Abstract
Before James Oseland was a judge on Top Chef Masters, he was a teenage rebel growing up in the California suburbs. Diving headfirst into the churning mayhem of punk, he renamed himself Jimmy Neurosis and journeyed into a vibrant underground world of visionary musicians and artists. With humor and verve, Oseland brings to life the effervescent cocktail of music, art, drugs, and sexual adventure that characterized the end of the seventies. Through his account of how creativity saved his life, he tells a thrilling and uniquely American coming-of-age story.