Nobody Told Me: From Basement Band to Jack and the John Lennon Sessions

by Ken Geringer

"See you tomorrow morning, bright and early!" Those were the last words Jack was to hear John Lennon speak. An hour later, record producer Jack Douglas's best friend and partner lay dead, murdered by an assassin's bullet just minutes after leaving the session. Now Jack was coming down the other side of the mountain, just as Ken Geringer was beginning his climb up; their lives followed different trajectories until the day they met and Ken became Jack's new best friend and partner. Nobody Told Me is Geringer's searing and achingly poignant, yet always hilarious true-life tale that opens in suburbia during the 70's when "keeping up with the Joneses" was a national pastime. Ken rebelled against all that had been taught him; he left home at fourteen, dropped out of public school at fifteen to attend an alternative 'free school' where Grateful Dead marathon shows were a class, and entered the adult world at seventeen. His path led him from being a successful businessman, to playing drums in a band with Bob Marley's sister, to meeting and working with Grammy-award-winning record producer Jack Douglas, noted for his work with not only John and Yoko but also many rock luminaries including Aerosmith, The Who and Cheap Trick.

Together, Ken and Jack struggle to recapture Jack's past success. Crushing financial debt, drug addiction, arrests and false arrests, great luck turned bad and the many uncooperative rock n' roll crazies that populate this tale are just a few of the obstacles they encounter as they struggle to attain new pinnacles of success. Ken remembers all, and tells it all he does in this rock n' rollin' good-time adventure.

Ken Geringer grew up in Rockland County, New York, before moving to South Florida in 1978. He managed record producer Jack Douglas, was president of an international record company and built several nightclubs, one of which made world headlines. Mr. Geringer spearheaded a ten-year censorship fight against Broward County, Florida, after his arrest for allowing the group 2 Live Crew to perform at his Broward County Nightclub.