Dion DiMucci, better known as Dion, is one of the last first-generation rock ‘n’ roll artists continuing to create music—music that, in whatever genre, remains as vital as ever. When baby-faced, quiff-coiffured 1950s rock ‘n’ rollers died prematurely, quit, or anachronistically navigated into the ‘60s, Dion kept evolving: from a swaggering Bronx rocker to a Chicago bluesman to a baroque pop crooner. Eight decades of rebirths have led Dion to create disparate albums: mostly-Spector-produced Born to Be with You (1975), quasi-secular Yo Frankie (1989), and Blues with Friends (2020). Now Dion, with close friend and life coach Adam Jablin, has written, Dion: The Rock ‘N’ Roll Philosopher, a book of conversations between the pair on life, recovery, faith, and music.
Dion: The Rock ‘N’ Roll Philosopher is a tongue-in-cheek title that only Dion DiMucci can pull off with street panache—braggin’ is a blues tradition, after all. Dion knows a thing or two about the blues. As he writes , if you get satire, you get him. Listen to “The Wanderer” or “King of the New York Streets” and imagine the songs’ characters. Having lived a thousand lives, Dion has inevitably ended up with plenty of life lessons to impart; thus, it makes sense to compile them into a book.
Dion DiMucci and Adam Jablin’s might seem an unlikely friendship: one is a rock ‘n’ roll star and the other is a public figure; they first met when Dion gave a motivational speech at Jablin’s elementary school in 1986. Yet they have a mutual understanding as former alcoholics with a focus on recovery and leading a spiritual life. (Since 1968 and 2006, Dion and Jablin have been sober, respectively.) Although Jablin’s presence in the book is subtle, it is essential, as he comes to the avuncular Dion for advice about his career, faith, relationships, and friendships.
As you read Dion: The Rock ‘N’ Roll Philosopher, you discern the mutual trust they have for one another. For Jablin, Dion is his mentor and spiritual father. Dion has equal respect for Jablin, seeing him as, “travelling on an ancient path of wisdom.”
Dion: The Rock ‘N’ Roll Philosopher is not a self-help book—though likely many of its readers will find it helpful. At its core, it is a warm and enriching dialogue about spirituality, truth, and wisdom. Ideas that seem universal and patent easily can—and do—become lost in distraction and noise. Thus ,when we come across these common ideas it they may seem falsely revelatory.
To a certain extent, the book captures what is missing in society: the art of conversation. Fittingly, these conversations occur in rare American diners; they becomes an important backdrop to the book. With straightforward prose and an amiable tone, Dion: The Rock ‘N’ Roll Philosopher places you right there in a diner with them and leaves you as an equal interlocutor, as there is a universality at the heart of their discussions and, thus, the book.
Dion DiMucci is a spiritual seeker, a soul searcher, a wandering soul. He has the combination of what most great artists have: a vision matched by relentless drive. At times amongst artists this ambitious drive in a search for themselves can end in religion or suicide. From the start, however, Dion wanted to live to old age.
According to Dion: The Rock ‘N’ Roll Philosopher, Dion’s father would bring home large art books. Flickering through a book on Claude Monet, Dion saw a photo of the Impressionist painter as an old man, with a long, white-beard, and surrounded by his family. Monet lived to the age of 86. From that moment, Dion knew he wanted to age gracefully like him. Dion and his wife, Susan, met as teenagers and married in March 1963. They have three daughters and numerous grandchildren, and 60-plus years on, they remain together.
Yet it hasn’t been an easy path for Dion DiMucci. In the 1960s, he battled a heroin and drink addiction. In the late 1970s, he was at a loss. His latest record, Fire in the Night, with his new band Streetheart, had been rejected by Columbia Records. He was an ageing rock ‘n’ roll star, with his popularity in decline. On 14 December 1979, out for his daily six-mile run, Jesus Christ appeared to Dion, he writes. He became a born-again Christian.
Since then Dion has lived in a state of equanimity. Moreover, he knows the scriptures like a 1950s teenager knows Elvis Presley’s B-sides. In 2007, he even wrote “The Thunderer“, a song about Saint Jerome, a pugnacious man, who translated the Bible into Latin, not once—but twice. In the book, Dion quotes Saint Augustine and Thomas Aquinas—and cites reading English author and Christian apologist G. K. Chesterton and British writer and Anglican lay theologian C. S. Lewis.
There is something to take away from this book, religious or not. Furthermore, you do not have to agree with Dion or Jablin to like Dion: The Rock ‘N’ Roll Philosopher.
Dion DiMucci is a straight-talker and astute. For example, he writes that it was trendy for artists to be in search of God and ask large existential questions, yet it was not fashionable for them to actually find God. A decade later, when Bob Dylan became a born-again Christian, he faced similar criticism. Also, Dion writes that the freedom of the road can be a dead-end street, echoing his own “The Wanderer”; it is these observations that make for an interesting read.
One of the strongest chapters is his three trips to Rome: the first time, Dion DiMucci saw the city through the eyes of the artists; the second time, clean and sober for a few years, he saw the artists had a gift from God; thirdly, after his spiritual awakening, he heard a voice say to him to pray for his deceased father at San Pietro in Vincoli, which is when he realised that relationships transcends death.
His father becomes another important factor in Dion: The Rock ‘N’ Roll Philosopher. Dion, perhaps in line with psychoanalysis (he doesn’t use this terminology), understands that some of our negative traits stem from childhood, which, in turn, governs our adult lives, unless they are addressed. As a seven-year-old, Dion witnessed uncles mocking his father for being unable to keep a job. Later in life, it made him eager to take responsibility, work hard, and succeed in something important. Even late in life, Dion cared what people thought of him; his way of resolving this was to pray.
For people less interested in theological or psychological matters, a large percentage of the book pivots around Dion DiMucci’s music career. There perhaps isn’t anyone of musical significance over the last 70 years whom Dion has not played with or met, including songwriters Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, the New York songwriting duo Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, Sam Cooke, Little Willie John, Quincy Jones, Carole King, and John Lennon, etc.
While written contributions from the likes of Eric Clapton, Paul Simon, and Bishop Robert Barron, show the diversity of Dion DiMucci’s appeal, there is a section entitled “Words from Friends” in which Bob Dylan’s liner notes for Dion’s Blues with Friends (2020) are reprinted, as well as a long piece penned by legendary rock writer Dave Marsh. The book also features over 200 scintillating photos.
As the book explains, Dion DiMucci’s popularity waned in the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s, despite putting out and recording good albums. Some were shelved, such as the blues album, Kickin’ Child (finally released in 2017). Dion thinks like a songwriter. He understands that the importance of lyrics is sometimes in their sound rather than in their meaning. With his Bronx accent, Dion is a master of phrasing, knowing the difference a vowel or a consonant can make to a song.
In the last two decades, Dion DiMucci has reinvented himself as a blues man and has achieved commercial success, with Blues with Friends reaching number 1 on the Billboard charts and Stomping Ground (2021) hitting number 1 on the Blues Charts. In the end, Dion: The Rock ‘N’ Roll Philosopher reveals that the greatest success in life is being able to live with yourself. It’s safe to say that Dion has done just that and, as an older man, he will reach his goal of following in the footsteps of Monet.