Rock musician John Kinney has the talent and vision to hit it big. He also has some strong opinions, a history of failed relationships, and a growing list of regrets that haunt him day and night. With his band's breakout moment on the horizon, Kinney's life in the spotlight is irreversibly approaching the unreal as internal discord, ongoing arguments, and alcohol-fueled fits of frustration and anger tear at his psyche and soul. In a brutally honest, first-hand account, Kinney narrates his life story in flashback, rehashed in the twenty-three seconds that follow his decision to place a pistol to his head and pull the trigger. Over the course of eleven months in 1996, John Kinney's life charts a remarkable course, from his disengaged existence as a corporate drone, punching the clock and living for each weekend's opportunity to play music, to a tragic stereotype of self-loathing and unresolved contempt wrestling with demons both real and invented. This fictional autobiography also fills in Kinney's past, from growing up in small-town Indiana, to college and a stint in the military, to Indianapolis, Saint Louis, and Dallas, before he and his band mates are set upon the inevitable road to Los Angeles. Along the way are Kinney's lovers, family members, band members past and present, and an ever expanding circle of agents, managers, and record executives. Jim Standridge's 23 Seconds combines exacting detail and literary flair with an absolute commitment to remain true to his story and to his protagonist. This unflinching study uses the events leading up to John Kinney's suicide as an opportunity to shine a light on the realities of life on the road, in the studio, and in the isolated, artificial state of being that accompanies making it in the music industry. "We all become geniuses in hindsight," Kinney observes. 23 Seconds takes advantage of that perspective to share an unforgettable vision of the demands and limitations of stardom and to document its human toll.