Soon afterward he and fellow musicians Nancy Jeffries, Bill Barth, and Luke Faust formed a psychedelic music group, the Insect Trust, blending jazz, folk, and blues with rock and roll.
[6] In 1985, he was recruited by friends Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood to play clarinet on the song "Silver and Gold" by U2's Bono for the Artists United Against Apartheid album Sun City.
Following a residence from 1988 through 1992 near Memphis, he spent about six months at a country estate near Little Rock before finally relocating in early 1993 to New Orleans, Louisiana, his home until his death.
[5] He worked as screenwriter, narrator, and music director of two documentary films[6] The World According to John Coltrane (that he also directed, with Toby Byron) and Deep Blues (based on his book by the same name).
[citation needed] Two of his better-known books are the historical study Deep Blues (Penguin, 1982) and Rock & Roll: An Unruly History (Harmony, 1995), the latter of which was the companion book to the ten-part BBC and PBS television documentary series Rock & Roll (aka Dancing in the Street) on which he served as chief consultant.