Description: "Only a very few rock bands that have had the longevity, success, and drama of The Doobie Brothers. Born out of late 1960s NoCal, they stood alongside their contemporaries The Grateful Dead, The Allman Brothers, and many others as an iconic American rock band. The train was rolling along, hits were flowing like wine, and arenas were packed with fans who wanted to see them live--then Tom Johnston, the band's front man and lead guitarist, almost died. The Doobies' train came to a screeching halt. All of a sudden the band started contemplating the end of the road only seven years into their career, just as things were taking off"--Publisher marketing.
Brief description: PAT SIMMONS is a founding member of the Doobie Brothers. The Doobie Brothers were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2020, they've won four Grammy Awards and have sold nearly 50 million records. Their 1976 album Best of the Doobies has sold more than 12 million copies, achieving the rare Diamond Certification by the RIAA (fewer than a hundred albums in the history of modern music, across all genres, have done this). All in all, they've tallied five Top 10 singles and sixteen Top 40 hits.
Review Quotes:
"The Doobie Brothers' saga truly is one of the untold stories in rock." --Rolling Stone
"Founding members of the Doobie Brothers Johnston and Simmons ... deliver an amiable, polyphonic history of the band ... A delightfully unpretentious, pleasing account of rock stardom." --Kirkus Reviews
"Long Train Runnin' Our Story of The Doobie Brothers, takes fans on a ride through all that went into The Doobie Brothers, and all that came out of them. Lengthy, casual exchanges between founders Tom Johnston and Pat Simmons, plus others central to the tale ... create a narrative both stimulating and easy to digest ... Doobie Brothers fans will find much to enjoy in this book, and will likely be compelled to revisit one of American rock 'n' roll's catchiest, feel-good, and enduring songbooks." --Tahoe Onstage
"Dramatic...[the] Doobies, who cut their teeth playing biker bars in the Bay Area, were more about the music than the celebrity, more about the collective than the individual."--Pittsburgh Post-Gazette "Founding Doobies Tom Johnston and Pat Simmons deliver an affable oral history, their tag-team account leavened with other voices from across their half-century run. Read this book and you'll feel like you spent an evening backstage with the band, passing a joint and hearing three or four competing versions of how it all went down." --Washington Independent Review of Books