In 1994, Gary Hustwit’s Rockpress in San Diego published ‘Hell on Wheels’. Now, in 2024, author Greg Jacobs has curated 20 of the original collection’s best stories and added 54 new ones to create ‘Hell on Wheels – Tour Stories: Remembered, Remixed, Remastered’. This new 373-page book includes recollections from members of bands like Bad Religion, All, Dead Kennedys, X, The Specials, Rocket From The Crypt, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Ramones, The Get Up Kids, and many more.
It will be released by University of Hell Press on October 25th and will be available at Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and other bookstores. Pre-orders start on July 25th at University of Hell webstore and will be shipped by September 25th, with all pre-orders signed by the author.
This compilation of tour stories, told by the band members who lived them, is so much more than sex, drugs and rock n’ roll, but, of course, that’s in here too. There are stories of scrapes with biker gangs, dog attacks (on stage!), the Berlin Wall coming down, broken bones, floods, dangling a promoter out of a window by his ankles, Saturday Night Live and so much more.
And here are some of the quotes from the book itself:
Ian MacKaye – “I remember walking off after we had danced, we were walking off and Eddie Murphy was standing there and he said, “FUCK YOU!” Life is rich.”
Derwood Andrews (Generation X) – “And at one show, a Hells Angel walked up on stage, swung a right hook into Billy’s face, then wandered off again. Billy didn’t miss a beat and was singing again before the guy got back in place.”
Joey Shithead (DOA) – “We flew back to Canada. We made it out alive and we didn’t spend any time in a Yugoslavian jail!”
Billy Ledges Ciraulo (Mad Parade) – “Mike jumped over the counter at a McDonald’s and stole some Big Macs just like the Hamburglar.”
Jello Biafra (Dead Kennedys) – “… this venerable gossipy columnist who’d been writing for decades in the San Francisco Chronicle, Herb Caen, comes out with this little thing about bad taste and how, along comes this band called Dead Kennedys who are playing on November 22nd, the anniversary of JFK’s death.”
Mark Arnold – “Every so often you get yourself into a situation on tour where it could have never happened except you are in Berlin. In a train station. Looking for the biggest creep in the building. A drug dealer.”