Never the Same Again: A Rock 'n' Roll Gothic

On a hot August night in Texas, 22-year-old Jesse Sublett was onstage experiencing what he thought was the realization of a long-held dream: his first big gig with a rock band. The next day, however, as he returned home, he found a nightmare instead: His longtime girlfriend, Dianne Roberts, had been savagely murdered in their bed.

Jesse became the police’s prime suspect. While in custody he figured out how a close friend brought the serial killer into their home. Jesse solved the crime and, though he couldn’t undo the damage, he moved on.

Jesse and pals Fazz Eddie Muños, Jon Dee Graham, and Billy Blackmon created the Skunks—a new wave rock ’n’ roll band that was instrumental in establishing Austin, Texas, as the live music capital of the world. In his star-studded memoir you’ll find cameo appearances from Patti Smith, Debbie Harry, Elvis Costello, Carla Olson, Rolling Stones, Go-Go’s and more.

In the late 1990s Jesse was diagnosed with stage IV throat cancer, with less than 99 per cent chance of survival. He came to understand that the cancer was somehow connected with his past, with the hardscrabble life he endured growing up in the Texas Hill Country, his girlfriend’s murder, and the self-absorbed life of his years on tour with the band.

Never The Same Again is a road trip through a landscape of rock and roll dreams, murder and disease—a true story, mostly, about a tall, rugged Texan facing long odds and running out of time.