Can I Get in the Van?

A writer and longtime Black Flag fan hitchhikes to Texas to audition for the band as it searches for a new bass player:

“It dawned on me: Black Flag did not have a bass player. I could be that bass player! I decided right then and there to find out where Ginn was living, hitchhike across the country, and persuade him to let me try out—just as I had attempted to do at 16. I knew all the old songs, and I figured that thumbing it instead of flying or taking a bus would prove to Ginn that I had dedication.

“Ginn, I knew, had for the past few years been based in a small town called Taylor, just outside Austin, Texas. That morning’s New York Post told me that the weather in Austin was presently a rejuvenating and springlike 70 degrees. There was no reason not to go.”

Author: Erick Lyle
Source: Vice Magazine
Published: Apr 9, 2013
Length: 16 minutes (4,005 words)