A rousing romp through the ‘70s when big Rock & Roll concerts were filling the country with superstars, nasty roadies, sexy groupies, shysters, hipsters, drug dealers, revolutionaries, and other assorted superegos—all testing the theory that Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll may not be right for everybody, but it might work for you.
When Cowboy finds himself kicked out of graduate school by Nixon’s cuts to NASA, he turns to his first love of being a photographer and amateur filmmaker, trying to find his art in a world gone mad with Vietnam and police brutality. He also finds a way to smuggle marijuana from El Paso in a small Piper Tri-pacer airplane, and while attempting to unload a conspicuous amount of dope, Cowboy is introduced to several underground players in Ann Arbor. What ensues is the powerful one-two combo of drug money and a bunch of drop-out NASA engineers at the U of M producing the loudest PA system in the world.
With this new big sound, they create the Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival and the 10 for 2 concerts—marking the end of marijuana persecution and the beginning of Rock & Roll political power. Out on the road, their one-of-a-kind arena sound system opens the door for Rock & Roll anthems like, “We’re an American Band,” by Michigan’s own Grand Funk Railroad. But when the war winds down, and Rock & Roll gets too slick and selfish, Cowboy is left with no place to go, looking for enough money to support the artist he wants to be.
