Star Tribune: Replacements roadie reveals fresh tales of debauchery in new book

Former 400 Bar owner Bill Sullivan's new book recounts his wild years as a roadie with Minnesota's rowdiest band.

Sullivan_Lemon coverIt started with an old Speedo swimsuit he found at his mom’s garage sale. That prompted a best-kept-untold memory from a tour stop at the Landmark Hotel in London.

“I thought, ‘Oh [bleep], that really did happen!’ ” Bill Sullivan said. “I was kind of hoping I’d made that up.”

“It Really Did Happen” could have been the title of Sullivan’s highly entertaining new book. The former owner of Minneapolis’ once-vital rock club the 400 Bar instead came up with “Lemon Jail: On the Road With the Replacements.”

Named after the Replacements’ ramshackle, graffiti-and-urine-coated tour van from the mid-1980s, Sullivan’s breezy, bawdy, 160-page tome chronicles seven years and about eight lifetimes’ worth of adventures serving as a roadie and tour manager for Minnesota’s notoriously unmanageable rock legends.

Read the full article.

Published in: Star Tribune
By: Chris Riemenschneider