Side Projects: Joel Selvin On Jim Gordon

Performance Anxiety

Today’s guest is revelatory. I’m extremely happy to welcome author Joel Selvin to the podcast. He’s written a book called Drums & Demons: The Tragic Journey Of Jim Gordon. The title tells it all. It’s the story of one of the (if not THE) greatest drummers of all time and his mental health battle that ultimately ended in tragedy.

Joel masterfully tells the story from Jim’s beginnings, how he started playing drums,to touring with The Everly Brothers immediately after graduating high school, and how he broke into the world of session musicians.

He was a vital part of legendary tours like Joe Cocker’s Mad Dogs & Englishmen tour and writing classic songs that are still played every day, like Derek & The Dominos’ Layla. Jim had a gargantuan appetite for alcohol and drugs; both legal and illegal. And that is one possible reason that no one realized the truth behind his mental decline. He had been suffering with schizophrenia for a long time and had been successful in hiding the symptoms.

But the voices in his head eventually began to rule his life with command hallucinations. They ended his professional career and eventually were the reason he murdered his mother.

Jim’s entire professional career was a short 15 years. But his impact is still felt. After he was sent to prison, he was minimized and all but erased from music history.

But after Jim’s passing in 2023, the pendulum has begun to swing the other way and Joel’s book is leading the charge. He tells Jim’s story honestly and sympathetically. Like Joel said, he wrote a few good lines but it’s Jim’s story. And it doesn’t matter if you know anything about Jim Gordon or not; this book is hard to put down. Order it from joelselvin.com and you can thank me later. Check out our stuff at performanceanx.threadless.com or buy us some coffee at ko-fi.com/performancenaxiety. And this is Joel Selvin on Jim Gordon on Performance Anxiety, part of the Pantheon Podcast Network.

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