In the mid-seventies, Stewart’s crazed hits, including “She’s Actin’ Single (I’m Drinkin’ Doubles)” and “Drinkin’ Thing,” rocketed him to the top of the charts, earning him the admiration of Bob Dylan, the Allman Brothers, and Tanya Tucker. Within a few years, he had flamed out and all but vanished from the music scene. Until Jimmy McDonough barged his way into the spooky Florida double-wide Stewart was hiding out in, beginning a nearly forty-year obsession with the musician.
This is a story of sex, drugs, and honky-tonk, told in McDonough’s inimitable, two-fisted style, the unique combination of oral history, vivid prose, and personal experience. It’s an epic tale of a wild Kentucky family who surfed success and rearended disaster in drug-soaked, seventies Florida. At its core is the tempestuous, tragic love story of Gary Stewart and his wife, Mary Lou, that will leave you haunted long after you turn the last page.
