Three childhood friends from York, Pennsylvania form a band in the 1960s. Through their eyes we experience the trials, tribulations, and rites of passage musicians go through as they slowly climb the ladder of success. Only one of them—frontman Tommy “Hinch” Hinchton—will achieve his lifelong dream. But with triumph comes tragedy and all the cruel realities of life in the fast lane.
Thirty years later, on the eve what should be his triumphant comeback concert, Hinch mysteriously disappears. Enter ghostwriter Bernie Temkin, who gets caught up in the search for the missing rock star and finds himself swept into an international maelstrom that carries him from the glitz of L.A. to the seedy underbelly of Amsterdam, from the slopes of St. Moritz to the forbidding Scottish Highlands. What he finds along the way is one of the great stories of rock ’n’ roll.
Roadie was inspired by the life of Rolling Stones founding member Ian Stewart, who was fired by the group’s first manager because he “didn’t look like a rock star.”