Set in the years between the meteoric launches of Madonna and Courtney
Love, "Petal Pusher" takes readers on a stirring journey across rock and
roll, from the big-haired 1980s to the grunge-filled 1990s, when Laurie
Lindeen brought her all-girl band, Zuzu's Petals, to compete in the
indie rock arena. Minneapolis in the eighties was a musical hotbed, the
land of 10,000 lakes and 10,000 bands that gave birth to Prince, the
Replacements, and Soul Asylum. For Laurie Lindeen it was the perfect
place to launch her rock-and-roll dream. She moved to the city with her
best friends Phyll ("Annie Oakley meets Patsy Cline") and Coleen
("former cheerleader gone off the arty deep end") to crash in decrepit
apartments and coax punk rock from crappy used guitars. But unbeknownst
to her friends, Laurie has a secret in her past -- a diagnosis of
multiple sclerosis that fuels her passion to make it big on the local,
national, and international rock scene. With inspiring determination,
Laurie and her Zuzu's Petals survive the many challenges of being
underdogs in a man's world. Then Laurie is thrown a curveball when she
falls for Paul Westerberg of Replacements fame and reevaluates exactly
what it means to "make it big." By turns hilarious and heartrending,
"Petal Pusher" is a brilliant behind-the-scenes look at music on the
front lines, and the awe-inspiring tale of one woman's fight against
disease and the disillusionment of life in the rock underground.