About the Author

From his days before working at Bill Graham's Fillmore East, through seeking rock stardom with his seminal Austin band Greezy Wheels, running the Lone Star Cafe and Blue Note Jazz Club in New York, managing many of Kinky Friedman's musical tours and political campaigns, to smuggling pot and doing time in a Texas prison, Cleve Hattersley now provides us with an often profane, always irreverent look at the times, sharing personal memories, anecdotes, and much more. In 1970, Cleve was busted carrying thirty pounds of pot to NYC which he intended to sell out of the Fillmore. He spent from 1973-1974 in Huntsville (TX) State Penitentiary for his efforts. His band, superstars at the world-renowned Armadillo World Headquarters, signed with London Records almost immediately after he was released. Over the years Greezy Wheels recorded and released nine albums, some with London, some independently. Cleve also toured extensively with Kinky and was featured with him in the acclaimed BBC film, 'Texas Saturday Night.' He founded a booking agency in the late eighties, Pet Sharks, that handled a number of Austin's elite musicians over its run, including Kinky, Lou Ann Barton, Chris Duarte, the Killer Bees and Ian Moore. Prior to his employ at the Fillmore East - he worked at the Night Owl Cafe, which spawned bands like the Lovin' Spoonful, the Blues McGoos, the Blues Project and and many others. There he watched in amazement as Jimi Hendrix auditioned for a gig....and didn't get one. Years later, at the Lone Star and Blue Note, he partied with Sarah Vaughan, Dizzy Gillespie, Jaco Pastorius, Vassar Clements and virtually anyone else coming through NYC in party mode. He spent two years, off and on, in the Haight, where folks like Jefferson Airplane and the Dead lived around the corner and Charles Manson lived across the street, and he once had a regular column in OUI Magazine called 'The Idiot And The Odyssey.' He has become an accomplished portraitist and poster designer who has had a show at the South Austin Museum Of Pop Culture. He calls himself a Renaissance man without a specific chord chart.

Reviews

"Who knew he was the Zelig of the counterculture....? His captivating, rollercoaster of a memoir reveals the secret to his success: he was the guy with the best weed." - Larry "Ratso" Sloman"Wherever Cleve Hattersley has been in his long, colorful life has been somewhere.....Wherever Cleve goes, dangerous, fascinating, funny shit follows. This inevitably makes Life Is A Butt Dial one roaring good time of a read." - Michael Simmons, MOJO, High Times"Raconteur tells true tall tales! Fan-fucking-TASTIC! GREAT book, Cleve!"Mojo Nixon, SiriusXM Radio