The Hard Stuff

Wayne Kramer achieved early success as co-founder, lead guitarist, occasional singer, and songwriter of the incendiary proto-punk 1960s band the MC5. As house band at Detroit's legendary Grande Ballroom, the MC5 blazed across the sky like a supernova before burning out in 1972 in a haze of drugs, animosity, and bad career moves. By age 24, Wayne Kramer was directionless.

 

Kramer's life in the '70s resembled that of a low-life character out of an Elmore Leonard novel. It reached a nadir in 1975 when Kramer was sent to prison after an undercover drug bust.

 

After a three-year stint in the Lexinton, KY federal prison, Kramer picked up the pieces of his broken life. He doesn't pull any punches in relating the struggles he has had over the last three decades to finally achieve happiness and fulfillment at age 70.