In his first book, Life on Planet Rock, author Lonn Friend shared his ringside view of rock’s decade of decadence. Now, in Sweet Demotion, the veteran rock scribe takes off the gloves and battles himself. Lonn was enjoying a six-figure multi-media career in 1998 when, at the end of a four-year run as a record company VP, he was “bitch slapped by the Universe”; his professional ride came to a crashing pause. But instead of hiring headhunters or putting a resume together to find another gig, Lonn hit the rock-and-roll road less traveled. The result is a brutally transparent, shamelessly self-deprecating mid-life memoir of a writer who stopped making money and started seeking truth. Sweet Demotion chronicles a thirteen-year period of personal deconstruction, spiritual madness, and bizarre anecdotal wordplay where faith was lost in everything but the moment and the music. Lonn’s intimate adventure invites the reader to a porn burial in the desert, a Janis Joplin ghost sighting, a Dallas meditation on the anniversary of JFK’s assassination following the interview of a heavy metal legend, and the sharing of sacred space on a northeast lake with the lead singer of Aerosmith. Sweet Demotion is a sojourn to near-enlightenment that no one but Lonn Friend could have possibly experienced.
Sweet Demotion
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By Linda Arroz
Format:Paperback
If you love music, read things into lyrics, use your iPod as your personal soundtrack, BUY Sweet Demotion NOW. A page turner, Sweet Demotion is a mind blowing odyssey to higher consciousness that reads like a who's who of iTunes. From the paragons of prog to the monarchs of metal, Lonn knows 'em all, saw many of them fall and then he hit a wall. But this Phoenix of Phonics doesn't stay down. This is a testament to his wit, will and wonderment of life.
Lonn's not afraid to share his past, and it's vast. His brave prose about his woes is self effacing. Friend, and I divulge he is my friend, we're alums of a small but exclusive club whose members wrote and helmed magazines in the extinct consumer division of Larry Flynt's publishing company; is a great storyteller, his words so vivid, you forget you're reading and instead feel like you're riding shotgun on his spiritual, magical, musical adventure. Chris O'Dell, author of Miss O'Dell, her biography full of anecdotes about her time working at Apple and her friendships with the Beatles, including the story behind the song George Harrison wrote for her, starts her book out with this sentence, "I wasn't famous, I wasn't even almost famous, but I was there." Lonn Friend was there, now he's more aware and is willing to share it all with us in Sweet Demotion.
Lonn's not afraid to share his past, and it's vast. His brave prose about his woes is self effacing. Friend, and I divulge he is my friend, we're alums of a small but exclusive club whose members wrote and helmed magazines in the extinct consumer division of Larry Flynt's publishing company; is a great storyteller, his words so vivid, you forget you're reading and instead feel like you're riding shotgun on his spiritual, magical, musical adventure. Chris O'Dell, author of Miss O'Dell, her biography full of anecdotes about her time working at Apple and her friendships with the Beatles, including the story behind the song George Harrison wrote for her, starts her book out with this sentence, "I wasn't famous, I wasn't even almost famous, but I was there." Lonn Friend was there, now he's more aware and is willing to share it all with us in Sweet Demotion.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Bitch slapped by the Universe, what a profound opening when you stop to think about it. Honestly, which one of us over the age of conscious thought hasn't been at least once? You've lost something you held dear, and re-evaluated your life, and the meaning behind it. Lonn Friend's tenure in the hallowed halls of all things rock has undoubtedly made the realization harder than it is for most of us, but it's also given him the platform to let us know that when that bitch slap from the heavens comes we aren't alone.
For those of you that aren't familiar with Lonn and his storied journey allow me a few moments to bring you up to speed. Beginning in 1982, Lonn started with Larry Flynt as an Associate, and then Senior Editor, of Hustler, and was also the Senior Editor of Chic. In 1987, Lonn took the helm of RIP Magazine. Making RIP "THE" magazine for head-bangers everywhere and doing stints on MTV (when there was still music) and writing prolifically wasn't the height. He was hired as the vice president of A&R, West Coast, at Arista Records. Just when he was at the top, the bitch slap came, and Lonn started to realize that all wasn't what it seemed.
