Lonn Friend
// Author & Musician > *Web-Only*LONN FRIEND is an author, blogger, multi-media personality, and veteran music journalist based in Las Vegas, Nevada. He was former editor of the iconic hard rock publication RIP Magazine, and is a published author of two books. “Life On Planet Rock: From Guns N’ Roses to Nirvana, a Backstage Journey through Rock’s Most Debauched Decade” (2006) is available from Three Rivers Press, and “Sweet Demotion: How an Almost Famous Rock Journalist Lost Everything and Found Himself (Almost)” (2011) is available from AuthorHouse. His latest projects include “Energize: The Lonn Friend Podcast”, and being a contributing writer to Dr. Gabrielle Francis’ “The Rockstar Remedy” (2014) available from HarperCollins Publishers.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/EnergizeTheLonnFriendPodcast
Photo: Denise Truscello
Interview:
Twenty years ago, I was on the road with Bon Jovi, an all access laminate dangling proudly from my neck. The stage configuration of this tour permitted a couple dozen fans each show with super special tickets virtual eye-to-eye contact with the band. The platform was connected to the stage. On a walk around the arena, a guy and girl caught my eye. “Hey Lonn! Can you please take my wife up there?” begged the dude. I grabbed her hand and escorted the lucky lady to the promised land. During one ballad, Jon Bon Jovi danced right up to the girl and kissed her on the cheek mid verse. She practically fainted. Returning to her seat and hubby’s side, they both hugged me so hard my ribs almost collapsed. “We’re naming our first child LONN!” she cried. “We love you forever!” A rock band, a song, a connection to a lyric – it’s all a recipe for transformation. That mystery couple probably had dramas and problems and fights but my guess is, their mutual love of music helped keep them together.
Mutual appreciation for music and art regardless of form is a tribal experience. Fans flocking to a concert to worship their favorite band, visitors at a gallery gazing in wonder of an ancient painting – it’s connective, unifying, and so very special. It communicates to the world that it’s okay to dig what the creative soul expresses in whatever manner it manifests and in turn, to pass that vibration along to your neighbor so they might feel what you’re feeling.
My path to self awareness runs directly through my pen and voice. Free form blogging and writing over the past twenty years of my mid life road less traveled, has informed and chronicled not just where I’ve been but more importantly who I am. Much of what I’ve composed has never been read. Yet, it doesn’t matter. The Artist’s Way taught me in the spring of 1998 that the process trumps the product. Success is no longer attached to fame or treasure. The creative act alone is reward enough, and if something I’ve said or written resonates with someone else, that’s a bonus.
“A rock band, a song, a connection to a lyric – it’s all a recipe for transformation.”
– Lonn Friend, Author & Musician
