Bob Mehr is an award-winning music critic for the Gannett-owned newspaper The Commercial Appeal and a longtime contributor to MOJO magazine. He's also served as an editor, writer, and columnist for Village Voice Media, New Times Inc., and Chicago Reader. He contributed liner notes to the Grammy-winning Big Star box set Keep an Eye on the Sky and has written essays for reissues of the Replacements, Kinks, Warren Zevon, Dixie Chicks, Al Green, and many others. A native of Los Angeles, he lives in Memphis, Tennessee.
"It is the best band biography of all time. Want to know why?
First, underdog stories are an American tradition going back to our
underdog story in the Revolutionary War. Second, the Replacements
is the most commercially underrated band in the last 30
years...Third, there are more incredible moments here (that are too
crazy to be fictional accounts) than any band ever,
period."--PopMatters
"Sympathetic, gripping, exhaustive...Mehr's book is so clear-eyed,
and the stories are so extraordinary."--Nick Hornby in The
Believer
"The Replacements were an enigma, and this book doesn't crack their
code. But it isn't meant to. If anything, Mehr does the work of
making them both more puzzling and more enticing."--Hanif
Abdurraqib in Publishers Weekly
American Way, March 2016
"The best music book you'll read all year. More than just rockers
will love this raucous read...It's a book about a band, but it's
also the story of kids from damaged families who were saved--to a
point--by rock 'n' roll. A must-read." Chicago Tribune, 3/20/16
"Thoroughly researched and eminently readable...The type of book
any band would kill for." Salon.com, 3/15/16
"Your new Replacements bible...An unflinching, uncompromising look
at the band and the legend." CMJ.com, 3/15/16
"Finally, the band gets the excellent, fully-formed biography it
deserves...A breezy read that sometimes stops you cold for the
depth of sadness the band often existed in." Blurt, March 2016
"Trouble Boys is a time trip back to the heady days when bands
definitely mattered and record labels kinda sorta did...If there is
a sadder tale in rock 'n' roll, after reading Trouble Boys, I could
not call it to mind." Record Collector, May 2016
"With Trouble Boys Mehr has delivered what will surely be the
definitive book about the band at the first attempt."
Austin American-Statesman, 2/28/16
"Easily the year's most anticipated music book." Vulture,
2/29/16
"A book full of revelations. Mehr fills his biography with
little-known anecdotes, shocking quotes, and surprising accounts of
interpersonal relations that will provide insight to even the most
hard-core Replacements fans." Creative Loafing, 3/2/16
"The first proper biography of the group...For most Replacements
fans, it will be as irresistible as catnip." Paste, 3/3/16
"A deep, dark look at the Replacements...Both a tragic and
strangely comedic portrait of a rock 'n' roll band in the
'80s...Powerfully written, densely researched...The story of young,
cocky and oftentimes fucked-up Midwesterners led by one of rock's
greatest songwriters." Minneapolis City Pages, 3/1/16
"Essential reading...While the bio deals in weighty matters (abuse,
addiction, depression), there's no shortage of priceless
anecdotes." Philadelphia Inquirer, 3/6/16
"The standout music book of the young year...Mehr's book puts a
capstone on a Replacements story that has come back to life this
decade."
Chicago Reader, 4/21/16
"[A] fastidiously reported account of one of the midwest's greatest
rock 'n' roll bands...Well-wrought...Besides being a first-rate
biography, Trouble Boys imposes order on an unrelenting barrage of
grotesque behavior that was leavened by several of the most
beautiful, inchoate records of the '80s...It explains why the
Replacements had to collapse, leaving broken bodies and wonderful
songs in their wake, over and over." Los Angeles Review of Books,
5/4/16
"[A] meticulously researched and exhaustive biography...Essential
reading for their fans...But more than that, Trouble Boys is the
true story of a great American failure; of a band that should have
been huge--they probably could be huge right now, really--except
for that small problem that real people, with real problems, were
never able to get out of their own damn way." The Economist,
5/3/16
"Charts the doomed trajectory of one of America's greatest crews of
blindingly talented misfits, poised to fail...An exhaustively
researched, definitive biography...Brings details fans of this
star-crossed act long for."