Anyone that has dealt with a man in the middle of his life will be able to relate to this book. Anyone that has had an awakening of any sort will as well. Hidden among anecdotes of rock legends is one theme: that being true to yourself is ultimately the real meaning of our time on this rock hurling through space. It isn't how many parties you've been to, how many rockers you've done shots with, or the relationships that have failed for one reason or another, it's the ability and the struggle to live in the moment and just be.
Don't get the idea that this is full of mysticism and crystals. While Lonn talks freely of experiences that most would scoff at, he also makes you examine yourself and your own journey. Shortly after cracking open the pages I came across the word synchronicity. That one word hit me like a ton of bricks. It made me wonder if the fact that I took the assignment to read and regurgitate the ideas behind a book by a man that I've long admired was an act of fate. It helped quiet the butterflies for sure. Honestly, what person in their right mind wants to try to explain to others a book by a man that they grew up watching on Headbangers Ball, and reading the glossy pages of their mag? RIP, not Hustler, for the record. Anyhow, I read on, curious to see what other wisdom was held in the pages yet to come.
You would certainly think that the man with access to some of the most important and influential people in the music industry wouldn't have the same struggles that I do. Instead of living in a lavish mansion and enjoying the fruits of a long and successful career, Lonn found himself wandering and relying on fate to provide even the smallest necessity. It was a choice, but not a choice. Perhaps you have to experience it to understand, but Lonn does his damndest to help you get there. What strikes me, time and again, while pouring over the pages is this: while describing the times when he just was, things fell into place. As soon as he started to try to make things happen the way he wanted, fate pushed back as if to say "Now is not the time my Friend, you aren't ready".
I realize that I sound like a new age mystic, but the thing is that you can't help it after reading this. I have been a firm believer in Karma and fate for a very long time, so this is going to reach me on a different level than it may reach you. Perhaps you're more interested in the stories about partying with Bret Michaels on his fortieth birthday, or the encounter with Steven Tyler that had me saying "Really?", but even then you will read the final sentence and be changed.
What struck me like a CAT bus were the tales of introspective drives, meditating on mountaintops, and just letting things happen as they may. As important for me were the results of those times. I'm trying to not give too much away, but let me say that the outcomes were things that I can only dream of. The struggles that Lonn has gone through are inspirational in their own way. Many have fallen from the top never to recover, yet Lonn has turned the bad times into a book that just may help another realize that this too shall pass.
Peppered with Rock history, Lonn has shared a part of himself with the reader. He admits that he hasn't figured it all out yet, but that his journey is continuing. Perhaps the next book will be of his climb back to the top of the mountain, and regaining his place in the upper echelons of the music industry. Perhaps it will be a tale of taking an entirely new road, and finding that it was where he should have been going all along. Either way you can guarantee that it's going to be full of an honest recollection of life as Lonn knows it.
For those of you that aren't familiar with Lonn and his storied journey allow me a few moments to bring you up to speed. Beginning in 1982, Lonn started with Larry Flynt as an Associate, and then Senior Editor, of Hustler, and was also the Senior Editor of Chic. In 1987, Lonn took the helm of RIP Magazine. Making RIP "THE" magazine for head-bangers everywhere and doing stints on MTV (when there was still music) and writing prolifically wasn't the height. He was hired as the vice president of A&R, West Coast, at Arista Records. Just when he was at the top, the bitch slap came, and Lonn started to realize that all wasn't what it seemed.
Anyone that has dealt with a man in the middle of his life will be able to relate to this book. Anyone that has had an awakening of any sort will as well. Hidden among anecdotes of rock legends is one theme: that being true to yourself is ultimately the real meaning of our time on this rock hurling through space. It isn't how many parties you've been to, how many rockers you've done shots with, or the relationships that have failed for one reason or another, it's the ability and the struggle to live in the moment and just be.
Don't get the idea that this is full of mysticism and crystals. While Lonn talks freely of experiences that most would scoff at, he also makes you examine yourself and your own journey. Shortly after cracking open the pages I came across the word synchronicity. That one word hit me like a ton of bricks. It made me wonder if the fact that I took the assignment to read and regurgitate the ideas behind a book by a man that I've long admired was an act of fate. It helped quiet the butterflies for sure. Honestly, what person in their right mind wants to try to explain to others a book by a man that they grew up watching on Headbangers Ball, and reading the glossy pages of their mag? RIP, not Hustler, for the record. Anyhow, I read on, curious to see what other wisdom was held in the pages yet to come.
