Panther Rock Books
Once a Rocker Always a Rocker
"Once a Rocker Always a Rocker: A Diary" is my first book. Released at the end of 2019. Based on the road diaries I kept during the early 80's. A first-hand account of how I audition & manage to keep my job as lead singer with Joe Perry and his Project and the adventures that ensue over the next two and half years. Rocking, recording, laughing, fighting & touring all over the place with the JPP!
ONCE A ROCKER ALWAYS A ROCKER: A DIARY
On the Road with The JOE PERRY PROJECT in the Big 80’s. The Untold Story, Unveiled in Amazing Detail.
Rock’n’Roll’s Most Freewheeling - but Ultimately Doomed Band. Outrageous, Uproarious and 100% Genuine.
True Tales from the Trenches of American Hard Rock. Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry needed a singer for his Joe Perry Project. Out of nowhere, I got drafted. It was like winning the lottery. Much better though - because lotteries only pay cash. For the next two years I experienced things that money just can’t buy. Living on the road with America’s quintessential rock star, playing adventurous, rebellious music on big stages to huge crowds, signing autographs, finding romance and partying with my idols. I was suddenly on top.
At that same moment Joe Perry was spiraling downward. Health failing, marriage dissolving and deeply in debt.
In order to stay one foot ahead of the tallyman, the ex-Aerosmith star jumped into a van and hit the road. Taking me and a few other newbies along on a mad dash across North America - and beyond.
Taking any gig he could get.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Cowboy Mach never worked at the rodeo and he can't even ride a horse. Classically trained on the cello as a child, Mach switched to the electric guitar during the Swinging 60's and in the early 70's he switched again, this time to lead singer.
Bell's rock'n'roll career blossomed, leading to gigs that included five years touring and recording with Boston's THUNDERTRAIN (1974-80), a brief stint working as a roustabout with Circus Vargas, and a wild ride with Aerosmith lead guitarist in exile, Joe Perry.
It was Perry who gave Bell his nickname "Cowboy" during their time writing, recording and touring together in the JOE PERRY PROJECT.
When he's not writing books or rocking, Cowboy's favorite pastimes include screenwriting, film-making, flower gardening, cooking and beach combing with his wife, Julia. Cowboy even dug himself a backyard frog pond, along with his sidekick, a Bombay cat named Lucky.
Panther Rock Books, 326 pages, with rare photographs
MACH BELL EXPERIENCE - MBE prepares to ROCK
I got a brand new bag. It's a BAND(!)
The MACH BELL EXPERIENCE (MBE)!
MBE is hard-riffing quartet bangin'-out Blazing-Hot live versions of my JOE PERRY PROJECT and THUNDERTRAIN favorites w/ some Brit/Soul/Flash/Blues-Rock nuggets mixed in. Served Hot, Dirty and Heavy. Hell yea!
Introducing the MBE ...
The rocket guiding the Mach Bell Experience is lead guitarist JOHNNY PRESS. In late April '22, Johnny began putting together the players and rehearsing my songs. Then he phoned me "Listen Mach, don't even come down until I tell ya we're ready."
Look carefully at the famous Led Zeppelin at Boston Tea Party 1969 photos and you'll see Johnny, right up front, studying Jimmy Page. A year or two later I got my first taste of lead guitarist Johnny Press. He was rocking live on TV, an in-studio PBS concert starring his Salem State College-based band, Gross National Productions (Metromedia Records 1972).
"If I could play guitar like anyone it would be Johnny Press."
- Tom Werman, record producer
A decade later Johnny Press offered the Joe Perry Project use of his rehearsal room in Cambridge. Johnny's band Velocity included my former Thundertrain drummer Bobby Edwards. After the Project broke-up, Press got a call from Danny Hargrove, Hirsh Gardner and myself, asking him to play guitar on our Wild Bunch "Burn Thru the Night" demo tape.
Johnny's worked in scores of bands (Big Guns, Smokin' Joe, Burning Sky). His just-released solo record is called "Johnny Press Nuclear Gypsy" and I can't wait to rip up the stage with him!
