John Byrne Cooke was in the right place at the right time. He was a member of D.A. Pennebaker’s film crew at the Monterey Pop Festival in June 1967, where Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix became overnight sensations. A few months later, when Albert Grossman signed on to manage Janis and her band, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Grossman hired John to road manage them. Cooke became the only person who traveled with all three of Janis‘s bands, from 1967 until her untimely death in 1970. John Byrne Cooke tells the story of those tumultuous three years with an intimate, affectionate look back in, On the Road with Janis Joplin, now out in paperback. John is also a consultant and onscreen interviewee in the soon-to-be-released documentary Janis: Little Girl Blue, by director Amy Berg and Oscar winning producer Alex Gibney. John Byrne Cooke will join Norman B for the next edition of Life Elsewhere.
Life Elsewhere airs:
Sundays 12 noon ET at The Source WMNF HD3
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