Forbes, 4/30/16
"Stunningly great...There is a depth to Trouble Boys that takes it
far out of the class of 'rock book, ' and into something that
transcends the genre...Like the works of Russell Banks, and others,
Trouble Boys examines--in the most painfully entertaining way
possible--how families of origin can shatter you to such a degree
that it's nearly impossible to ever really hold anything together
in your life." Roanoke Times, 5/8/16
"With Trouble Boys, Mehr has essentially done for The Replacements
what author Dave Marsh did for The Who with Before I Get Old. Both
books are intricately reported, definitive rock tomes that could
only have come from a fan, yet at the same time--painfully, but
necessarily--they don't let their subjects off the hook for very
much at all." The New Yorker, 5/23/16
"Trouble Boys takes us to all the recording sessions, reveals the
inspirations behind Westerberg's key songs, and puts us in the
front row at infamous concerts...'They were nice guys, they were
dicks, ' Tommy Womack sings in 'The Replacements.' It is hard to
imagine that anyone will make a smarter or more thorough case for
both halves of that proposition than Mehr has in Trouble Boys."
Minneapolis Star Tribune, 3/20/16
"This new book is the definitive Replacements document. All the
infamous stories and folklore that we've heard about are here,
warts and all." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 3/20/16
"A well-researched and thorough examination of their career, from
the earliest days of their lives up through their recent reunion
tour in 2015...It is a sad tale of genius, mental illness,
addiction and self-immolation." Omnivoracious (The Amazon Book
Review), 3/24/16
"[The] definitive biography of the legendary Minneapolis rock
band...Mehr reaches into all the corners, some dark and salacious:
alcohol and addiction; ego and ambition; brotherhood and betrayal;
and above everything, all the great songs." Blurt, 3/24/16
"Mehr lays out The Replacement's story brilliantly...One of the
strongest music bios to come out in years, honest and surprisingly
in depth." Austin Chronicle, 4/1/16
"Grave revelations, coupled with side-splitting stories of
booze-fueled bedlam, net Mehr's biography as definitive. Ace
reporting and the author's shrewd parlance boost this tragicomedy
page-turner past paean to allusive eulogy of rock & roll's foremost
troublemakers."
Uncut, April 2016
"Tremendous...[A] brilliant biography." Huffington Post,
2/25/16
"Mehr's exhaustive biography raises the squeaking garage door on
the legend of The Replacements to shed some light and capture in
vivid detail the pain, disappointment and heartache of a group of
four disparate, self-loathing suburban misfits." Pitchfork,
3/3/16
"The most comprehensive book about the band to date...Mehr brings
the band's members to life." Yahoo! Music, 2/25/16
"There have been other books and countless newspaper and magazine
features written about the Replacements over the years, but none
tell the story of the legendary Minneapolis rock band with as much
depth, care and clarity as Trouble Boys." St. Paul Pioneer Press,
3/2/16
"Separate[s] fact and fiction about a group that never had a hit
record but claims some of the most faithful fans in music."
Vice.com, 3/4/16
"Trouble Boys finally tells the whole fascinating tale of the
Replacements in all its ragged glory. Mehr...brings out the human
element in the band's story." Houston Press, 3/2/16
"[A] masterful, comprehensive and engrossing bio...An incredibly
insightful and complete piece of music journalism."
USA Today, 3/25/16
"Mehr has compiled a compelling tale full of some of the most
colorful characters you'll ever encounter on page." MTV.com,
4/7/16
"Mehr reveals the untold and often unflattering story of the band,
unearthing the trauma that fueled their artistry and their
addictions...An essential tome for anyone who ever loved the band."
The A.V. Club, 4/18/16
"An exhaustive, unflinching biography...A guts-wide-open look at
the band...With Trouble Boys, Bob Mehr has forever changed my
perception of my favorite band: I may never forgive him, but I sure
won't forget this book." PopMatters, 4/21/16
"Mehr's ability to show the less glamorous side of the band is what
makes the book such a heartbreaking narrative...A compelling
read...Mehr does a masterful job of showing the petulance and
childishness that helped make the band so great and yet also so
exasperating for their fans and supporters."
