Amped is the first comprehensive account of the history, culture, and business of action sports-skateboarding, snowboarding, BMX, and freestyle motocross. Journalist David Browne interviews more than 100 athletes, pioneers, industry executives, manufacturers, and the adolescent amateurs at the heart of this movement. On his journey, he unravels the eye-opening tale of a flourishing culture that continues to reject old-fashioned stick-and-ball sports in favor of individualistic forms of expression, and that culture's struggle to hold on to its integrity despite the demands of corporate sponsors.
David Browne is a contributing editor at Rolling Stone, and his work has appeared in the New York Times, Time, Spin, the New Republic, Men's Journal, the Huffington Post, and numerous other outlets. For many years he was the music critic at the New York Daily News and then Entertainment Weekly, where, among other tasks, he worked as a roadie for Kiss, shared a bagel with Leonard Cohen in Cohen's Montreal home, and spent time on the tour buses with Coldplay and the Black Crowes.
Browne is the author of four books: "Dream Brother" (2001), a dual biography of the late musicians Jeff and Tim Buckley; "Amped" (2004), a history of extreme sports; and "Goodbye 20th Century" (2008), a biography of the pioneering indie band Sonic Youth. "Dream Brother" has been translated into French and Italian and has been optioned as source material for a major feature film on the life of Jeff Buckley, for which Browne will be a consultant. "Goodbye 20th Century" was hailed as "an expressway to the soul of of the influential band" by Vanity Fair, "a rollicking, epic biography" by Salon, and "compulsively readable" by Publishers Weekly. It has also been published in the UK and Germany, with a Japanese edition forthcoming.
He is the recipient of a Music Journalism Award for criticism. Born and raised in New Jersey, not far from Bruce Springsteen territory, he lives and works in New York City. He has a jones for sci-fi and horror films, non-fiction books, and those chocolate/coconut Girl Scout cookies, in no particular order.
