Post by Darren Mell

🎵 Hey....Remember the 80s???? 🎵 I sure do....wish I was there right now! I'm proud to release my new book...... for everyone who once believed their high school band was one decent chorus away from opening for Bon Jovi. Spoiler alert: they were not. Four Chords and a Midlife Crisis is about five suburban Illinois kids who had cheap amps, huge hair, no evidence-based reason to believe they were going anywhere, and still believed with their whole hearts that rock and roll might save them. Take a trip back with me to Eastern Illinois University in 1986 and the freshman "dorm" Carmen Hall. The Parking Lot Prophets were going to crush it! Fast forward almost forty years. One of them is gone. The rest are older, slower, slightly more medicated, and trying to finish the one song they never got right. 🎶 There’s a cassette tape. 🎶 A dead friend’s last request. A basement band called Parking Lot Prophets. A lot of 1986. And four grown men trying to figure out whether it’s too late to become the people they almost were. This is not just nostalgia. Nostalgia is easy. Nostalgia is “remember when MTV played videos?” This book is more like: “Remember when you had dreams before cholesterol, LinkedIn, and lower back pain got involved?” Tagging some of my "known" 80s Rock fans....I know you're out there... Steven Abraham Brock King Frank Ficarra Frank J. Petrich, Jr.Ron Teichman Tom Minogue Jim Brustman Andrew Eppich KEVIN KACZMAREKTom NeimanJim Kenyon Brad Kinkelaar Tony Ventimiglia Michael Bennett Daniel Polan Maarten Hensen Sandra Bartishell How about a little 80s rock!!!!! .. So for my Gen X rock people: What was the first song that made you think, ‘Yep, I need a guitar, a band, and possibly leather pants I have no business wearing’? I'll go first.... 🎸 "Eruption" 🎸 the Eddie Van Halen epic guitar solo from Van Halen I. A masterpiece!!! (and yes, I saw his version on the 5150 tour live album. amazing as well!) 🎶 Let’s hear it. 🎶 Thank you for your support... 🎵 Darren Mell--Very Average Human Being 🎵 #GenX #80sMusic #RockAndRoll #FourChordsAndAMidlifeCrisis #NewBook #AuthorLife