You're listening to sound opinions and this week we are focusing on two black

women in rock music one fictional and one a living treasure later we'll with Mary Clayton, the legendary voice of Gimme

Shelter, and star of the documentary 20 feet from stardom. But first we're excited to talk

with author Donnie Walton about her debut novel, The Final Revival of Opel and Nev, which drew inspiration for many artists, including Mary Clayton.

That is absolutely right, Jim. It's an extraordinary novel. It gets a lot more right about the music

industry than just about any other novel I've ever read and that's why we're

talking about a novel on sound opinions something we've never done before actually.

Novel, almost.

I started off by asking Dawney for a quick summary of what her book is about.

Oh, absolutely.

Well, thank you so much for having me, Jim and Greg. It's a pleasure and an honor to be here considering both your long and storied careers as music journalists.

Opel and Nev are an unconventional duo, a black American woman and a white Englishman,

who team up in the early 1970s New York City to make weird rock and roll together and they rock it to the

spotlight following the violent fallout from a promotional concert when a rival

band on their label brandishes a confederate flag.

And the impetus for the story being told

is that Opelenev are considering reuniting

for a big festival in 2016,

and they're sort of renewed interest in their origin story.

And the reason I told this story is pretty personal.

I grew up a teenager in the mid 90s really interested in rock and roll music which was a little

weird at the time because I was a young black girl and I didn't often see myself reflected in the kind of music I was listening to at the time.

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