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Suck and Blow: And Other Stories I'm Not Supposed to Tell
Hailed by many as the world's greatest harmonica player, John Popper has redefined the instrument. As the lead singer and principal songwriter of Blues Traveler, Popper has performed for more than 30 million people over 2,000 live dates and composed such radio staples as "Hook," "But Anyway," and "Run-Around," the longest-charting single in Billboard history. He has appeared with Eric Clapton and B. B. King at the White House, welcomed the Hungarian ambassador to the stage, and inducted Carlos Santana into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
In Suck and Blow , Popper shares a candid, spirited account of his life and career. A straight-F student at Princeton High School, Popper's life changed with one serendipitous harmonica solo that captured the attention of his mercurial band teacher (the same teacher whose life was later fictionalized in the Academy Award-winning film Whiplash ). After befriending three fellow musicians with whom he would form Blues Traveler, Popper's academic career nearly ended in twelfth grade, until a meeting with the Dean of the New School for Social Research in which Popper pulled out his trusty harp and played his way into college.
Popper and Blues Traveler soon became enmeshed in the lower Manhattan music scene of the late 1980s, eventually becoming the house band at the fabled Wetlands Preserve and embarking on a journey that would one day land the group at Madison Square Garden on New Year's Eve. Along the way, Popper and his cohorts commanded the attention of fans and bands alike, through inspired performances and riotous debauchery.
Popper's unique perspective on the music business began under the tutelage of Blues Traveler's mentor and manager Bill Graham. After the rock impresario's untimely passing, Popper applied many of Graham's lessons to the formation of the H.O.R.D.E. tour, which John co-owned and hosted over eight years, welcoming such artists as Neil Young, the Allman Brothers Band, Phish, Dave Matthews Band, Ziggy Marley, and his longtime friends the Spin Doctors.
Popper also shares a forthright assessment of his longstanding battle with obesity. Plagued by weight problems since childhood, a motorcycle accident a few years into his career confined him to a wheelchair for two years while his weight ballooned to 436 pounds. Angioplasty, gastric bypass surgery, and a tattoo on his chest that reads "I Want to Be Brave" when viewed in the mirror are products of Popper's struggle, compounded by codependency issues and the untimely death of founding Blues Traveler bassist Bobby Sheehan.
Popper's personal identity is entwined with his political passions. A staunch supporter of gun rights, he has performed at the National Republican Convention, yet he also maintains liberal positions on social issues. He will reconcile these views and share his encounters with the Bush family, the Clintons, the Gores, and other politicos.
The iconoclastic, self-described Johnny Appleharp also dishes on cutting contests, Twitter trolls, party fouls, and prostitutes.
In Suck and Blow , John Popper does it all with his signature honesty, humility, and humor.
In Suck and Blow , Popper shares a candid, spirited account of his life and career. A straight-F student at Princeton High School, Popper's life changed with one serendipitous harmonica solo that captured the attention of his mercurial band teacher (the same teacher whose life was later fictionalized in the Academy Award-winning film Whiplash ). After befriending three fellow musicians with whom he would form Blues Traveler, Popper's academic career nearly ended in twelfth grade, until a meeting with the Dean of the New School for Social Research in which Popper pulled out his trusty harp and played his way into college.
Popper and Blues Traveler soon became enmeshed in the lower Manhattan music scene of the late 1980s, eventually becoming the house band at the fabled Wetlands Preserve and embarking on a journey that would one day land the group at Madison Square Garden on New Year's Eve. Along the way, Popper and his cohorts commanded the attention of fans and bands alike, through inspired performances and riotous debauchery.
Popper's unique perspective on the music business began under the tutelage of Blues Traveler's mentor and manager Bill Graham. After the rock impresario's untimely passing, Popper applied many of Graham's lessons to the formation of the H.O.R.D.E. tour, which John co-owned and hosted over eight years, welcoming such artists as Neil Young, the Allman Brothers Band, Phish, Dave Matthews Band, Ziggy Marley, and his longtime friends the Spin Doctors.
