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Boys is meticulous biography of manic, ill-fated 'Mats

Book cover for "Trouble Boys: The True Story of The Replacements" by  Bob Mehr
Book cover for "Trouble Boys: The True Story of The Replacements" by Bob Mehr

Trouble Boys: The True Story of The Replacements

Bob Mehr

Da Capo Press, 474 pages

The Replacements formed in Minneapolis in 1979, recorded eight albums, and broke up in 1991. The band -- singer/guitarist Paul Westerberg, guitarist Bob Stinson, Bob's half brother Tommy on bass and drummer Chris Mars -- carved an influential path through American rock 'n' roll.

They sounded as if the Ramones met the Rolling Stones in Minnesota at a Slade concert and then everybody got drunk and traded instruments and eventually just left those instruments behind, still plugged in and screeching feedback, and staggered off to find another party.

They never got famous, never had a real hit, yet a legion of devoted fans remains.

They wrote some of the most vulnerable ballads of the '80s along with throat-shredding rockers and catchy, witty pop songs. Their shows were alternately drunken disasters or transcendent performances that had the faithful swearing there was no greater rock 'n' roll band. By the time they broke up there were only two original members left, Westerberg and Tommy Stinson.

About 10 years ago, music critic Bob Mehr of the Commercial Appeal in Memphis started kicking around the idea of a Replacements biography. By 2009, Mehr had a deal with a publisher and the book was up and running. In his reporting, Mehr would gain the cooperation of many people close to the band, as well as, crucially, Tommy Stinson and Westerberg.

"Tommy said he would do it if Paul would," Mehr says. "I think that was his way of being able to back out of it."

But Mehr had developed a good rapport with the media-shy and mercurial Westerberg -- he'd written the liner notes for the remastered version of the band's fifth album, Tim, as well as a long feature on the group and the reissue of its catalog for Spin magazine.

"We did an interview and then I talked to him about the book, more specifically what I had in mind for the book. At the end, I think he was satisfied and comfortable to a point and he said, 'Let's do it.'"

Trouble Boys: The True Story of The Replacements, out today, isn't some fanboy hagiography. Mehr did the gruntwork and solid reporting that makes the book so revelatory, compelling and hard to put down.

It was a band of disparate personalities whose reputation was built almost as much on its penchant for mischief and pathological aversion to authority as its music. Tales of boozy antics, destroyed tour vans and dressing rooms, cacophonous shows at ear-splitting volume, spats with record producers and disc jockeys and opportunities gleefully squandered were passed along from fan to fan until they became practically mythical.

Their first gig was at a party for recovering alcoholics and addicts. They were thrown out for being drunk.

At a show attended by label representatives at the famed CBGS club in New York, The Replacements, deep in their cups, played, or tried to play, 43 songs -- mostly covers or snippets ranging from Led Zeppelin to Dolly Parton -- and drove much of the crowd away.

A documentary, Color Me Obsessed, A Film About The Replacements, as well as the Jim Walsh book All Over But the Shouting: An Oral History had already touched on much of this, but Mehr digs deeper.

"They were so much larger than life and had such an outsized history," he says. "I felt like what was already out there was just scratching the surface. I wanted to find out what the real story was with The Replacements."

And amid all the stories of alcoholic humor, self-destruction and life-changing albums are darker and more troubling details.

Trouble Boys opens with the Feb. 22, 1995, funeral of Bob Stinson, the band's original leader and most troubled member, who died at 36 after years of alcohol and drug abuse (the book is dedicated to him and his son, Joey, who was a quadriplegic with cerebral palsy). He had been kicked out of the band he founded in 1986.

Mehr then lays out the guitarist's chaotic childhood and the emotional and sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of the father of his half brother, Tommy. Bob Stinson would spend most of his teens getting into trouble and being sent to -- and running away from -- juvenile detention facilities.

"The story of the 'Mats, in a way, begins and ends with Bob," Mehr says.

When he'd gotten back from his last stay in a juvenile lockup, Bob formed Dogbreath, recruiting 11-year-old Tommy -- himself already having scrapes with the law -- as his bassist and drummer Mars.

Westerberg, while walking home one evening, heard them playing in the Stinsons' basement and became intrigued, mostly by the volume. He soon worked up the courage to knock on the door and, well ... there's more, and Mehr fleshes out all the whirling and sometimes contradictory stories around the band with well-sourced details.

"This book," Mehr says, "is the story of a rock 'n' roll band and fractured families and damaged families and how kids and boys deal with that. To a man, they all came from backgrounds of abuse and mental illness and alcohol abuse and they had to find their place in this world. Music was the thing that saved them in so many ways, but only up to a point. It's hard to get past those formative things and early childhood stuff ... but it's such an integral part of the band."

Mehr says he interviewed about 250 sources for Trouble Boys. He expounds on the roles of people like Peter Jesperson, an early and enthusiastic fan who signed them to his label, Twin/Tone, and became their manager, best friend, guru, caretaker and chauffeur (not a single band member had a driver's license or a high school diploma) before eventually being fired. Mehr also chronicles the band's rivalries with R.E.M. and crosstown pals Husker Du.

The Replacements were one of the first bands from the American underground to get signed and pushed by a major label. Their fortunes didn't change much. Despite critical acclaim, the group never hit the big time, though that probably wasn't really the band's goal in the first place. They were happy to pull the rug from under themselves before anyone else had the chance. Westerberg was defined as the voice of his generation, yet he was dogged by depression and insecurity. His alcoholism, which ran in the family, reached the point that a single drink would send him reeling (he eventually quit, cold turkey).

After years apart, Westerberg and Tommy Stinson regrouped for a 2013 tribute album to the affable Slim Dunlap, who replaced Bob Stinson on guitar and played on the final two Replacements albums. Dunlap suffered a stroke and his medical bills were piling up. The tribute album led to a triumphant reunion tour, although Mars, now a successful visual artist, declined to participate and Westerberg abruptly pulled the plug on further shows after a 2015 gig in Spain.

"I always felt like that was something they wanted to do," Mehr says of the reunion. "I was grateful as a fan, but also as a writer telling their story because it makes a great ending."

Style on 03/01/2016

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