Time Between

My Life as a Byrd, Burrito Brother, and Beyond

By: Chris Hillman, Dwight Yoakam - foreword

Narrated by: Chris Hillman, Dwight Yoakam

As a cofounder of The Byrds and The Flying Burrito Brothers, Chris Hillman is arguably the primary architect of what’s come to be known as country rock. He went on to record and perform in various configurations, including as a member of Stephen Stills’ Manassas and as a cofounder of The Souther-Hillman-Furay Band. In the 1980s he formed The Desert Rose Band, scoring eight Top 10 Billboard country hits. He’s released a number of solo efforts, including 2017’s highly acclaimed Bidin’ My Time - the final album produced by the late Tom Petty.

In Time Between, Hillman shares his quintessentially Southern Californian experience, from an idyllic, rural 1950s childhood; to achieving worldwide fame thanks to hits such as “Mr. Tambourine Man”, “Turn! Turn! Turn!”, and “Eight Miles High”; to becoming the first musician to move to Laurel Canyon.

Featuring behind-the-scenes insights on his time in The Byrds, his productive but sometimes complicated relationship with Gram Parsons, his role in launching the careers of Buffalo Springfield and Emmylou Harris, and the ups and downs of life in various bands, music is only part of his story. Within Time Between, Hillman reveals the details of his personal life with candor and vulnerability, speaking honestly about the shocking tragedy that struck his family when he was a teenager, his subsequent struggles with anger, and how his spiritual journey led him to a place of deep faith that allowed him to extend forgiveness and experience wholeness.

As Time Between shows, Chris Hillman is much more than a rock star. He is truly a founding father of American music and a man who has faced down the challenges of life to discover what really matters.

©2020 Chris Hillman (P)2021 Random House Audio

Enjoyable read about a well lived life

I really enjoyed reading Chris’s story from his idyllic beginnings in rural California in the 1950s, to personal family heartache, many ups and downs in the rock ‘n’ roll world, followed by contentment and appreciation in his later years. He comes across as very personable and thoughtful, sort of like someone you would like to have dinner with. He really added to the story by reading this himself, also.

A Rock and Country giant you could live next door to

As a near-contemporary of Chris Hillman, I was always a fan going back to the beginning of the Byrds. Not a headliner until later in his career, but always made every band he was in a little better. This was an engaging re-telling of his life experiences in a manner reminiscent of listening to your next door neighbor or a friend rather than a rock star. By the end of the book, you wish he had been a neighbor or a friend. Good guy, good book.

Story of the Byrds By One Who was There

I enjoyed this audio book by Chris Hillman. I have a Kindle version that I read but much more enjoyable to hear Mr. Hillman himself tell the story.

What a fantastic book by a amazing musician.

This is a great narration of a amazing book. Chris Hillman is my type of musician. Rock and country I enjoy on the radio but my downloads and my aging collection of CDs are all bluegrass. Chris has lead a amazing life and this first hand narrative of his life story is done perfectly in the audio book. Do yourself a favor and listen as he takes you on a journey through the soundtrack of last 60yrs of America music!!

A great listen for Byrds (fans)

Being a fan of the Byrds and the FBB, this was an excellent listen Focus mainly on the music but enough personal information for context. He also reads well, with music performed at the start of chapters

Truly Enjoyable

What a wonderful listen to the life and music of Chris Hillman and all the great bands he played with. I loved stopping the audio, going to iTunes, and listening to the various bands and songs. It brought the book even more alive.

Amazing

If you are a fan of this era, you are in for a treat. Highly recommended, so many great stories, such an inspiring musician, and opened doors to artists and bandsI had not heard of,

Good With Caveats

You write a musical autobiography for two reasons, either you’re a generational icon that people want to know about, or you’ve got salacious stories to tell. At this point those stories had better be extreme, because we’ve heard it all.

Well, Chris Hillman’s stories of rock excess are fairly pedestrian for the time — thankfully for him and his long-term heath he was never a raver — so one hopes for more career detail instead, but we find ourselves only partially satisfied.
The musical interludes were fantastic, as was hearing the stories in the author’s own voice — four stars for that. Docking one star as I was hoping for more detail about the music and the recordings and less about the religion.
Mind you, if a religious conversion helped Hillman get off abusing drugs, booze and mitigate his anger management issues that’s great, but it’s just not that interesting. Frankly, I was hoping for more detail about Byrds and Burritos recording sessions, not the Hillmans’ package tour vacation to The Holy Lands with a pair of impressively bewhiskered Greek Orthodox priests. YAWWWN.
Advice for future ghost writers: put all the spiritual awakening stories into one chapter so the faithful can enjoy it, and the rest of us can give it a pass. Maybe make it the first chapter so we can get it out of the way.
One final note…yes Crosby was not best pleased about the Sweetheart tour with Marty Stuart's band. Understandably so. Hillman hastens to add they tried to mollify him by saying it was an album recorded after he left the band…and then proceeds to enthuse about all the early Byrds material they covered and all the fun they had after the shows reminiscing. Way to rub it in Croz’s face…for all your talk about loving mercy you’ve got bit of a blind spot there, Chris.
Well worth a listen, but the caveat is there are significant holes in the story.
More guitar, less gospel, please!

Great book!

I hope in my life time Chris will come east one more time so I have a chance to see him for a third time. Well written and consistent, Chris is surely one of the best musicians of all three genres: folk; rock; and blue grass. Truly a pioneer.

Nice, but not exciting

Chris Hillman is a likable character and his story is interesting to fans. But listening to the book you keep waiting for something amazing or surprising to happen and it never does. Considering he lived through the 60’s, I suppose this is a flaw in storytelling. It also lacks more musical insight. It’s his life story, which is fine, but left me wanting more detail and interesting tales.