If you’re looking for the events that inspired the lyrics to all my songs? Those stories are in this book. If you’re looking for what I did when I was younger? That’s in here. What changed me, made me stop hating and hurting? It’s all here. This is my story and I’m sticking to it. That’s the one thing I have, the truth.
Volume one of Black Heart Fades Blue, a three-part memoir by the founder and frontman for one of punk rock’s most notorious acts, Poison Idea.
In 1980, Jerry A. formed Poison Idea, a Portland-based punk band that gave voice to disaffected and disenfranchised youth for over 30 years. As happened to so many punk bands, Jerry A. and Poison Idea also went all in on drugs and drinking as they toured the country, spiraling out of control and blowing both the band and their lives apart.
Black Heart Fades Blue is not an apology or a nostalgic catalog of events, but a true reckoning with one's past and present. A memoir of a time and a place and a movement, as well as a deep conversation about the memories and moments we leave behind, Black Heart Fades Blue is a deep exploration of an unconventional life.
About the author
Jerry A. Lang is the former frontman and founder of the seminal punk band Poison Idea, which has performed since 1980 and recorded seven albums and dozens of EPs in the 40 years of their existence. Poison Idea was an influence on bands like Nirvana, Turbonegro, Pantera, Napalm Death, and many, many more. Black Heart Fades Blue is Jerry's first book.
Summary
If you’re looking for the events that inspired the lyrics to all my songs? Those stories are in this book. If you’re looking for what I did when I was younger? That’s in here. What changed me, made me stop hating and hurting? It’s all here. This is my story and I’m sticking to it. That’s the one thing I have, the truth.
Volume one of Black Heart Fades Blue, a three-part memoir by the founder and frontman for one of punk rock’s most notorious acts, Poison Idea.
In 1980, Jerry A. formed Poison Idea, a Portland-based punk band that gave voice to disaffected and disenfranchised youth for over 30 years. As happened to so many punk bands, Jerry A. and Poison Idea also went all in on drugs and drinking as they toured the country, spiraling out of control and blowing both the band and their lives apart.
Black Heart Fades Blue is not an apology or a nostalgic catalog of events, but a true reckoning with one's past and present. A memoir of a time and a place and a movement, as well as a deep conversation about the memories and moments we leave behind, Black Heart Fades Blue is a deep exploration of an unconventional life.
Foreword
Events in Los Angeles, Portland, OR, Seattle, and New York, in conversation with other Rare Bird punk authors—Sam McPheeters, Gregg Turner, and moreRecord store outreachMusic media outreachOutreach to the Poison Idea fanbase
Additional text
"Get ready to feel the darkness. Punk Jerry A's memoir is a searing, brutal and touching story of a lost boy who finds himself in the most unlikely of places: as the lead singer of an infamous punk band."
— Rene Denfeld, bestselling author of The Child Finder, and former punk rock singer
"A rags to rags, no riches story, made gold by the absence of shame or good judgement. Jerry's story is relatable and then worse, honest and then better. A big bad boy finds a way to be a good man, and we owe him for bringing us along"
—Dan O'Mahony, musician, writer, and political activist
