Back in the mid-1980s, I can’t think of two people I’d have wanted to be in a room with less than Bob Forrest and Jack Grisham.
They just exuded the worst kind of ‘tude, a punk-rock recklessness that was mixed with selfish entitlement. That’s not to say either one was bad at what they did – Thelonious Monster and TSOL had their moments – but they were outsize personalities that were kind of like the hardcore-era equivalent of today’s hipster douchebags; it bugged me that people respected them.
Today, I’m sure Forrest would say that was just the drugs and alcohol talking, but interestingly, that same obnoxiousness that made me want to avoid him in real life suggests that he might have a good lurid story or two to tell now that he’s in scared-straight storytelling mode, like a Nikki Sixx confessional with uglier people.
Grisham’s book is a collection of short stories in which dark subjects are expounded on in such a deadpan, straight-ahead voice, it makes them all the darker. While Forrest seems anxious to exorcise his past and move beyond it, Grisham shows a gleam of tooth that hints how much he still enjoys becoming the uncontrollable, violent, talented dick he once was, at least on paper.
Bob Forrest Running with Monsters (a Memoir) & Jack Grisham Untamed: Book Release Party, Reading and Signing. Sunday, August 4, 2013, 6 PM – 9 PM at La Luz De Jesus Gallery, 4633 Hollywood Boulevard.
