Shell Shocked

Bloomsbury presents Shell Shocked, written and read by Howard Kaylan. **Shell Shocked: My Life with the Turtles Flo and Eddie and Frank Zappa, etc.**Howard Kaylan was the golden voice of the 1960s, a founding member and lead singer of The Turtles, the band that gave the world the iconic number-one hit, "Happy Together." But behind the clean-cut pop stardom lay a world of backstage chaos, creative excess, and a dangerous, decades-long party. Shell Shocked is Kaylan’s candid, no-holds-barred journey through the wildest decades of rock and roll. He pulls no punches in recounting the sex, the drug use, and the legendary encounters that defined the era—including the jaw-dropping, true story of snorting cocaine off Abraham Lincoln's desk inside the Nixon White House. When The Turtles broke up, Kaylan’s story took an unexpected turn: he shed his pop persona to join the counter-cultural maelstrom of Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention as "Flo," forming the iconic duo Flo & Eddie. From teen idol to Zappa’s right-hand man, Kaylan reveals the true creative intensity and surprising personal habits of the eccentric genius. From chart-topping singles and notorious escapades to a continuing career as a prolific session musician (and even composer for Strawberry Shortcake), Shell Shocked is a wild, unforgettable memoir that proves one thing: some of the best stories belong to the survivors.