BMG BooksFounding Byrds and Flying Burrito Brothers member Chris Hillman has just released a memoir called Time Between: My Life as a Byrd, Burrito Brother and Beyond, in which he delves deeply into his long, influential music career.
Hillman tells ABC Audio that his main goal for penning the autobiography was to clarify some inaccuracies written about his two famous bands. In addition, he notes, “I wanted to leave a story for my grandkids.”
Hillman began playing bluegrass as a teenager, and around that same time, his father died by suicide. The tragedy put great financial and emotional strain on his family, but Chris notes that he was able to pull through the trying time.
Hillman says persevering through this period ties in to Time Between‘s main theme.
“The underlying thing in my book is about redemption, and about picking yourself up and keep going,” he stresses. “Don’t surrender.”
Meanwhile, Chris notes that his desire to take advantage of opportunities presented to him led to his big break with The Byrds.
Hillman says he was aware of how talented band members Roger McGuinn, Gene Clark and David Crosby were, and when he was invited to audition to be the group’s bassist, he lied and said he knew how to play the instrument.
“Total bluff, the greatest poker bluff ever,” Chris declares.
The Byrds quickly became superstars as one of the first folk-rock acts, and also explored psychedelia, then pioneered country rock with the 1968 album Sweetheart of the Rodeo.
Time Between not only details Hillman’s adventures with The Byrds, but with The Flying Burrito Brothers, the country-rock band he co-founded with Gram Parsons, and his later groups Manassas, Souther-Hillman-Furay, McGuinn, Clark & Hillman and The Desert Rose Band.
Signed copies of Time Between are available at ChrisHillman.com and PremiereCollectibles.com.
By Matt Friedlander
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