Beating drums for the MBE is BAM BAM. I never met this Bam before but Johnny Press took a chance on him, so I thought "what the hell ..."
John Billy Woolridge... sounds like a desperado name from a "Wanted" poster. Didn't he ride with the Dalton gang?
Skinny John Billy shortened his moniker to BAM BAM and this guy's a whole new nut for the Cowboy to crack.
Speaking of nuts, Bam collects drums like Joe Perry collects leather pants. His music studio - where we rock - houses a space station-size, wall-to-wall drum-set. It keeps reproducing itself all over the place. Boney Bam claims he'll pare down the theme park-scaled kit for Mach Bell Experience gigs. We'll soon see ...
Billy "Bam Bam" Woolridge kicks out the jams. He hits hard and he looks like one of those drummers who perform "spontaneous human combustion" so catch him while you still can - with the Mach Bell Experience!
JOE BLACK has risen from the grave!
When Joe isn't lying motionless in his crypt - he rocks!
Joe Black eats rock. He breathes it. He checks his eye-liner, straps on a spooky-looking bass guitar and delivers.
I first beheld Joe, standing in the spotlight in '77. On stage with Charlie Farren (my lead-singing predecessor from the Joe Perry Project) in their band Balloon.
Joe's rocked with Bam before in Ball'n Chain. Plus, he's got a heavy solo album "Blackenstein" produced by my Last Man Standing bandmate & ace musician, Aart Knyff.
I'm bloody-well psyched to have monster-bassman JB in the MBE line-up. Behold the satanic rock'n'roll rites of Joe Black, if you dare!
MBE = MACH BELL EXPERIENCE
So step right up folks! Welcome to our four-ring-freaky circus. The new kids on the Mach block!
Stacie (my poetic friend) had this to say about the new Mach Bell Experience:
"Sounds eclectic and typically Bostonianally incestuous but thats how we make em here. You go boy."
MBE PREMIERE PERFORMANCE Hallapalooza '22 LEXINGTON MA 9/10 Revolution Hall, 3 Maguire Rd. MBE showtime 6pm sharp!
"Once A Rocker" AUTOGRAPHED BOOKS. Venmo or Paypal.
Personalized & signed to YOU by rock singer & author Cowboy Mach Bell
- autographed copies of Mach's top rated book. One price includes EVERYTHING: The original paperback Diary, free shipping and even a kustom BookMach to help save your place.
Order using LINKS below. Be SURE to INCLUDE your MAILING ADDRESS and the name you want me to personalize the book to. Fast, free Shipping!
Send $24.98 per book to:
Sorry, we can ship to USA only. paypal.me/CowboyMach
FIVE STAR RATINGS FOR THE AUDIOBOOK
CLICK THIS POSTER AND HEAR IT FOR YOURSELF!
The deluxe, expanded AUDIOBOOK of “Once a Rocker Always a Rocker: A Diary” is now available at Audible, Amazon and iTunes/AppleBooks.
Featuring monumental Boston rocker Greg“Earthquake”Morton as Mach's co-narrator. The whole Diary is included PLUS...
Boston radio personality, author and rock historian Carter Alan joins in with his Thundertrain and Joe Perry Project insights (& some buried treasure)…
But there’s more! Joe Perry Project members Danny Hargrove and Charlie Farren drop by to spin personal road tales.
Vivid, new stories are shared, old questions are finally answered, and a gripping, new Final Chapter is premiered…
The NEW ONE! I GOTTA ROCK!
"Absolutely Exhilarating" ..."A Rock and Roll Jack Kerouac-style Journey"... "Hits on ALL Cylinders"
“I Gotta Rock” is based on 20 years of my road journals and diaries. I’m a journeyman rock singer but start off (at age 10) as a cellist. After we attend the Boston Tea Party debut of the Jeff Beck Group in 1968 and the Jimi Hendrix Experience that same summer in Framingham - it begins. We watch Jimmy Page (for free) in ’69 with Led Zeppelin in a half-filled tent. We dine with Monkee Michael Nesmith. Crash the glam-rock scene on Sunset Strip in ’74. Now a rock singer, my group Thundertrain records "Live at the Rat" in ’76. Rock with the Runaways, Thin Lizzy’s Phil Lynott and Willie Loco in Boston’s Kenmore Square and hit CBGBs alongside the Dead Boys in ’77. In a plot twist, I take a quick tour of the Southwest with three-ring Circus Vargas in ’81. After getting fired from the circus I rock America, now as lead singer with Joe Perry Project. Just a taste of the non-stop action in my candid, rocket-paced, occasionally shocking, 20 year memoir: I Gotta Rock! 492 pages. Nearly 200 photographs.
