Summary: It's one thing to write a book about a polarizing act like the beloved, yet divisive jamband Phish or the carny-rap impresarios of Insane Clown Posse. It's something else entirely to write a book about both Phish and Insane Clown Posse. In his new book You Don't Know Me But You Don’t Like Me, Nathan Rabin chronicles his adventures with "two of music's most maligned tribes" and searches for common ground among two very different fan communities. Along the way, Rabin is diagnosed with a bipolar disorder and his personal life begins to unravel. INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS Nathan Rabin on Phishheads: They're caricatured as being hippies, being lazy, being drug-addled, being slackers, contributing nothing to society. And over my travels, I found that to be very much not the case. I found their fanbase to be incredibly eclectic. A lot of them are really, really smart -- a lot of academics. There's something about Phish fandom that is very conducive to being a bit of a geek, a bit of an audiophile -- to the sort of obsessive fandom. On Juggalo culture: I loved visiting the Gathering of the Juggalos, which is their festival in Cave-in-Rock, Ill., every year. I've come to really, really embrace it. There's freedom -- freedom from judgment, in particular, and freedom from self-consciousness. How a book about these two bands ultimately became a book about his personal life: What was supposed to be a pop-sociological tome... became this crazy story of my path through these seemingly disparate worlds that actually have a lot in common. They both offer this incredible sense of escape. Following ICP or following Phish is about as close as you can get in 2013 to running away to join the circus. And in the summer of 2011, when a lot of the book takes place, that was incredibly appealing to me: the concept of running away from my life.
