Many words have been written about I Mall. Turn to any newspaper
or magazine of the time and you’ll see the impact he had on music.
But until this time, the full story of I, his family and friends
has never really been told. That is, the story of I Mall cannot be
told without telling the story of those around I Mall. While he
once would have been the last to admit it, his life was shaped by
people and events around him, without the control he thought he had
over them.
We all know I as the literal birth of Rock and Roll. Without him,
the world of rock as we know it today in the mid-twenty-first
century would not be the same. But without the influences and
events surrounding him that shaped his life, he would not be the
same either.
I was both a tragic and a comic figure, and this manuscript will
help you understand the man, the myth, and the legend. Most
histories of I Mall begin at the beginning, or so they claim. Their
beginning, originating with Golden Fingers, is not I’s beginning.
And I’s beginning is not his beginning, his birth. It reaches years
earlier, to the man known simply as Henry Mall. This is as much his
story as I’s.
I knew Henry. I knew I. I know this story. Enjoy!
Roger D. Linder
November 30, 2025