On the Road with Janis Joplin

One of Parade's Top Ten Rock n' Roll Reads

As a road manager and filmmaker, John Byrne Cooke helped run the Janis Joplin show--and record it for posterity. Now he reveals the never-before-told story of his years with the young woman from Port Arthur who would become the first female rock-and-roll superstar.

In 1967, as the new sound of rock and roll was taking over popular music, John Byrne Cooke was at the center of it all. As a member of D. A. Pennebaker's film crew, he witnessed the astonishing breakout performances of Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix at the Monterey Pop Festival that June. Less than six months later, he became road manager for Janis and her band, Big Brother and the Holding Company, and from then on, Cooke was a constant presence behind the scenes as the woman called Pearl took the world by storm.

This intimate memoir spans the years he spent with Janis, from Monterey to Europe, Woodstock and Festival Express. Cooke tells the whole incredible story as only someone who lived it can.

INCLUDES PERSONAL PHOTOGRAPHS

John Byrne Cooke was Janis Joplin’s road manager from 1967 until her death. He is an award-winning author of four previous books, a performing musician with decades of experience, a photographer, and a filmmaker. He has written book reviews for the New York Times, Washington PostBook World, and the Los Angeles Times. He lives in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.