Mark Barsotti

ROCK IS DEAD THEY SAY. . . VOL. I boogies through rock 'n' roll history, focused primarily on the creative eruption of the early '90's as alt-rock stormed the mainstream, fueling rock's last wave as the National Soundtrack before it became the B-side to Hip Hop. Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins), Dave Mustaine (Megadeth), Joey Kramer (Aerosmith), Jerry Cantrell (Alice in Chains), and Kosmo Vinyl (the Clash's co-conspirator) sound off in never-before-published complete interviews, spurred on by the probing questions of writer Mark Barsotti, ex-music critic for Denver's Westword, whose work also appeared in Musician, D.J. Times, Request, and other rock mags. The interviews are bracketed by cuts from the original articles - "Mustaine spits out a motor mouthed spelling-civics lesson on freedom with such palpable loathing it's a wonder spittle doesn't ricochet off the turntable" - and the writer's current take on these seminal musicians, two decades into the 21st Century - "Hoping Billy Corgan writes a 44-track opus about a "Teargarden" isn't the same as wanting to listen to it." Barsotti's passionate, sometimes outrageous opinions on AC/DC (a close encounter with Angus Young at Red Rocks!), Woodstock Nation vs. the MTV Generation, the Censorship Wars, album reviews, rock's greatest movies, dozens of photos, and other gibberish about the past and future of rock. . . if - facing the coming Great Die-Off of the '20's - it still has one. But what can a poor boy do but TURN IT UP! "Every party plate of cocaine strapped to a midget's head cost 10,000 days of dogged, road warrior work, as bands schlepped to gigs in overcrowded vans with no ac but plenty of beer farts and insane drummers explaining that Jackie killed JFK (or maybe it was the Masons). Rockers worked their asses of, wooing their muse and chasing the dream, even if very few ever rose to penthouse cocaine-midget status. So who better to tell the story than the musicians themselves?"