You would certainly think that the man with access to some of the most important and influential people in the music industry wouldn't have the same struggles that I do. Instead of living in a lavish mansion and enjoying the fruits of a long and successful career, Lonn found himself wandering and relying on fate to provide even the smallest necessity. It was a choice, but not a choice. Perhaps you have to experience it to understand, but Lonn does his damndest to help you get there. What strikes me, time and again, while pouring over the pages is this: while describing the times when he just was, things fell into place. As soon as he started to try to make things happen the way he wanted, fate pushed back as if to say "Now is not the time my Friend, you aren't ready".
I realize that I sound like a new age mystic, but the thing is that you can't help it after reading this. I have been a firm believer in Karma and fate for a very long time, so this is going to reach me on a different level than it may reach you. Perhaps you're more interested in the stories about partying with Bret Michaels on his fortieth birthday, or the encounter with Steven Tyler that had me saying "Really?", but even then you will read the final sentence and be changed.
What struck me like a CAT bus were the tales of introspective drives, meditating on mountaintops, and just letting things happen as they may. As important for me were the results of those times. I'm trying to not give too much away, but let me say that the outcomes were things that I can only dream of. The struggles that Lonn has gone through are inspirational in their own way. Many have fallen from the top never to recover, yet Lonn has turned the bad times into a book that just may help another realize that this too shall pass.
Peppered with Rock history, Lonn has shared a part of himself with the reader. He admits that he hasn't figured it all out yet, but that his journey is continuing. Perhaps the next book will be of his climb back to the top of the mountain, and regaining his place in the upper echelons of the music industry. Perhaps it will be a tale of taking an entirely new road, and finding that it was where he should have been going all along. Either way you can guarantee that it's going to be full of an honest recollection of life as Lonn knows it.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By M Fishman
Format:Paperback
I can't begin to truly express how much I enjoyed "Sweet Demotion." As a former music industry person, I know Lonn from many years back, and have always been a fan of his writing. I could relate to so many of the "road" stories Lonn shares in this book, and it was great fun to remember similar experiences that I had during my tenure... but my connection with "Sweet Demotion" went so much deeper then that. It felt at times as if Lonn wrote the book especially for me! A book doesn't get much better then that! When you get goosebumps reading it, because it's as if the author is somehow inside your head and knows exactly where you've been, and possibly even where you are headed.
If you are an industry person (past or present), a die-hard music fan, a soul on your own spiritual journey, and/or believe that there are no coincidences and that everything happens in life for a reason, then you must read this book!
If you are an industry person (past or present), a die-hard music fan, a soul on your own spiritual journey, and/or believe that there are no coincidences and that everything happens in life for a reason, then you must read this book!
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
This is a GREAT BOOK
I am a HUGE Lonn Friend fan! I love his first book, Life on Planet Rock. It's great!!! I love this book even more. I finally just finished it, and it is a great read. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Skeem93
2.0 out of 5 stars
Sweet Demotion: How An Almost famous Rock Journalist Lost Everything...
Lonn, I went out of my way for this book - and paid the full (and then some) price for this book. When I openned the package I was excited with the great cover and the bulk of 500... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Mike D
4.0 out of 5 stars
"Just keep breathing . . . "
"...and stay focused on the matter at hand." So says Mark Hudson (The Hudson Brothers) to Lonn Friend in the titular last chapter of Sweet Demotion. Read more
Published 22 months ago by J. Murray
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sweet Summertime Tome
We've all been bitch slapped by the Universe. Yes, we have. And if we say we haven't, it only means we haven't YET. It is a bitter pill, when it happens. Read more
Published 22 months ago by jetcitykris
5.0 out of 5 stars
Lonn wears his heart on his sleeve
Lonn Friend has been up and down and around the block. If you are an artist, a record exec, a promoter, anyone associated with rock in the last 20 years you know Lonn Friend. Read more
Published on May 12, 2011 by bob pfeifer
