I've had a lot of people ask me about the articles at the beginning of each chapter in OFF THE RECORD. When I tell them that the articles were inspired/based upon real rock star/celebrity antics and the articles written about them, they always ask which ones. So, here they are.
When you're talking about rock stars/celebrities and ridiculous behavior, it really isn't that hard to find things that are just too weird to be real. It almost seems to be a pre-requisite.

Chapter 5
Ozzy Osbourne was arrested for uninating on the Alamo, a member of New Kids on the Block (Danny Wahlberg) was arrested for urinating in an airplane aisle. See, I didn't have to make that up. It's just too easy.
Chapter 4
Again, way too easy. Went to the Farm Aid web site and read the press release for the 1990 concert. The place, the participants, they're all real. Well, except for Teddy Rock, of course.
Chapter 3
Same goes for the Grammy press release. Again, all real people, places and times. Except Teddy Rock didn't really win for Best New Artist and Song of the Year. That would be Mariah Carey and "From The Distance." (note: when researching this I was amazed at how winning the Best New Artist category is such a curse. Remember Jody Whatley, Sheena Easton, Men At Work, Culture Club, Milli Vanilli? All winners.)
Chapter 21
UMass really does have a Spring concert every year out on the lawn, and for the most part, the singers/groups that perform are pretty much has-beens or people on their way down the ladder of success. No big head-liners, but people you've heard of, if never actually bought their albums. I read a lot of old articles from the Collegian, the campus paper.
Chapter 19, 20
Bill Mahar was hit with a palimony suit, so was Liberace (by his boyfriend) and Johnny Cochran. But it all started when Lee Marvin's live-in girlfriend introduced the world to the term palimony with a $113 million law suit. And the details available are plenty. Teddy had it easy by comparison.
Chapter 2, 15, 28
This was a no-brainer. I read a ton of Rolling Stone reviews for good, no-so good, and downright panned albums.
Chapter 18
Ever read InStyle? Then you're familiar with the regular feature of homes being sold by celebrities. Teddy's house was based on an actual house in Malibu, CaesarStone tub and all.
Chapter 16, 17
Passages is a regular feature in People magazine, listing who's getting married, divorced, sued, or buried. The piece about Teddy's suit against his manager is based upon a real situation between Nine Inch Nails frontman Scott Bakula really suing the band's manager.
Chapter 7
The 1990 World Series really did take place at Riverfront stadium, and it really was between the Cincinnati Reds and the Oakland A's. But, Teddy Rock didn't really sing the national anthem. For those of you who care, the final score was 7-0 and Cincinnati won. (could I say really one more time? Really?)
Chapter 8
The National Enquirer writing about Julia Roberts and Kiefer Sutherland? Can you imagine? Looked at old NE articles about the couple and speculations about their future, and then threw Teddy in as the spoiler.
Chapter 10
Nikki Sixx of Motley Crue was arrested after the band performed a concert at Mandalay Bay. Same charges, same city, different rock star.
Chapter 11
I found so many tours cancelled due to poor ticket sales: Kiss, Abba, - see, it doesn't matter who you are. If people aren't buying tickets, say bye-bye to a free trip to Europe.
Chapter 6
The stalker arrested outside Teddy Rock's Malibu home is actually based on a stalker arrested outside the home of Guns n' Roses frontman Axl Rose. Both stalkers were also on probation at the time, naughty girls

Well, there's a ton more, but you get the gist of it. This stuff isn't just fictional imaginings made up by me, it's actually a twisted version of real life that took hours of research - hours that were pretty fun and a wee bit informative as well, I'll admit. It was fun putting Teddy Rock in real life situations and letting him play troublemaker without having to bail him out of jail or clean the urine stains off the carpet in the airplane's aisle. That is the one benefit of fiction vs. real life.

So I got a speeding ticket for going 70mph in a 55mph zone. On a Sunday night. With not another car in sight. I swear, the cop must have just been bored. When he pulled me over I truly had no idea what I'd done wrong. When he told me I was driving 15mph over the speed limit I didn't even believe him. But he didn't seem to care that I thought he was full of crap. Not to mention, I wasn't alone in the car, and the person in the passenger seat also couldn't believe I was going 70.

So the policeman went back to his car to write me a ticket and kill some time on a Sunday evening instead of cruising around suburbia listening to Top 40 on his radio. While he was gone I kept telling myself that I wouldn't thank him for the ticket. I was raised to be very polite and have manners, and I swear every speeding ticket I've ever been handed by a cop I've followed up with a thank you. Yes, thank you for stopping me on a completely empty 4-lane highway on a Sunday night and making me pay $120 and spend four hours taking a safe drivers class. Thanks a bunch.

When he came back to my car he told me he was doing me a favor and not taking my license. Then he starts explaining the ticket to me. I was like, "Look, I can obviously handle a six ton automobile traveling at 70mph, I think I can handle the instructions on a speeding ticket." Then he hands me the ticket and what do I say? My inner-ten-year-old kicked in and I said, "Thank you." AAHHH! I wanted to slap myself! I quickly leaned out the window and yelled back to him, "I didn't mean thank you for the ticket, I'm not thankful for you giving me a ticket!! I take back my thank you!!" He just stood there looking at me in the dark as if I was mentally unstable, and I put the car into drive and pulled away.

Friday night we had a serious Napster session in my house, breaking out songs we haven't listened to in a while, if ever (my daugher's request for Cher's Believe was probably the first time Cher has ever been played in our house). My son picked Greenday - over and over and over until I finally put an end to it and said Greenday needed a rest.

I chose an Iggy Pop song from 1990 - Candy, a song he sings with Kate Pierson. Now, I'm not a big Iggy Pop fan, but I am a huge Kate Pierson fan - Kate of B-52s fame. So, that led me to listen to some even older B-52s songs, and I was just cracking up listening to them. They have some of the most inventive song titles ever. For example: Dance This Mess Around, Butterbean, Whammy Kiss (note: not the George Michael kind), 53 Miles West of Venus, Juicy Jungle, Theres's a Moon in the Sky (and It's Called the Moon), She Brakes for Rainbows, Devil In My Car, and one of my favorites 52 Girls. There's also Party Out of Bounds, which was played every Friday and Saturday night on WLIR in NYC during high school, signaling the start of the offical party out of bounds.

I always wonder, as if it could ever actually happen, whose voice I'd like to have if I could sing. Kate Pierson would definitely be at the top of my list. And not just because she sings a song called Theme for a Nude Beach.