Back in 2018, I profiled the photo work of Greg Jacobs, a veteran of the SoCal punk scene. In addition to his photography adventures, he's also held many hats in the music business side of things, including artist managment, counting the likes of Rocket from the Crypt and Drive Like Jehu among his former clients.
Greg's rich history led him to write a book called Hell on Wheels back in the '90s, compiling wild tour stories from an impressive array of punk rock artists. This fall, University of Hell Press will be releasing Hell on Wheels—Tour Stories: Remembered, Remixed, Remastered, an updated and expanded version of the book.
The new book includes entries from such bands as Bad Religion, The Jesus Lizard, No For An Answer, and Ramones, among tons of others.
I reconnected with Greg to get some more background on his book.
What inspired you to compile these stories into a book? Did any other books you’ve read throughout the years help inform that?
The true inspiration for Hell on Wheels is my mom. It was her idea. She said she loved hearing tour stories from the times I was out with some of the bands
I managed or hearing me re-tell stories to her that they had told to me. Hell On Wheels was originally published in 1994 by Rockpress in San Diego, California. I shared an office with a book publisher and he asked me to write a book so he would not be the sole author on his press.
Sometime in 2020, someone posted something about the book on a Naked Raygun page on Facebook. That post led to people contacting me and asking "Are you the guy that did the book?" I shared a screenshot of that post on my Facebook page where a publisher saw it and asked if I wanted to do an updated version of the book. I said yes!
This inspired the revised 2024 version of Hell On Wheels. We took 20 stories from the 1994 version and added over 50 new bands and stories to the revised version.
You have a long history in the music business, both on the artist management and record label side. How did that come into play during the making of Hell On Wheels? I imagine you had some personal connection to some of the bands you have in the book.
I have been very lucky in my career in music. I made and maintained a lot of friends and yes, my contacts helped me get started on the new version of the book ... But social media helped too. Almost every band has a social media page, so I started firing off messages to my favorites asking if they were interested in contributing a story for the book.
Most said yes. I think COVID helped too. At the time, I was gathering stories the tour industry was basically shut down due to COVID and no one was able to tour, so me asking questions about touring might have relieved some boredom the bands were experiencing. Plus, if they couldn't be on tour at least they could talk about it (this is just my theory).
Which artist told you the wildest story in the book? There must have been a few instances where you had to leave certain stories out of the book because you were worried they would be too controversial? They were different times, man!
Oh man, there are so many wild stories in the book! It's hard to pick the wildest. There are troubles with biker gangs, car crashes, acid trips, police interactions, Lemmy finding a fake boob at the Troubadour and so much more ... I can't pick one.
There are 2 stories that were censored. One by the storyteller protecting the artist and one by me, the editor and the publisher ... it was a drug story and, since we did not have the blessing from the person the story is about, we decided to leave out their name. I didn't feel right about outing a heroin addict without their knowledge.
What were some of the common themes you noticed while writing the book?
There are many themes in the book. Each chapter is named by a song title. The song title is supposed to infer the theme of the stories contained in the chapter.
Examples would be:
Chapter "Accidents Will Happen" - all the stories in that chapter are about some sort of bathroom accident.
Chapter "Chinese Rocks" - all the stories are about drugs
Chapter "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on my Head" - all the stories are about the weather.
And so on ...
READ MORE: Interview with Frank Daly (Big DRILL Car, All Systems Go!)
Of all the bands included in Hell On Wheels, which one’s touring lifestyle do you think you might have killed you?
Oh man, I'm a softy. All of them would have killed me but some of the bands were touring relentlessly.
Descendents used to tour their asses off - doing 60 shows in 60 days (or more) all while living in a van on $5 per day.
Big DRILL Car did the same - Live and sleep in their van while touring America living show by show - And if the promoter skipped out on paying you, you didn't even have enough money to put gas in the van to get to the next show (always buy merch - It really helps the bands).
Some of the stories Rat Scabies (Damned) told me about the Sex Pistols, Damned, Johnny Thunders tour in 1977 sounded absolutely miserable. Fights every night, townspeople rioting because punk rockers were in their town, hotels not allowing punk rockers inside ... That might have broken me (or made me stronger).
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Hell on Wheels—Tour Stories: Remembered, Remixed, Remastered will be out on October 25th and is up for pre-order on Amazon now.
Tagged: book
