Last Chance Texaco

Chronicles of an American Troubadour

By: Rickie Lee Jones

Narrated by: Rickie Lee Jones

Grammy Award-winning musician Rickie Lee Jones tells all in this electrifying, intimate memoir about how a little girl grew up to be one of the most legendary, groundbreaking artists of her time. Read - and sung - by Rickie Lee Jones!

This troubadour life is only for the fiercest hearts, only for those vessels that can be broken to smithereens and still keep beating out the rhythm for a new song.

Last Chance Texaco is the first-ever no-holds-barred account of the life of two-time Grammy Award-winner Rickie Lee Jones in her own words. It is a tale of desperate chances and impossible triumphs, an adventure story of a girl who beat the odds and grew up to become one of the most legendary artists of her time, turning adversity and hopelessness into timeless music.

With candor and lyricism, the “Duchess of Coolsville” (Time) takes us on a singular journey through her nomadic childhood, to her years as a teenage runaway, through her legendary love affair with Tom Waits, and ultimately her longevity as the hardest working woman in rock and roll.

Rickie Lee’s stories are rich with the infamous characters of her early songs - “Weasel and the White Boys Cool”, “Danny’s All-Star Joint”, and “Easy Money” - but long before her notoriety in show business, there was a vaudevillian cast of hitchhikers, bank robbers, jailbreaks, drug mules, a pimp with a heart of gold, and tales of her fabled ancestors.

In this electrifying and intimate memoir by one of the most remarkable, trailblazing, and tenacious women in music are never-before-told stories of the girl in the raspberry beret, a singer-songwriter whose music defied categorization and inspired American pop culture for decades.

Features exclusive new performances of some of Rickie Lee’s most beloved songs, which she recorded especially for this audiobook, culminating in a new recording of the title song “Last Chance Texaco”, plus other memorable and sometimes never-before-heard moments from her long musical life, including the unreleased demo of her early classic “Night Train”.

©2021 Rickie Lee Jones. All rights reserved. (P)2021 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

Critic reviews

"Fans of the celebrated musician Rickie Lee Jones will be delighted to hear her narrate her autobiography, which is focused on family memories and making music. Jones is as giving with her delivery as she is with her story. She reaches back through the years - all the way back to her mother's childhood - in a revealing, raspy voice laced with a country twang. Listeners will sink into this experience, which is punctuated by Jones singing short songs between chapters. She doesn't flinch when recounting the harsh years experienced by her mother and uncles as orphans during the Great Depression. While some listeners may find aspects of the gritty realism distressing, Jones's easy and fluid delivery has the flair of an expert storyteller's." (AudioFile Magazine)

My favorite audible book- ever

Any lover of music... or artistic creation of any sort, would find this story compelling. The writing is as good as the subject.

Rickie I never knew ya'.

Give yourself at least 2 hours of listening to get used to her voice. I know, I know, that voice we love - but as a narrator she takes some getting used to. But like her music eventually the rhythm, timbre, and surprising moments in the narration will win you over. The story is brilliant.

As a musician who loved her from the moment a hip record store owner suggested this new release to me, I have loved her music. I have had the chance to see her perform live with Lyle Lovett, and on her own in an intimate 1500 seater in the Los Gatos Mountains. Always stirring. Always transparent. This backstory makes me rethink her. I and several musician friends in music school always assumed (especially form the stellar musicians on her first album including legendary drummer Steve Gadd) that Rickie was a hip gal from LA or NY steeped in jazz traditions and learning. Nope. The reality is so much better.

This biography, like her music, is without guile. She is completely transparent and emotionally naked. She is so blunt with her own life and pain that at first you are taken aback - just like her music - and then you are lost inside the story and the emotions she lays out for you - just like her music. I will spoil nothing.

But just the story of her singing with the orchestra for the first time in the recording studio for the first time will be worth the entire book - and like her music will break and lift your heart at the same time. Beautiful.

LOVED this book!

I loved Rickie Lee Jones when she hit the scene in the 1970s and she is still just as talented today. I’m so glad she narrated, even if it sounded a bit rough at first, it’s all her telling you her story with honesty as though you are chatting with a friend. Love you Rickie!!

Jane Galloway

Too impacted emotionally to write a full review but...
Wonderful work
painful, cathartic, powerful...
Thank you

A true artist

This is an Amazing Document. I've never read an autobiography this personal and open hearted before. And I read them all...every book written by artists I presume have a good story. For 50+ years.
Few of those, I have read, Charlie Mingus, Duke Ellington, Ray Charles, Art Pepper, Johnny Cash can even keep up with Rickie's book. It occurred to me as the last notes ended, that it felt as if she had just sung the entire book. There were moments when it felt so personal, that I had to take my ear buds out. We got to see her several years ago in a Mpls. Club, the Dakota which seats just a couple hundred people. we were right in front. Reading this book was like sitting in the front row again. Her writing, her delivery, her timing and her authenticity all indicate she's one of America's iconic, true artists. Think Captain Beefheart, Laurie Anderson, Linda Ronstadt, Tom Waits, Bill Frisell, James Taylor, Charlie Mingus. That's the caliper of artists she belongs in. It's rarified air at her level of art. After a lifetime,, I say thank you and the book ties up our impressions, our Rickie Lee Jones very well.

WOW!

As an old fan, I loved hearing Rickie Lee’s story in her own voice, and what a beautiful story it is!
Inspiring, funny, rough, heartbreaking and triumphant. Full of dazzling poetry and magic…just like her music. Just like her, I believe, since after hearing this, I feel I know her.
I highly recommend this.

Magnificent

Very clearly a personal set of magical and painful career of work and memories.

BEST. AUTOBIOGRAPHY. EVER.

I saw an interview on a songwriting show on the coda channel recently on prime with Ricki Lee Jones. I remembered her music from Jr High School and loved it but was too young to really grasp what an amazing songwriter she is. I then saw on audible she released her autobiography. I read the reviews and thought I’d listen and get to know more about her life. Wow. Just wow. She is a brilliant writer and paints with words in a way that will hang pictures in your memory forever. Her honesty and relatability in storytelling is second to none. Starting the book again as I didn’t want it to end after 16 plus hours of her telling her life story……..

Rickie Lee Jones, from a child to a troubadour and everything in between

This was a great story that kept me coming back for more. I had never heard of Rickie Lee Jones until one morning on The View Whoopi Goldberg was talking about the book. I decided to listen to it on Audible and I’m so happy to have met Rickie Lee Jones. She is raw, she is talented, she is honest and her story and her music will hold your attention from beginning to end.

Compelling

I found this so much more than I expected. It was compelling. I started out not really loving it but soon found myself unable to tear myself away. I love music but didn’t know a lot about Rickie Lee but heard her interviewed on NPR talking about this book and was intrigued. I listen to a lot of books and read at least one a week and this one really touched me. It was like sitting down with an old friend and hearing her story. Some parts were so painful I wanted to skip them. Her journey into drug addiction was so reminiscent of my older sister’s that I relived the pain of those years even though my sister is long gone. My sister, too, was very fragile and had run away to end up in “juvie” more than once. I highly recommend this audible book. Rickie Lee Jones has a new fan. I have purchased all of her albums!