403. Richard Bienstock and Tom Beaujour with Kim Thayil and Mike Squires: Lollapalooza — The Uncensored Story of Alternative Rock's Wildest Festival

These days, large-scale high-production music festivals take over major cities and regularly attract crowds of every genre — including the current version of Lollapalooza that draws a casual 400,000 people to its resident Chicago stomping grounds. But kick it back a few decades and this kind of maximalist mega-show wasn’t quite the norm it is now, especially for musical tastes outside of the mainstream. In their second collaborative book, Lollapalooza: The Uncensored Story of Alternative Rock’s Wildest Festival, music journalists Richard Bienstock and Tom Beaujour flash back to when the Lollapalooza we know now was a new tour concept bringing 1990s alternative artists and ideas center stage.

Lollapalooza first transports readers back to the festival’s origins – a 20+ city summer sprawl highlighting alternative music, art, and counterculture, conceived by Perry Farrell as a farewell tour for his band Jane’s Addiction. From 1991-1997, this breakthrough tour shifted the scope of live music experiences and helped forge a new path for the decade’s subcultures to reach the masses and the media. Bienstock and Beaujour have compiled hundreds of new interviews to dig into the dirt of how the historic festival came into being at every level – from headlining artists and record label execs to tour organizers and promoters to freakshow performers, stage crews, and roadies.

Lollapalooza is packed with gritty details of an era of shows that defied genres and drew crowds across style lines. Music, art, and politics drawing from alt-rock, goth, industrial, metal, punk, hip-hop, EDM, and avant-garde explorations – all coming together under one big tent. Featuring original interviews with iconic artists like Green Day, Patti Smith, Rage Against the Machine, Ice-T, Pearl Jam, Sonic Youth, Soundgarden, Nine Inch Nails, Jane’s Addiction, Tool, Smashing Pumpkins, Alice in Chains, Metallica, and many more, this collection amplifies voices that helped shape generations of contemporary thinkers, creative activists, and live music audiences.

Journeying through 90s nostalgia, uncensored first-hand accounts, and the long-term reverberations of a groundbreaking tour, Bienstock and Beaujour document a high-impact chapter of modern American music. A VIP pass to the action onstage and backstage, on the road and behind the scenes – Lollapalooza details the cultural shift of the alternative rock revolution and the echoes still heard through concert crowds today.

Richard Bienstock is a journalist, musician, and author whose work has been featured in the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Rolling Stone, Billboard, and Spin. He is the executive editor of Guitar Aficionado magazine and former senior editor of Guitar World and has authored and co-authored books including Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck and Slash: An Intimate Portrait. 

Tom Beaujour is a journalist, music producer, and engineer who has been featured in television shows like Orange is the New Black, A Handmaid’s Tale, and Criminal Minds. He is a co-founder and former editor-in-chief of Revolver and has contributed to Rolling Stone, the New York Times, Blender, and Billboard. He is the co-author of Nöthin’ But a Good Time: The Uncensored History of the ’80s Hard Rock Explosion, alongside Richard Bienstock.

Mike Squires is a Seattle-based touring musician and the host of Couch Riffs Podcast since 2019. His touring and recording credits include Duff McKagan, Peter Hook, Ugly Kid Joe, Harvey Danger, and The Long Winters.

 

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Lollapalooza: The Uncensored Story of Alternative Rock's Wildest Festival

Third Place Books