THE OUTRAGEOUS TALE OF A TRUE COUNTRY OUTLAW
An epic tale of sex, drugs, and country music almost 40 years in the making, Gary Stewart: I Am From the Honky-Tonks is the eighth and final biography by Jimmy McDonough (Shakey: Neil Young’s Biography, Tammy Wynette: Tragic Country Queen), America’s greatest chronicler of popular culture.
An unsung hero of 20th century American music, Gary Stewart is regarded as one of the most talented singers, songwriters, and vocalists of his generation. In the mid-1970s, crazed hits like "She’s Actin' Single (I'm Drinkin' Doubles)" and "Drinkin' Thing" rocketed Stewart up the charts and earned him the admiration of Bob Dylan, The Allman Brothers, Tanya Tucker, and more. Within a few years, he had flamed out and all-but-vanished from the music scene. Until Jimmy McDonough barged his way into the spooky, Florida doublewide Stewart was hiding out in, beginning a four-decade obsession with the elusive musician.
Utilizing the unique combination of oral history, vivid prose, and personal experience that made McDonough’s Shakey: Neil Young’s Biography a bestseller, Gary Stewart: I Am From The Honky-Tonks follows a feral Kentucky family who surfed success and rear-ended disaster in drug-soaked, 1970s Florida. At its core is the tempestuous, tragic love story of Gary Stewart and his wife, Mary Lou, that will leave readers haunted long after they turn the last page.
AS SEEN IN
Photo by Grandal Stewart
AUTHOR
Jimmy McDonough is the author of the New York Times bestseller Shakey: Neil Young’s Biography. He is also the biographer of Russ Meyer (Big Bosoms and Square Jaws), Tammy Wynette (Tragic Country Queen), Al Green (Soul Survivor), and exploitation filmmakers Andy Milligan (The Ghastly One) and the Ormonds (The Exotic Ones). His writing has been published in The Village Voice, Film Comment, and Variety.
REVIEWS
"He sings like a man arguing with destiny. It sounds like the ache is real..."
Bob Dylan
"Five hundred pages on the life of an addict hillbilly musical genius who spent years hiding out in a trailer sounds like a dream reading vacation to me"
John Waters
"The Resurrection of Country Music’s Ultimate Vanishing Act"
Bob Mehr
"I Am From The Honky-Tonks is a lot more than the biography of a cult artist. It's a vast, tumultuous portrait of 20th-century, Southern, working-class life"
Ken Tucker
"One of the most adventurous and daring books about a popular musician to come in a long time"
Rolling Stone
"McDonough accomplishes in this biography what any true fan of a songwriter and performer yearns for, creating a hunger in its readers for more of their music"
Karly Hartzman (Wednesday)
"Intimate, raw, and often heartbreaking… one of the finest books ever written on a country music singer"
Travis Kitchens
"A mesmerizing story of a man born to sing and suffer"
Country Music Hall of Fame
"A monumental biography of an artist who pushed everything to the limit, by a biographer who does the same."
Kirkus Reviews
"****"
