Okay, we're live. Hi, this is William Ramsey. Welcome to William Ramsey Investigates on today's show of a very special guest. His name is Joel Selvin, and he published in April 2021, a book titled Hollywood Eden, electric guitars, fast cars, and the myth of the California Paradise. And his website is Joelselvin.com. All one word, J-O-e-l-S-E-L-V-I-N.com.

And Mr. Sullivan is the author of 19 books.

He had a long-running weekly column in the San Francisco Chronicle from 1972 to 2009.

He's a music critic and author.

He's also taught classes at San Francisco State, Mills College in Oakland,

and at the University of California, Berkeley, a journalism colloquium. And some of his titles,

which I've listed here, his first one is Summer of Love, The Inside Story of LSD, Rock and Roll,

Free Love, and High Times in the Wild, August 1st, 1994. He also published in 2011, read My Uncensored Life and Rock,

which he co-wrote with Sammy Hagar, which hit the number one in the New York Times bestseller list.

Also, peppermint Twist, The Mob, the Music, and the Most Famous Dance Club of the 60s, published 2012.

Another is, Here Comes the night, the dark soul of

Bert Burns and the dirty business of rhythm and blues 2014. Another is Altamont, the Rolling

Stones, Hells Angels, and the inside story of Rock's Darkest Day. One of the publications is 2016 and then

also fairly well the final chapter of the Grateful Dead's Long, Strange Trip, 2018.

But again, we're going to talk about his most recent publication, which is Hollywood Eden.

So Joel Selvin, are you there?

William, thanks for having me.

Well, thanks for agreeing to the interview.

For people who may not know your background, can you talk, I mean, you have a long story career as a music critic. Can you talk about what you learned as a music critic and what led you to write this book, Hollywood Eden?

What I learned as a music critic, good God. I wouldn't know where to begin with a question like that you know i started writing for the

chronicle when i was like 20 years old and you know i i kind of rode the whole daily newspaper

thing to the beach um and you know i met a thousand two thousand people and and and wrote 5 000

...