Popper also shares a forthright assessment of his longstanding battle with obesity. Plagued by weight problems since childhood, a motorcycle accident a few years into his career confined him to a wheelchair for two years while his weight ballooned to 436 pounds. Angioplasty, gastric bypass surgery, and a tattoo on his chest that reads "I Want to Be Brave" when viewed in the mirror are products of Popper's struggle, compounded by codependency issues and the untimely death of founding Blues Traveler bassist Bobby Sheehan.
Popper's personal identity is entwined with his political passions. A staunch supporter of gun rights, he has performed at the National Republican Convention, yet he also maintains liberal positions on social issues. He will reconcile these views and share his encounters with the Bush family, the Clintons, the Gores, and other politicos.
The iconoclastic, self-described Johnny Appleharp also dishes on cutting contests, Twitter trolls, party fouls, and prostitutes.
In Suck and Blow , John Popper does it all with his signature honesty, humility, and humor.
337 pages, Hardcover
First published March 29, 2016
21 people are currently reading
116 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
May 29, 2016
I loved it, because I love Blues Traveler. It was fun to read and fascinating to me because I love Blues Traveler. If there is a sequel I will read it,too because, as I may have mentioned, I love Blues Traveler. Is John Popper now my favorite writer? Probably not, but then again, Wally Lamb can't play the harmonica, so ...
October 31, 2016
At times rambling and disjointed, but overall very entertaining for a long-time BT fan like me. It felt like I was sitting down to a long, one-sided conversation with John Popper.
May 21, 2022
I've been a fan of Blues Traveler since 13 year old me first heard them on the radio late one night. I remember lying in bed feeling like I was some kind of rebel because instead of trying to go to sleep I'm wearing headphones listening to a secular AOR station (which would have been frowned upon by my parents had they known this at the time) on the FM radio of my Sony Walkman. I remember hearing Alanis Morisette's "One Hand in My Pocket", and then the next song that came on had some really witty lyrics and a harmonica solo that featured the instrument being played in a way like I'd never heard it done before, only to be followed by a really fast final verse that crammed way too many words in, super fast, but somehow still sounded super awesome to my ears. Then the song was over, and the DJ never did say who the band was or what the name of the song was. What was that he was singing? Was it "The hook brings you back" or "The heart brings you back"? I continued to listen to that station for several nights afterward hoping to hear the song again (I did) and find out the name of the song and the artist (I didn't).
In conversation with a friend a couple years later I spoke of this song with the really cool harmonica part, and I probably stumbled my way through singing a couple lines, and this friend was like "That's 'Hook' by Blues Traveler!" EUREKA! Kids these days have no idea how spoiled they are to be able to use Shazam or ask Siri/Google/Cortana "What song is this?" - I would have loved to be able to do that back in the 90's.
I ended up buying all four albums that Blues Traveler had out at the time (4 studio and 1 live) and played the hell out of those CDs. I even had to replace my copies of Four and Live From the Fall because the originals got all scuffed from frequently being slid in and out of the pockets of the CD binder. Not having to replace your favorite albums as a result of this action is one of the greatest things about Spotify IMO.
When I was 16 I started playing bass guitar, and the late Bob Sheehan was (and is to this day) one of the few people on my personal list of 'heroes of the bass'. Everybody raves about Popper being the Jimi Hendrix of the harmonica (because he is) but the other guys in the band seldom get the credit or attention they deserve. Listen to the bass/drums interaction on any of the Blues Traveler albums of the 1990's - this is like auditory crack for my ears. I still enjoy Blues Traveler post-Bob, but the music just isn't the same now. Tad (Bob's successor) is a fine musician, but his style is different, and I feel like even when he plays the 90's material he just doesn't sound like I expect it to sound. Brendan (drummer) plays differently with Tad than he did with Bob too.
