We’ve had lots of books from the musician’s standpoint, great insights into their specific bands and I have enjoyed every one I have written about. But what I love about Barry Fey’s Backstage Past is how he relates insight as a fan and promoter who worked with the men and women who made rock and roll what it is through the late 60s and into the mid 90s.
It’s delicious treat to read Fey’s views on a band like Led Zeppelin (he booked them on their first run through America, opening for Vanilla Fudge), Frank Zappa, ZZ Top, John Denver and the Rolling Stones. He pulls no punches about his take on concert promoting these days, why he got out of the business, who he loved working with and who he did not…and why.
But mainly it’s this man’s enthusiasm for the music and the bands that makes his story so perfect and poignant. We get a quick peppering of Fey’s formative years, but mainly this book is about the music and how he promoted acts around the Midwest. He worked to make artists even bigger than they were when they met him. And in the process, he put Colorado’s Red Rocks Amphitheater on the map.
Super fan, mogul, friend, spicy Cajun shrimp cooker — I couldn’t say more about the incomparable Fey and his book unless I had interviewed the man himself (I did). If you want a book that will have you gobbling it up from the first page on, let me refer you to Barry Fey’s Backstage Past. This is a fun, fast-paced tome that Fey has culled from his closetful of rock and rock tales.
~ Ralph Greco, Jr.
For further reading, check out
our interview with Barry Fey
