Overview

Not a memoir for the faint of heart. Backstage Pass: Decades of Sex, Drugs, Tragedy and the Darker Side of Rock & Roll takes readers deep inside the legendary Sunset Strip, a world of sound, sweat, ego, and chaos. From the Roxy Theatre to the Whisky a Go Go to the Viper Room, Jason ""JD"" DeCosta didn't just work backstage, he lived there. For more than a decade, he managed production, wrangled rock stars, and survived the madness that defined Hollywood nightlife. Behind the curtain, he witnessed the rise of artists who shaped an era including Amy Winehouse, Adele, Marilyn Manson, Courtney Love, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sex Pistols, Chester Bennington, Chris Cornell, Scott Weiland and many more. Every night was a collision of fame and failure. Between celebrity meltdowns, last-minute miracles, and surreal moments with icons like Mike Tyson, Snoop Dogg, and Anna Nicole Smith, JD found himself at the eye of a cultural hurricane where the music was only half the story. Backstage Pass isn't about nostalgia. It's about survival. It's the story of an insider who saw the industry from both sides of the stage, as a signed musician and a stage manager, watching the dream machine chew through artists, road crews, and anyone chasing the spotlight. Featuring a foreword by legendary music photographer Kevin Estrada, whose lens captured legends like Nirvana, Rage Against the Machine, Slipknot, and Korn, this book delivers an unfiltered look at the real cost of chasing immortality through art, fame, and addiction. Equal parts hilarious, heartbreaking, and brutally honest, Backstage Pass captures the highs and hangovers of Los Angeles's rock scene. It's Hunter S. Thompson meets Scar Tissue, a front-row seat to sex, drugs, and the dark rhythm of survival. For readers who love music memoirs, rock autobiographies, and behind-the-scenes confessions of Hollywood's wildest years, this is the story they never printed in the glossy magazines, told by the guy who was there when it all went down. Raw. Loud. Unapologetically real. Backstage Pass is a love letter to the chaos that built the legends, broke the dreamers, and defined a generation of music that refused to die.

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Jason ""JD"" DeCosta is a musician, author, and former production and general manager who lived the real Sunset Strip-working behind the scenes at the legendary Roxy Theatre, Whisky a Go Go, and Viper Room during rock's most chaotic years.Signed to both Geffen Records and Roadrunner/Island Def Jam over the span of a decade, JD experienced the madness of rock & roll from every angle-on stage as an artist and off stage wrangling the stars who defined an era.His memoir, Backstage Pass: Decades of Sex, Drugs, Tragedy and the Darker Side of Rock & Roll, takes readers deep into the unfiltered world of Amy Winehouse, Adele, Marilyn Manson, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Linkin Park, Nirvana, Adam Levine, and countless others-including movie stars, adult performers, and the misfits who turned the Strip into legend.Raw, darkly funny, and brutally honest, JD's story captures the heart, grit, and beautiful chaos of fame's underbelly-and the cost of surviving it. Kevin Estrada is an acclaimed music photographer and director whose lens has captured some of the most iconic artists in rock and metal history. From the raw chaos of the Sunset Strip to stadium stages around the world, his photographs have defined eras and immortalized legends. Starting out in the 1980s Los Angeles music scene, Kevin's camera became a silent backstage pass-documenting bands like Nirvana, Metallica, Guns N' Roses, and countless others long before they became household names. His work has appeared in Rolling Stone, Kerrang!, Guitar World, and major campaigns for everyone from Motörhead to Green Day. More than just a photographer, Kevin is a storyteller. He's spent decades behind the curtain of rock culture-witnessing its highs, heartbreaks, and pure human energy-and brings that same authenticity to his writing and advocacy. When he's not shooting or directing, Kevin dedicates time to Rockers Against Trafficking, the nonprofit he founded to raise awareness and support victims of human trafficking. For Backstage Pass: Decades of Sex, Drugs, Tragedy and the Darker Side of Rock & Roll, Kevin Estrada contributes the foreword-an insider's perspective from a man who's lived his life inches from the stage lights, camera in one hand and history unfolding in front of the other.

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