DAVID
BARNETT
Broken strings, broken bones, broken hearts.
Burnt pages, burnt bridges—
burning ember...
★ FOXTAIL ★
— Coming November 9th —
★ FOXTAIL · COMING NOVEMBER 9TH ★
FOXTAIL
— MEMOIR —
Foxtail is a raw exploration of survival, instinct, and the wild untamed nature lurking beneath the surface. Through visceral storytelling and unflinching honesty, Barnett navigates trauma, transformation, indulgence, and the price of chasing extremes . . . and the price of chasing your dreams. This is no sanitized narrative—it's a chronicle of duality: the beautiful and the brutal, the sacred and the profane, the comic and the tragic. It's a story about blind ambitions, and the belief that the world owes us a destiny.
FOXTAIL
— MEMOIR —
Foxtail is a raw exploration of survival, instinct, and the wild untamed nature lurking beneath the surface. Through visceral storytelling and unflinching honesty, Barnett navigates trauma, transformation, indulgence, and the price of chasing extremes . . . and the price of chasing your dreams. This is no sanitized narrative—it's a chronicle of duality: the beautiful and the brutal, the sacred and the profane, the comic and the tragic. It's a story about blind ambitions, and the belief that the world owes us a destiny.
FOXTAIL
— MEMOIR —
Foxtail is a raw exploration of survival, instinct, and the wild untamed nature lurking beneath the surface. Through visceral storytelling and unflinching honesty, Barnett navigates trauma, transformation, indulgence, and the price of chasing extremes . . . and the price of chasing your dreams. This is no sanitized narrative—it's a chronicle of duality: the beautiful and the brutal, the sacred and the profane, the comic and the tragic. It's a story about blind ambitions, and the belief that the world owes us a destiny.
BORN TO
MAKE NOISE
David Barnett is an author, a lightning rod, and a man who has lived multiple lives within multiple worlds of chaos. After years defined by the jagged friction of the underground music scene and a scorched-earth lifestyle of indulgence and excess, Barnett eventually learned to transmute his demons and harness the power of his ghosts—channeling a legacy of reckless abandon and outlandish antics into the art that saved his life.
Writing from the raw intersection of survival and an insatiable appetite for the next extreme, he navigates the beautiful and the brutal with unflinching honesty. A winner of the 2025 WriterCon First Place award for Memoir, Barnett writes not to seek absolution, but to expose the price of chasing dreams and the toll of trudging through the muck in search of the signal beneath the static. He resides in Austin, Texas, where he has served as a steward for misunderstood minds and disaffected souls, remaining a dedicated seeker of the next distorted, exquisite frequency.
★ ON SUBSTACK ★
RECENT ARTICLES
★ MEDIA ★
APPEARANCES
UPCOMING EVENTS
Booked on Rock— Podcast
October 27th
Books & Stories Behind Classic Rock's Greatest Hits
That Record Got me High
Podcast
November 19th
I'll be discussing the personal significance of (hed) p.e.'s "Broke," and telling some wild stories about why the songs on that album mean so much to me.
The Teaching Journeys
Podcast with Dave Roberts
Coming Early December
PAST EVENTS
Interview on "Mornings with Matt and Bob"
Wednesday, August 12th
(Segment begins at 1:35:00)
Interview on "Mornings with Matt and Bob"
Wednesday, April 22nd
(Segment begins at 1:29:00)
★ CONTACT ★
GET IN TOUCH
FOR PUBLICITY REQUESTS
DAVID · DIRECT