Robert Rosen

Mary Lyn Maiscott wrote "When Hell Freezes Over" in 2017, during Trump's first term. Unfortunately, the song's become even more relevant now, in his second term. As we look forward to another year of protesting and trying to stop Trump and his lackeys from destroying democracy and fucking up America and the world, this would be a good song to sing. Sing it when you march in the streets. Sing it in front of detention centers. Sing it in front of the White House and Mar-a-Lago. Make it your Anti-Trump anthem for 2026. 

 

Here's Mary Lyn performing "When Hell Freezes Over" at Berlin Under A, in New York City, December 2, 2025. That's Adam Tilzer on guitar, Danny Bradley on drums, Tomoko Omura on violin, and Ann Marie Nacchio on bass and harmonies.

 

If it's Christmastime in New York City, then Mary Lyn Maiscott is performing her holiday classic, "Blue Lights," somewhere. This year it was at Berlin Under A.

 

That's Adam Tilzer on guitar, Danny Bradley on drums, Tomoko Omura on violin, and Ann Marie Nacchio on bass and harmonies.

 

Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night!

 

Every holiday season I make available signed copies of many of my books. This year I'm offering the five you see above. I'm not set up for e-commerce, so if you're interested in buying one of these titles, please contact me through the website and I'll send you the details. I can send the books anywhere, but if you live outside the US, be aware that postage is more than the price of the book. Here's the price list, which includes domestic postage:

 

Nowhere Man (new edition, red cover) $25

Nowhere Man (old edition, yellow cover) $21

Nowhere Man (Spanish edition) $20

A Brooklyn Memoir (revised edition of Bobby in Naziland) $25

Bobby in Naziland $25

 

Wishing you all a happy and peaceful holiday!

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All my books are available on Amazon, all other online bookstores, and at your local brick-and-mortar bookstore.

 

I invite you to join me on Facebook or follow me on Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky.

 

It was unusually mild in New York City the night of December 8, 1980. The temperature in Central Park, across the street from the Dakota, never dipped below 46 degrees. And it was on that night, 45 years ago this past Monday, that John Lennon's life ended as he was returning home from a recording session with his wife, Yoko Ono. A madman had traveled 5,000 miles to shoot an ex-Beatle to death. At that moment the very nature of reality changed. Now, as hard as it is to believe, Lennon has been dead longer than he was alive.

 

Winters in New York aren't what they used to be, and two years ago Christmas Day was even milder than it was that long-ago night. The temperature hit 50 degrees. That afternoon, my wife, Mary Lyn Maiscott, and I joined someone who'd been a close friend of Lennon's for a meal at his apartment. After we ate and drank a bottle of Champagne, we switched to red wine, and Mary Lyn played a recording of a song she'd recently written, "Jezebel." Our host then played an old recording that he had, and it inspired Mary Lyn to write another song, "Mild December."

 

Last week, at Berlin, in the East Village, Mary Lyn performed that song for the first time. You can listen to it in the above video. It follows her cover of the Beatles' "Now and Then." 

 

If you'd like to catch Mary Lyn in concert, her next show will be in Seville, Spain, in February, date TBA. She'll be performing with our friends Martín León Soto and Aida Vílchez. I'm the opening act. I'll be reading from the Spanish edition of Nowhere Man: Los últimos días de John Lennon and answering questions (with a lot of traslation help from Martín). We are, I dare say, back by popular demand after a two-year absence. You can check out our 2024 performance on YouTube.

 

Last week, I appeared on The Joe Rooz Show to discuss Nowhere Man. Joe, a Brooklyn boy who now lives in Texas, is one of the better interviewers I've come across in the 25 years I've been talking about the book. Here's his description of our encounter:

 

First up was Robert Rosen, author of Nowhere Man: The Final Days of John Lennon. We dug into the origins of his book, his access to Lennon's diaries, and how he blended investigation with restrained imagination—especially around Lennon's vivid dream practices, occult interests, yoga and numerology, and his surprisingly intense fixation on Paul McCartney. Robert also shared how a brief born-again phase drew unexpected attention from Christian media and why he believes Nowhere Man captures Lennon's inner world like no other biography.

 

You can listen above.

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All my books are available on Amazon, all other online bookstores, and at your local brick-and-mortar bookstore.   

 

I invite you to join me on Facebook or follow me on Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky.

 

The saturation coverage of the 50th anniversary of Patti Smith's debut LP, Horses, reminded me of the first time I saw her, in 1970, when I had no idea who she was. The paragraph below is an excerpt, almost a throwaway scene, from the book I'm working on, about Observation Post, a radical newspaper at City College. 

 

One December evening, right before Christmas break, I was reading The Campus under a haze of marijuana smoke at the never-ending drug party in Buttenwieser Lounge, in Finley student center on the main campus, when in walked a petite, dark-haired woman dressed in black leather, and a man carrying a guitar and a little amplifier. As the guitarist plugged in and tuned up, a few dozen stoners gathered in a semicircle around them. The woman introduced herself as Patti Smith and the guitarist as Lenny Kaye. Still a good five years from achieving international superstardom with her debut album, Horses, Smith started ranting about how Americans don't know how to treat poets. "In Russia," she said, "they treat poets like gods." Then Kaye strummed his guitar and Smith began chanting and singing and leaping about like Mick Jagger, delivering a mesmerizing performance that held everyone enthralled. The students gave her a rousing ovation, and Smith and Kaye walked out without saying another word. Thirty seconds later, it was almost as if it had never happened.

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All my books are available on Amazon, all other online bookstores, and at your local brick-and-mortar bookstore.   

 

I invite you to join me on Facebook or follow me on Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky.