"It’s Something That’s Tremendously Important to Them, so It Makes It More Important to Me"

"Backstage after the gig, Alex quickly gave a resounding 'No!' when asked by a journalist if he’d be doing another Big Star show. He signed autographs and gave an MTV interviewer a shrugged 'I don’t have anything to say.' 'A lot of fun today?' 'Right.' An old friend, record label exec Karen Glauber, hung by his side, and when he spotted Peter Jesperson, he said, 'Let’s get out of here.' They took off in Peter’s car, and while driving outside town, Alex, smoking a joint, started reminiscing about Chris Bell. When they stopped at an intersection, Alex suddenly pointed out the window: 'Check that out!' It was a street sign for Cosmos Park: perhaps an omen that Alex, though initially opposed to the idea, would spend the next seventeen years sporadically performing with the reconstituted Big Star."


Salon runs an excerpt from Holly George-Warren's A Man Called Destruction: The Life and Music of Alex Chilton, From Box Tops to Big Star to Backdoor Man.