In the mid-50s, as rock ‘n’ roll was being born, both the audience and musicians were fairly equally split between black and white. But by the early 70s, there was black music and white music, and the two were overlapping less and less. How did this come to be, and what were the social repercussions? This book will look at these and related issues through the experiences and observations of an African-American Texas musician who has spent his entire adult life near the center of the Austin music scene (one of the best-known in America) and on the fringes of the national scene.

In describing his musical evolution through glam, metal, punk, alt and other forms or rock identified primarily with whites, as well as his role in the activist Black Rock Coalition, Griffin will look at the rock world as an insider/outsider and discuss the ways in which he was embraced wholeheartedly, the ways in which he seemed not to fit in, and how those attitudes changed or hardened over his long career. The book will not be a polemic, for his attitude is one of unity and acceptance, but it will look realistically, and personally, at racial issues in the pop music world, thus demonstrating the psychic tightrope African-Americans must walk in a culture which grants them legal freedom and equality while often still holding on to the unconscious and institutionalized racism that has long plagued our society.