Oh yeah, this is supposed to be a book review - isn't it? Coming into it, I already knew John Popper is an amazing lyricist, and between hearing him tell stories from the mic at concerts and seeing/reading interviews with him, I knew him to be a great storyteller, so I felt confident that this was going to be a great read. My expectations were met in full. John Popper has a gift for storytelling. He's the kind of guy who can take what many of us might think of as a mundane account of whatever and make it really interesting with his observations and disclosure of his inner monologue. I got out of this book what I expected to - I was thoroughly entertained by Popper, and I learned some neat stuff about him and about Blues Traveler that I didn't know before. One of those things that I thought was especially neat was learning that Bob Sheehan was (like myself) a major Grateful Dead fan - Popper refers to Bob as 'King of the Deadheads' or something like that several times in the text.
Highly recommended for fans of Blues Traveler, but also for people who enjoy rock memoirs - if it's a genre you're into then you'll surely enjoy this one.
In conversation with a friend a couple years later I spoke of this song with the really cool harmonica part, and I probably stumbled my way through singing a couple lines, and this friend was like "That's 'Hook' by Blues Traveler!" EUREKA! Kids these days have no idea how spoiled they are to be able to use Shazam or ask Siri/Google/Cortana "What song is this?" - I would have loved to be able to do that back in the 90's.
I ended up buying all four albums that Blues Traveler had out at the time (4 studio and 1 live) and played the hell out of those CDs. I even had to replace my copies of Four and Live From the Fall because the originals got all scuffed from frequently being slid in and out of the pockets of the CD binder. Not having to replace your favorite albums as a result of this action is one of the greatest things about Spotify IMO.
When I was 16 I started playing bass guitar, and the late Bob Sheehan was (and is to this day) one of the few people on my personal list of 'heroes of the bass'. Everybody raves about Popper being the Jimi Hendrix of the harmonica (because he is) but the other guys in the band seldom get the credit or attention they deserve. Listen to the bass/drums interaction on any of the Blues Traveler albums of the 1990's - this is like auditory crack for my ears. I still enjoy Blues Traveler post-Bob, but the music just isn't the same now. Tad (Bob's successor) is a fine musician, but his style is different, and I feel like even when he plays the 90's material he just doesn't sound like I expect it to sound. Brendan (drummer) plays differently with Tad than he did with Bob too.
Oh yeah, this is supposed to be a book review - isn't it? Coming into it, I already knew John Popper is an amazing lyricist, and between hearing him tell stories from the mic at concerts and seeing/reading interviews with him, I knew him to be a great storyteller, so I felt confident that this was going to be a great read. My expectations were met in full. John Popper has a gift for storytelling. He's the kind of guy who can take what many of us might think of as a mundane account of whatever and make it really interesting with his observations and disclosure of his inner monologue. I got out of this book what I expected to - I was thoroughly entertained by Popper, and I learned some neat stuff about him and about Blues Traveler that I didn't know before. One of those things that I thought was especially neat was learning that Bob Sheehan was (like myself) a major Grateful Dead fan - Popper refers to Bob as 'King of the Deadheads' or something like that several times in the text.
Highly recommended for fans of Blues Traveler, but also for people who enjoy rock memoirs - if it's a genre you're into then you'll surely enjoy this one.
July 27, 2021
I'm not a follower of Blues Traveler but I know some of their stuff and I enjoy reading about behind the scenes stories of the music industry. I love learning how band members meet, how band names are decided, and how the big break came about. As music consumers we know so little of those stories and bands make it look so easy. On those points, this book did not disappoint.
In the beginning, the writing felt simplistic, amateurish, which surprised me based on the quality of BTs lyrics. By the last few chapters, though, the style changed and the writing flowed and felt professional. John has a great sense of humor and peppered funny comments and snarky remarks throughout. He was also humble and thanked many people for their part in the bands success.
I think it holds a nice balance between revealing stories and appreciation.
