When We Get to Surf City: A Journey Through America in Pursuit of Rock and Roll, Friendship, and Dreams

"There is something absolutely magical about Bob Greene's voice."—Jeffrey Zaslow, coauthor, The Last Lecture

Running away to join the circus is a dream we're told to put away once we're no longer young. But for the last fifteen summers, Bob Greene has stepped into a universe that is hiding in plain sight: the touring world of the great early rock bands who gave America the car-radio-and-jukebox music it still loves best.

Singing backup with the legendary Jan and Dean as they endlessly crisscross the nation, in the company of Chuck Berry, the Everly Brothers, Jerry Lee Lewis, Martha and the Vandellas, and the Beach Boys, Greene takes us to football stadiums and minor-league ballparks, to no-name ice cream stands and midnight diners. Along the way he tells a riveting story of great fame and lingering sorrow, of unexpected friendship and lasting dreams, of the things that keep us going in the face of all the things that threaten to stop us.

Hilarious and heartbreaking, moving and brilliant, this is the trip of a lifetime, a travelogue of the heart, accompanied by a thundering guitar chorus of Fender Stratocasters.