Twenty Years of Tales 1965-1985
“Mach Bell's first book Once A Rocker, Always A Rocker, is one of my all time favorite music memoirs. Being a huge fan of Aerosmith and Joe Perry, it was the incredible inside look at one of my favorite and often elusive rock icons that I had craved for so many years.
What more could Mach Bell have to say after such an impressive and definitive tome?
A Hell of a lot actually....
Mach conjures up an eloquent and descriptive depiction of the New England music scene that began in the late Sixties and flourished in the Seventies with awesome bands like Aerosmith, J. Geils, and yes, Thundertrain.
It is a rock and roll Jack Kerouac style journey through the post hippie rock landscape of America during one of its most captivating eras. Along the way, there are tales of excess, police brutality, jail, groupies galore, and brushes with David Bowie, Iggy Pop... All of these tales absolutely exhilarating.
Of course, the Aerosmith fan is well served as Thundertrain's ascension into Massachussetts musical legend often paralleled the Toxic Twins.
Final chapters on the Joe Perry Project serve as fine compliment to the first book.
I loved both of them as a music fan.
Check them out soon.” Amazon reader My2cents
By popular demand...
"I Gotta Rock" AUTOGRAPHED BOOKS! order with PayPal or Venmo
I'll autograph my new book to you personally & send it out in the morning mail! One price $27.99 includes EVERYTHING: the book, shipping and I'll even throw in a kustom BookMach too!
Be SURE to include your mailing address and the name you want my autograph personalized to. Send $27.99 to paypal.me/CowboyMach
AUTOGRAPHED CDS
Once a Rocker Always a Rocker
10 studio tracks. New edition of 1983 Joe Perry Project classic. Printed in the Netherlands. I will break the seal & sign it to you.
AUTOGRAPHED CD $29.99
THUNDERTRAIN 1979 - RECORDED LIVE!
13 live tracks. Starfleet mobile production, originally aired on WCOZ-FM.
Gulcher Records released this no holds-barred live 2/1/79 Thundertrain concert at the Summit, Peabody MA.
Liner notes by Mach Bell. Includes Hot For Teacher, Dirty Water, Mama Weer All Krazee Now, Counterattack, I Gotta Rock & more. Autographed CD $19.99
MACH BELL'S WILD BAR BAND FROM 2005!
10 studio tracks. Lawless Records. Mach Bell went back to the city in 2004 and Mach 5 happened! Great sounding arena-punk-hard-rock from Mach, Dee Stroy, Jeff and Jimmy Birmingham.
Liner notes by Mach Bell.
Get It Up, Quincy Girl, Kenmore Square and seven more! Autographed CD $19.99
PAYPAL or VENMO . With payment PLEASE include your (USA Only) mailing address, the CD(s) requested and the name(s) you'd like me to inscribe my signature to! You can always contact me (up top) here on the page!
- Always a Rocker, Mach
Some Favorite MEDIA APPEARANCES
Jan. 17, 2021 Mach Bell Meets Mitch!
Mitch goes in-depth with Cowboy on "Once a Rocker Always a Rocker: A Diary"
“It’s a fascinating, FASCINATING story.”
- MITCH LAFON
"Once a Rocker" Track by Track Album Analysis 2/14/21
Digging deeper into the creation & recording of songs like “King of the Kings” “Women In Chains.” Hear the real story behind that weird, strange lyric in “Walk with Me Sally” and much, much more. Kudos to host Thomas S. Orwat Jr. for giving Cowboy the chance to set the record straight!!