In the beginning, the writing felt simplistic, amateurish, which surprised me based on the quality of BTs lyrics. By the last few chapters, though, the style changed and the writing flowed and felt professional. John has a great sense of humor and peppered funny comments and snarky remarks throughout. He was also humble and thanked many people for their part in the bands success.
I think it holds a nice balance between revealing stories and appreciation.
June 3, 2018
Probably not much fun to read if you're not a BT/Popper fan, but I confess a phase when they were actually my favorite band. I thought Popper's narrative voice was fairly easy to place alongside his lyrical voice and enjoyed a bunch of the stories. Like I said, I can't imagine this book winning over new fans, but I'm also pretty sure that wasn't the point.
August 28, 2022
As an old man now, I enjoyed reading about John Popper's youth and what led him into music and how hard he worked to be the best at his craft.
As a budding elderly banjo player, it's wonderful to see how musicians develop into the wonderful players they become. Every little bit I learn helps me to enjoy my own improvement as incremental as that may be.
As a budding elderly banjo player, it's wonderful to see how musicians develop into the wonderful players they become. Every little bit I learn helps me to enjoy my own improvement as incremental as that may be.
April 24, 2019
Learned quite a bit about the band and John Popper's personal life. I didn't realize that he organized a music festival nor that he had been in several bands besides Blues Traveler.
May 17, 2016
I have a policy to not give a book one star without at least describing a few reasons why. So here goes:
First, let me say that I used to really love Blues Traveler. Although my musical tastes have changed and I don't listen to them much anymore, this review has nothing to do with my bagging on them as artists or musicians. Indeed, I have seen BT numerous times, have many of their recordings and even a handful of live shows traded old school on Maxell XLIIs.
John Popper's book, unfortunately, is just awful. It is weirdly needy in that there are tons of stories that have no purpose other than celebrity name dropping. And these passages can go on forever...paraphrasing "I was a party and Tom Hanks was there, and then other celebrity was there and another..." It's kind of painful, especially because so many of the stories explicitly state that celebrities seem to only know his as the harmonica guy.
While it's very needy, it also is preachy and sanctimonious. Popper feels free to give advice on living life, performing music, being competitive, and then in a horrendously long and useless chapter: politics writ large. I have absolutely no idea why he thought that his views on politics would generate interest but there are vast swaths of the book that seem to be fishing for a book deal from publishers who publish election year punditry.
I don't totally disagree with his political views, nor do I have any qualms about his right to discuss them, but there was no reason why this had to be sewn into the overall narrative. Furthermore, the political discussions don't involve some long narrative nor do they involve the band directly, as was the case with John Lennon, Natalie Maines/Dixie Chicks, NWA and others. JP's politics never really impacted the band, and therefore had nothing to do with the story. Reading Popper's screed are moments from my life I will will never get back.
I am a bit embarrassed for Dean Budnick whose "Ticket Masters" is excellent, and whose other work is generally pretty strong. He should have never put his name on this vanity piece.
Ultimately, I am glad to know that John Popper and Blues Traveler are still out there kicking around, but their moment in the sun has long passed and stories about the goodle days juse seem distant, sad, and irrelevant.
Read at you own peril. Or, at the very least, stop after the first half which chronicles the rise of the band and the early crazy stories from the road.
First, let me say that I used to really love Blues Traveler. Although my musical tastes have changed and I don't listen to them much anymore, this review has nothing to do with my bagging on them as artists or musicians. Indeed, I have seen BT numerous times, have many of their recordings and even a handful of live shows traded old school on Maxell XLIIs.
John Popper's book, unfortunately, is just awful. It is weirdly needy in that there are tons of stories that have no purpose other than celebrity name dropping. And these passages can go on forever...paraphrasing "I was a party and Tom Hanks was there, and then other celebrity was there and another..." It's kind of painful, especially because so many of the stories explicitly state that celebrities seem to only know his as the harmonica guy.