Vanity Fair, March 2016
"Trouble Boys dares to tell the true story of the Replacements."
Library Journal (starred review), 2/15/16
"This fantastic biography...of the self-destructive 1980s
alternative rock band The Replacements provides sensitive,
detailed, and critical depictions of the band's members...A
page-turner from beginning to end and should find its way onto
every music fan's bookshelf. It offers a master class on how to pen
a rock biography." Washington Post, 2/11/16
"The definitive bio of the Replacements...Trouble Boys brings the
band back to life. Over six years, Mehr interviewed more than 200
people, creating a narrative thick with detail, revelations and
emotion." Rolling Stone, 3/10/16
"[Trouble Boys] dives deep...Mehr vividly charts [the band's] bumpy
arc...The 'Mats story has been told many times, but Mehr got
unprecedented access and his reporting gives their hard-luck tales
chilling depth...This detailed backstory makes [the songs] burn
anew." Mojo, March 2016
"Mehr reveals the very human tragedy behind one of the great
American rock 'n' roll bands, as well as the foibles that made The
Replacements so beloved by their true believers. This book is for
every one of them."
Praise for Trouble Boys New York Times, April 2016
A "Celebrities" Best Seller "Bob Mehr's raucous, ribald, and
oft-times harrowing book takes us behind the scenes, to the bottom
of the bottle, all the way to the end of the road, and then further
still--revealing the story of the Replacements, a band that gave
away its soul on every record and refused to sell its soul to a
corporate world."--Robert Gordon, author of Respect Yourself: Stax
Records and the Soul Explosion and Can't Be Satisfied: The Life and
Times of Muddy Waters
"Bob Mehr has given us a book, a real book, that will draw you in
whether or not you give a fig about rock 'n' roll or any world but
your own."--Nick Tosches, author of Hellfire: The Jerry Lee Lewis
Story and Dino: Living High in the Dirty Business of Dreams Kirkus
(starred review), 1/15/16
"An in-depth biography of a beloved, exasperating band that never
quite made it...[An] impressively researched and well-rendered
biography...The dynamic that made the band great also tore them
apart, as this biography superbly documents." Publishers Weekly,
1/11/16
"Mehr captures the light and dark of a band that could play both
acoustic ballads...and punk anthems...Mehr covers all aspects of
the band members: alcoholism and addiction, artistic differences,
ruined friendships, and the death of lead guitarist Bob
Stinson...Thoroughly researched and detailed...earning the 'true
story' subtitle." Classic Rock, 1/22/16
"A rare insight in the machinations of four young men who brought
new meaning to the phrase 'burn out'...A fan Mehr may be, but he's
not afraid to pull back the curtain on what a bunch of snot-nosed,
damage-case kids The Replacements could and would often be...What
puts Mehr's book far above of any other on this prickly subject is
the depth of research."
"The destruction. The volume. The cruelty. The charm. The songs.
The songs. The songs. To live close to Paul Westerberg's material
was to be lifted...then bent by it. The songs were that good. Mehr
shows us that no one, Westerberg included, knew quite what to do
with it all. It was underrated, overrated, obsessed over,
ignored--never anything in the middle. But somewhere between the
Replacements' path of destruction, epic but ultimately empty, and
the beauty and honesty of Westerberg's writing, there was a band, a
band whose story has for too long remained unknown and unknowable.
This book gets us closer than we've ever been. Mehr brings us one
of the great American rock 'n' roll stories and all the hurt that
came with it."--Warren Zanes, author of Petty: The Biography and
Revolutions in Sound: Warner Bros. Records--The First Fifty Years
"The Replacements spent a decade of their lives making some of the
most emotive rock music never to hit the mainstream. Bob Mehr has
spent a decade of his life researching their story. Balancing a
fan's enthusiasm with journalistic perspective, he now delivers it
in richly detailed and powerfully unvarnished form. Finally, the
'Mats get the book they deserve."--Tony Fletcher, author of Moon:
The Life and Death of a Rock Legend and A Light That Never Goes
Out: The Enduring Saga of the Smiths
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