God, Forgive These Bastards: Stories from the Forgotten Life of Henry Turner

Not only is this a companion book to the jazz punk album of the same name by The Taxpayers, this is a remembrance of a life filled with contradictions--cowardice and bravery, falsehoods and candidness, glory and failure--told from the perspective of Henry Turner, a baseball hero turned psyche ward street minstrel. In the late 1970s, Henry Turner went from being a local hero and star pitcher of the Georgia Tech Wildcats to an abusive, alcoholic drifter. After spending his later years in homeless encampments and psych wards, Turner turned his demons to his advantage and became a kind, beloved street story-teller, a friend of the down-and-out, and a public transit angel. God, Forgive These Bastards explores the brief moments that can shape or lives and the power of forgiving even the most wretched actions with compassion and understanding.

Rob Morton is a preschool teacher and a member of the punk band the Taxpayers. He lives in Portland, Oregon.