While it's very needy, it also is preachy and sanctimonious. Popper feels free to give advice on living life, performing music, being competitive, and then in a horrendously long and useless chapter: politics writ large. I have absolutely no idea why he thought that his views on politics would generate interest but there are vast swaths of the book that seem to be fishing for a book deal from publishers who publish election year punditry.
I don't totally disagree with his political views, nor do I have any qualms about his right to discuss them, but there was no reason why this had to be sewn into the overall narrative. Furthermore, the political discussions don't involve some long narrative nor do they involve the band directly, as was the case with John Lennon, Natalie Maines/Dixie Chicks, NWA and others. JP's politics never really impacted the band, and therefore had nothing to do with the story. Reading Popper's screed are moments from my life I will will never get back.
I am a bit embarrassed for Dean Budnick whose "Ticket Masters" is excellent, and whose other work is generally pretty strong. He should have never put his name on this vanity piece.
Ultimately, I am glad to know that John Popper and Blues Traveler are still out there kicking around, but their moment in the sun has long passed and stories about the goodle days juse seem distant, sad, and irrelevant.
Read at you own peril. Or, at the very least, stop after the first half which chronicles the rise of the band and the early crazy stories from the road.
May 31, 2016
I think John and I are now on a first name level. Throughout reading this memoir, I felt like I was just sitting with a friend reminiscing about all of his past experiences. I have loved Blues Traveler (and John Popper) for many years and recently got to see him at the House of Blues in Chicago. This made my appreciation for him so much stronger.
I learned so much about his beginnings, the struggles throughout his life, his musical influences, and his political views. After learning about Frogwings, I looked up the band and listened to them while finishing the book...and Frogwings now has another followed on Spotify. :)
Thank you, John, for allowing us to peek into your personal life. I spent a great deal of the book smiling, some heartbroken, and several times I laughed out loud.
I learned so much about his beginnings, the struggles throughout his life, his musical influences, and his political views. After learning about Frogwings, I looked up the band and listened to them while finishing the book...and Frogwings now has another followed on Spotify. :)
Thank you, John, for allowing us to peek into your personal life. I spent a great deal of the book smiling, some heartbroken, and several times I laughed out loud.
July 2, 2021
I gave this 2 stars after reading it a few months ago. I wanted it to make me like John Popper even more since I love him so much as a musician. Run Around came on yesterday and I recoiled a bit remembering his memoir, this book. I want to reduce my rating to 1 star. He’s gross. Some of the highlights representing why I feel this way are: once having the flu while playing on stage, throwing up through his harmonica and then tossing it to a crowd of fans. Also, bedding all the women, as he states, even at his largest.
August 10, 2016
This book could have used a better editor, but overall it was great to hear all of these stories. This was my favorite band in high school and I saw them 2x at Red Rocks. The book actually gave me a new appreciation for their newer albums. I hadn't been able to enjoy them before except for Truth Be Told. I recommend it to any current or former fan of theirs. If you've never been a fan then I don't know why you would read this book.
April 13, 2016
Great series of battle tales you get the feeling you'd hear from the man at the bar after the show. Less self serving than a lot of rock bios, the only area I feel he tries to pussy foot around is his politics. Great capturing of the HORDE rock era, early 90s New York and lots of name dropping from a great harp player and leader of a bunch of lucky Jersey kids.
May 10, 2016
Long time fan truly enjoyed his insights.
The stories in the book were lots of fun. As an old fan of Blues Traveler, the book was a must read.
The stories in the book were lots of fun. As an old fan of Blues Traveler, the book was a must read.
May 24, 2016
Great memoir
John recounts several stories from his own past as well as Blues Traveler. He mostly focuses on the positive aspects, but does discuss some hard times. Great read.
John recounts several stories from his own past as well as Blues Traveler. He mostly focuses on the positive aspects, but does discuss some hard times. Great read.
September 7, 2016
Good book. Very comical and fun to read. I dont care about guns much so that part kind of bogged it down.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews