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Publicity Contact Recent Reviews and Interviews Click on the links below to read/listen to the most recent reviews. Or you can scroll down to our "Testimonials" section. Interview
on NPR's "Day to Day" program  WINNER - BEST of AUSTIN 2004: Best Rock Lit Luminary 
It's been a good year for Jesse Sublett. After reading his latest book, Never the Same Again: A Rock 'N' Roll Gothic, you'll think he's entitled to a couple. The scorching memoir details his early days as one of Austin's punk pioneers, before his life was derailed by the murder of his longtime girlfriend. Suspected of the crime, he then proves instrumental in uncovering her killer's identity. Picking up the pieces, he rises to prominence as one-third of the Skunks, Austin's premier punk band, and pens a series of rock murder mysteries before being diagnosed with a normally terminal form of cancer. Thank God, as evidenced by our opening line, Sublett beat this too, and turned all this turmoil into one hell of a read. Delving into the past must have awoken long-dormant memories, as a reunited Skunks can be seen gigging around town, and 2004's Austin Music Awards featured longtime Chronicle family member Sublett,with his throbbing bass backing the Class of '78, a supergroup of survivors from Austin's punk heyday. - taken from The Austin Chronicle 2004, CRITICS Poll, Politics and Personalities The June 2004 issue of Texas Monthly also gave Never the Same Again a big thumbs-up, stating that:
Press Release Never The Same Again recounts the extraordinary life of Jesse Sublett, bass player, singer, songwriter and crime novelist. It's a road trip through a landscape of rock 'n' roll dreams, murder and disease, told with candor and a hardboiled sense of humor. As a musician, Jesse had what it takes. He quit his day job in the late 70s, and, together with Eddie Muöoz, Jon Dee Graham and Billy Blackmon, created the Skunks, a new wave rock 'n' roll band that was instrumental in establishing Austin, Texas, as the live music capital of the world. In his star-studded memoir you'll find cameo appearances from Patti Smith, Debbie Harry, Elvis Costello, Carla Olson, Rolling Stones, Go-Go's and more. In the late 1990s Jesse was diagnosed with stage IV cancer, with less than 9% chance of survival. "Depending on how you look at it, chemotherapy and radiation is either a great way to start off your new year or a rotten one. I've decided to assume that it's going to save my life, so it's a damn good way to kick off 1998, starting at eight a.m. on the first Monday of the year." Jesse came to understand that the cancer that enrolled his family, his doctors, and his friends in a monumental effort to save him, was somehow connected with his past, with the hardscrabble life he endured growing up in the Texas hill country "LBJ country" and the self-absorbed life of a rock 'n' roll star on the road and on the run. But no matter how fast he ran as a young artist, no matter the booze and pills, no matter the glitter and adoration, no matter the poetry, no matter the magnitude of sexual titillation, Jesse couldn't outrun that awful memory. He couldn't obliterate the day in 1976 when he returned home from an out-of-town gig to find the body of his longtime girlfriend, Dianne Roberts, murdered in their bed. And he couldn't escape the tormenting thought that he could have done more to prevent her death. Heartbreak spurs song; hardship steels resolve. In Jesse's songwriting you'll notice, no doubt, the influence of the murder and its aftermath. But, in his memoir you will observe a fierce resolve, a determination to bore into the past to examine the interconnectedness of things. Jesse faces down his demons and gains, if not victory over, then, perhaps, dÚtente with memory and the past. Never The Same Again Memoir Published by Distributed by Also by Jesse Sublett Click here for more information about purchasing. Testimonials "Never the Same Again is a harrowing, wrenching,
spellbinding work of great candor and soul. Read it, think with it, dig
it." "Never the Same Again is an important work. Jesse
Sublett's pursuit of his dreams -- undaunted by societal standards of
success and failure -- is the true chronicle of a generation. Making choices,
taking chances and then facing the consequences, however bizarre and unexpected
they may be, Sublett takes us on a ride through life that is crazy, funny,
and sometimes deeply tragic, but ultimately, an inspiring and always highly
readable survivor's tale." "Jesse's odyssey of growing up in a small Texas
town with a head full of big ideas, and his relentless drive to take them
in the direction of his artistic intuition, is a moving story that captures
an important cultural moment. Having grown up in Huntsville, Texas, I
can really relate. Surviving the horrible murder of his girlfriend in
1976, and going from punk rock to fatherhood, his story becomes a universal
one, and he makes it sing with authenticity." "Jesse Sublett has been a valued contributor
to the pages of Texas Monthly ... He's funny, fast on his feet,
a great stylist, and the rare journalist who connects immediately with
whichever audience he's writing to. He's been a pleasure to work with,
and I give him my highest recommendation." "Jesse Sublett's hard-rocking portrait of the
creative life is solid gold proof that good guys don't always finish last.
Jesse was always my favorite Texan punk rocker." "Maybe you were actually there to see the Skunks
at Raul's. Maybe you weren't hitting the local clubs then, but remember
hearing their songs "Cheap Girl," "Earthquake Shake,"
and others in rotation on KLBJ-FM in the early Eighties. Maybe you're
only familiar with their work through the Sons of Hercules' perennial
cover of "Gimme Some." Or maybe you're just hearing the Skunks
for the first time now, via the live performances at Max's Kansas City
in New York and Austin's Back Room on the just-released Earthquake Shake:
Live. Whatever the case may be, chances are if you like loud music and
live in Austin, you've been influenced, at least in some small way, by
the Skunks. "Jesse Sublett is one of the few of my generation
to actually run the thread through the eye of the needle and be able to
tell me what it's like. He defined punk in Austin, Texas, the future Live
Music Capital of the World, when everyone else was still trying to figure
out how to walk properly in cowboy boots so they could get next to Willie.
By the time newcomers bearing guitars, drums and big ideas started flooding
the city to cash in on its music scene, he'd ditched his axe and his band
the Skunks for a typewriter, and, using Austin and music as his canvas,
painted a picture as black as any Lou Reed ditty as a rock and roll crime
writer, living vicariously through his character, Martin Fender. When
that turned boring, he wrote scripts and screenplays, playing on his vast
knowledge of Texas and the American West. Then he got cancer right at
the cusp of forty--the trendsetter was once again get 'way ahead of the
curve--and has written about the Big C and the inevitability of aging
and death in a manner far more chilling and dark than any bad ass Skunks'
rant, his novels, or any of his retellings of the how the west was really
settled. It's powerful stuff, mainly because he keeps reminding me, he's
one of us. He just got here quicker than we did. Reading is believing." "On a cold and otherwise unremarkable Austin night
in February 1978, something happened in a campus-area club called Raul's.
The first punk show was scheduled, featuring the debut of a band called
The Skunks. "Jesse was a great help to me in my formative
rocker years. As a 16 year old struggling musician, I was enthralled to
meet a real live rock guy who looked just like he stepped out of the Faces
or the Stones. He was so damn good-looking he scared and intimidated me.
He was already living the life I had only dreamed of so far. By befriending
me and accepting me, Jesse gave me the fuel to keep the idea lit. He supported
my first feeble attempts at becoming a pop star, turned me on to Lou Reed
and the New York Dolls, tried to make me appreciate Patti Smith, showed
me how to play the riff in "Shake Appeal" by Iggy Pop, and helped
launch my first credible band, the Violators.
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