Product Description: By late 2008, high school radio DJ/cardboard impresario Tom Scharpling ruled what some called an “empire” of mirth, music and mayhem. Yet it was nothing compared to the kind of mayhem in store once he made the fateful decision to follow a time-tested entertainment industry tradition and “Go Country.” Cribbing stage and style tricks from influences as diverse as Gram Parsons, Lee Greenwood, James Dolan and Rich of Big & Rich, Scharpling immediately and with little effort made a huge splash on the country scene before finding his own voice on immortal tracks like “H-Man and Me,” “It’s Called ‘Blue’ For a Reason,” and his biggest hit, “Hearts That Are Chocolate-Covered” (for which he was later unsuccessfully sued). Scharpling crossed over to megastardom with his unique take on Outlaw Country, dubbed “Slob Country,” yet along with fame came the spiraling drug, alcohol and lip balm addiction that proved to be his rather stock undoing. This book for the first time tells the unvarnished truth behind Tom Scharpling’s many loves, losses and polite acquiescences. The well-known players are all here: Briefly-suffering, estranged spouse Jillian Barberie; The mysterious, mercurial Associate Producer Mike, who became ringleader (some say cult leader*) of Tom’s inner circle of good ol’ boys and hangers-on known as the New Newbridge Nu-Mafia; Beloved screenwriter/Mayor of Newbridge/Latin scholar Philly Boy Roy, whose triumphs and tragedies increasingly intersected with Tom’s own, and whose fatal (?) choking incident while playing with his youngest son in a hoagie grove is vividly depicted; and of course, Yetta, the dog whose role in Scharpling’s unseemly final days no one could have foreseen. You’ll learn new sordid, details about those figures and famous incidents such as Tom’s frequent destruction of air hockey tables; his violent falling out with comedian Paul R.** Tomnkims*** during Fashion Week; and his literal heave ho of then-recently elected Senator Samuel Wurzelbacher. All this and more recounted in a true-life tale so harrowing it makes Careless Love look like Marley & Me.
“Tom Scharpling, along with Chris Martin and Coolio, was the musical icon of our time, and this book is cooler than Bono and Jack Kerouac trading sunglasses while trapped in a Mister Softee machine.” -- Stephen King, author of the 33 ⅓ book, Scharpling and Madlib Present: Slobimoto.
*because he poisoned them
**formerly “F.”
*** formerly Tomkins
