ROSEN: In doing your research, you consulted a number of authors of 

(to put it generously) “dubious” reputation. For example, you quoted known liars, like Geoffrey Giuliano, who claims Harry Nilsson gave him John Lennon’s diaries; conspiracy theorists, like Alex Constantine, who thinks the CIA murdered everybody; enemies of the rock establishment, like Albert Goldman, whose books

 on Elvis Presley and Lennon are indeed vicious and distorted; and semi-authorized whitewashers, like Ray Coleman, who describes a journey that Lennon took

 to Cape Town, South Africa to visit whorehouses as a trip 

“to gain independence and boost his confidence.” 

Yet, even the worst of these books has a few grains of truth in it. 

How did you separate the truth from the lies? 

And what do you make of conspiracy theories?

COMFORT: Many star biographers, and even self-appointed experts, keep shit lists on their colleagues. The lists have three categories: 1. Biographers who are whitewashers. 2. Biographers who are sloppy, sensationalistic, or “dubious.” 3. Biographers who are liars, spitball artists, and Judases. 

I’ve read them all but have never thrown down a book in disgust, convinced that absolutely nothing can be learned. I’ve discovered something valuable, at least some grain of apparent truth, from almost every biographer. Alex Constantine is a rare exception: though the FBI and CIA investigated Lennon, Hendrix, and Morrison, I regard his assassination theories as paranoid fantasy.  

But what about the anti-Christ, Albert Goldman himself? Though his bios of both Elvis and Lennon were bestsellers, he was vilified by fans, other biographers, and stars (McCartney calling his book “garbage,” U2’s Bono singing about wanting to kill him.) While readers were apoplectic over the Columbia professor’s irreverent, even malicious, portrayal of Elvis and Lennon, they tried to discredit him on the basis of his alleged factual mistakes, not on the basis of his perverse point-of-view.

Goldman stated he conducted thousands of firsthand interviews. Maybe this was an exaggeration. But clearly an enormous amount of research went into his work – maybe more than any other single bio. Still, Goldman has been almost universally dismissed as a liar – not just a 10% liar, but a 100% liar. 

What are people so pissed about: his facts, or his poisonous point of view? The latter, it seems. So why not have the intellectual honesty to challenge him on his warped perspective? 

To me, Goldman is no more or less factually reliable than the star apostles and party-liners: Coleman channeling Yoko, Cross channeling Courtney, Esposito channeling Priscilla, etc. etc.

My goal was to avoid the extremes of both worshippers and detractors, and to present an impartial portrait without rose-colored glasses. 

ROSEN: You’ve described yourself as an outsider. By writing as an outsider you apparently don’t worry about pissing off powerful people. For example, in your chapter about Lennon, you say that Yoko Ono sent him to Bermuda in a small sailboat at the height of the hurricane season hoping he’d disappear into the Bermuda Triangle. And you accuse Courtney Love of hiring somebody to murder Kurt Cobain. Have there been any repercussions or legal threats?

COMFORT: Salmon Rushdie’s greatest career move, intentional or not, was to piss off the Islamics. Their fatwa, though it may have cut down on his social life, was better than a Superbowl spot for The Satanic Verses. 

Rattling cages and throwing stones at glass houses has long been one of the most reliable PR strategies for writers. But I didn’t to do that with Yoko or Courtney. In the examples you give, I state my conclusions as educated opinion, not as established fact. As such, First Amendment protections apply. 

Yoko and Courtney, sword rattlers both, have indeed threatened authors with libel actions. But the libel bar is very high for celebrities, so they have always backed off and hunkered down. Shrewd marketers and media manipulators themselves, both know that a lawsuit against a writer will only help make his book a bestseller.

ROSEN: The most surprising thing to me in the book was how miserable Jimi Hendrix’s life was towards the end. I knew nothing about the gangsters, the kidnapping, and the devastating money problems. I thought he was just a 

rock star who overindulged one night and paid for it with his life. 

What was the most surprising thing that you uncovered? 

COMFORT: Mike Jeffery. Hendrix’s manager was the truth-stranger-than-fiction Al Capone of rock managers at the root of Jimi’s misery.

Jeffery cut his teeth as a demolition expert and assassin for the British MI6. Retiring to civilian life, he became the understudy of Don Arden himself, the self-described “English Godfather of Rock” (and father of Sharon Osbourne, Ozzie’s future wife). Arden, who later managed Black Sabbath, the Small Faces, and ELO, negotiated and protected contracts with brass knuckles, Lugers and German shepherds.

Jeffery went independent after stealing “Mr. Big’s” golden goose, the Animals, and living to boast about it. He then bought up rock clubs, torched them for the insurance, built bigger clubs, bankrupted the Animals and opened numbered accounts in Majorca and the Caymans. Finally, he usurped Hendrix’s management from the Animals’ bass player, Chas Chandler.

After relentlessly touring and bleeding the Hendrix Experience for two years, the former spy became a multi-millionaire. By contrast, Jimi was too drugged out to realize he remained a pauper except for Stratocasters, totaled Corvettes, and mountains of coke and acid.

After realizing Jeffery had ripped him off for millions, set him up for his Toronto heroin bust, and had him kidnapped by his goons, Jimi decided to look for a new manager. Days later, his body lay on a stainless steel gurney at St. Mary’s Hospital in London. His clothes and hair were soaked with red wine which he had never drunk. The surgeon on duty, Dr. Bannister, suctioned inexhaustible quantities from his stomach and lungs. “Someone apparently poured red wine down Jimi’s throat to intentionally cause asphyxiation,” he stated years later.

A former Jeffery associate, James Wright, asserts in his 2009 title, Rock Roadie, that the manager confessed to the murder in 1971. “That son of a bitch was going to leave me,” Jeffery said. “If I lost him, I’d lose everything.”

Jeffery collected on the star’s $2 million life insurance policy. He was reportedly killed in an unexplained 1973 airline crash over France. His remains, however, were never found. Eric Burdon, Experience bassist Noel Redding, among others, have speculated that the former MI6 demolition expert checked baggage but never boarded the flight. 

“If it is possible to maintain consciousness after death,” wrote Noel Redding in his memoir, ”then Jimi must be in agony.”