Janis Joplin's road manager takes audience back to the 1960s

John Byrne Cooke, road manager for Janis Joplin from 1967 until her death, talked about his new book "On the Road With Janis Joplin" at the National Press Club Oct. 28.

Cooke explained why Janis Joplin was in three different bands in 3 years. He said she was looking for new challenges and never “jelled” with the first 2 bands.

Her intelligence and ability to articulate enabled her to know and communicate what she wanted in the music, he said.

Cooke thinks she might have done a country album if she had lived. "Me and Bobby McGee" is a country song and the audience loved it when she performed it at a concert in Nashville, he said.

When asked where he was when he heard Janis Joplin had died, Cooke responded, “I found her body.” As road manager it was his job to notify others so his work took him away from the emotions of the situation, he said.

When she died, Joplin was at a good point in her career, because she had a good relationship with her band and her producer, he said. He added that her death was accidental, but it was not an accidental overdose, as he thought for many years, but was from an uncut batch of heroin that hit the street and caused several deaths.

Cooke showed some short films he made that transported the audience back to the 1960s.

Jan King of the Book and Author Committee introduced Mr. Cooke.