh British millionaires banging supermodels in the hotel penthouse).  

3.) MY CROSS TO BEAR – by Gregg Allman There have been a ton of rock star memoirs in recent years.  Most of them left me feeling ripped-off, and wishing the artist would have hired a better ghostwriter.  But My Cross to Bear is the real fucking deal. In essence, it’s a book about two hillbilly brothers who start a rock-n-roll band and get into all kinds of crazy shit amidst all kinds of equally-crazy tragedy – so yeah, I may be a bit biased over this one, too.  But Allman is honest, man.  He talks about lying to his brother on the day he that he died, he talks about alcoholism and womanizing and STDs and drugs and fame and jealousy and hatred and depression and Cher and everything in between – bandwagon memoir or not, this Midnight Rider wrote one hell of a book.  

4.) HALF-BLOOD BLUES – by Esi Edugyan This is one of the most interesting books I’ve read in recent years.  It’s the story of three black jazz musicians living and touring in Europe during the start of WWII.  The plot is riveting and truly original, and Edugyan’s ability to capture the musicians – from the way they talk, to the demons that drive them – is spot on.  

5.) I SLEPT WITH JOEY RAMONE: A PUNK ROCK FAMILY MEMOIR – by Mickey Leigh and Legs McNeil For an obsessive Ramones fan like me, this book is the coolest.  Written by Joey Ramone’s brother Mickey, we get the inside scoop on this legendary singer and his family.  From their love of rock-n-roll radio, to Joey’s attempt at glam rock, to the feuding that would eventually tear The Ramones apart, I SLEPT WITH JOEY RAMONE is a beautiful tribute to the rare and fragile voice of punks, losers and weirdos everywhere.      

*****

Stop by Positively Book Crazy on Monday for the next stop on the tour!
 

Blog Tour Schedule:

September 19th - Mundie Moms

September 20th – BookHounds

September 21st – PageTurners

September 22nd – The Ravenous Reader

September 23rd – A Dream Within a Dream

September 26th – Positively Book Crazy

September 27th – Crossroad Reviews

September 28th – Book Briefs

September 29th – Addicted 2 Novels

September 30th – Once Upon A Twilight

Buy: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound

Add on Goodreads
 
In the tradition of John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars and Me and Earl and the Dying Girl comes the incredibly moving true story of a teenager diagnosed with cancer and how music was the one thing that helped him get through his darkest days. Punk’s not dead in rural West Virginia. In fact, it blares constantly from the basement of Rob and Nat Rufus—identical twin brothers with spiked hair, black leather jackets, and the most kick-ass record collection in Appalachia. To them, school (and pretty much everything else) sucks. But what can you expect when you’re the only punks in town? When the brothers start their own band, their lives begin to change: they meet friends, they attract girls, and they finally get invited to join a national tour and get out of their rat box little town. But their plans are cut short when Rob is diagnosed with a rare form of cancer that has already progressed to Stage Four. Not only are his dreams of punk rock stardom completely shredded, there is a very real threat that this is one battle that can’t be won. While Rob suffers through nightmarish treatments and debilitating surgery, Nat continues on their band’s road to success alone. But as Rob’s life diverges from his brother’s, he learns to find strength within himself and through his music. Die Young With Me is a raw, honest account of a brave teen’s fight with cancer and the many ways music helped him cope through his recovery.

Rob Rufus is a musician and writer living in Nashville. His band, Blacklist Royals, has released two full-length albums and played in sixteen countries over the past five years. Rob has written articles for Modern Drummer, Amp Magazine, Digital Tour Bus, and many music sites. Rob also works closely with the cancer community, including the Lance Armstrong Foundation, Stupid Cancer Podcast (the largest advocacy/support organization worldwide for teens with cancer), and Make-A-Wish Foundation. You can find him online at robrufus.net, on Twitter @rob_rufus, and Instagram @dieyoungwithme_official.

Follow Rob: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

(1) Winner will receive a finished copy of DIE YOUNG WITH ME - Open to US/CAN only!
 
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GRAND PRIZE GIVEAWAY

• Two (2) winners will receive a Punk Rock Prize Pack featuring a finished copy of Die Young With Me, an exclusive poster, a mix tape (ft. an excerpt of the book), Die Young With Me switchback comb (not pictured), and Rob Rufus punk rock vinyls
• Enter via the Rafflecopter below
• US Only
• Ends 10/2 at midnight ET

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