Behind Beatles insider Ken Mansfield’s star-studded ‘Rock and a Heart Place’ tome
Ken Mansfield, the multi-hyphenate former U.S. manager of the Beatles’ Apple Records, Waylon Jennings producer, and modern-day motivational speaker, partnered with esteemed Steve McQueen chronicler Marshall Terrill to deliver Rock and a Heart Place: A Rock ’n’ Roller-coaster Ride from Rebellion to Sweet Salvation on May 1, 2015.
The engrossing Christian tome depicts the epic rise, fall, and redemption of 15 music icons in their own words with accompanying contextual narrative. Rock and a Heart Place offers an intimate backstage pass brimming with sex, drugs, unabashed debauchery, and nefarious backroom deals to unintended salvation.
All-encompassing conversations were conducted with the legendary Buddy Holly’s backing band the Crickets, the Ronettes, the Hondells, the Byrds, the Turtles, Buffalo Springfield, Grand Funk Railroad, Uriah Heep, England Dan and John Ford Coley, Ozzy Osbourne, the Pointer Sisters, Kansas, Outlaws, Prince, Collective Soul, and neo-metal purveyors Korn.
In email correspondence allocated with this writer, Mansfield pinpointed his fifth book’s spiritual journey. “Marshall has been encouraging me for years to dig deep in my heart and write about the rocks that some of us have encountered in our travels to the top and the bottom of what we fondly call ‘the biz,’” said Mansfield. “It is his research and insight that gave me the point of departure to write about these very special souls who have shared exciting and revealing stories of their fascinating lives.”
Terrill, the hard-hitting author of Steve McQueen: Portrait of an American Rebel, also clarified his serendipitous involvement. “The idea came about after I had a conversation with Ken about all of these former rockers becoming born again Christians,” said Terrill.
“I told him that would be a great idea for a book. He said that getting the cooperation of 15 stars would be like herding cats, and he kept me at bay for about two years. Finally I wrote a proposal, sent it to him, and it finally clicked why this would be an important book.”
In the process of ghostwriting the memoirs of a well-known singer-actor, Terrill was conducting research in Nashville when the interview process for Rock and a Heart Place formulated.
“Knowing that I’d be there for an entire week, Ken, who lives in Nashville, set up three interviews for me during that week with some of his friends ranging from Rick Cua, bassist-vocalist in Southern rock band Outlaws from 1980–1983, Dez Dickerson, lead guitarist-vocalist for Prince between 1979 and 1983, to John Elefante, lead singer-keyboardist in Kansas from 1982–1985, so in a way I was moonlighting,” confirmed Terrill. “But after we did the first three chapters, it was very apparent we were onto something special.
What about each author’s respective roles? Terrill shed further light, admitting that “Ken introduced me to everyone, with the exception of Ruth Pointer — the eldest member of the Pointer Sisters — Korn guitarist Brian ‘Head’ Welch, and Collective Soul founding drummer Shane Evans. I conducted all of the interviews, while we both wrote the text.”
Rock and a Heart Place is available on Amazon in hardcover for $16.66 or Kindle for $9.99. To download the first chapter for free, visit the 304-page tome’s official website.
A detailed press release provided career summations for Mansfield and Terrill. The former’s legendary career in the music industry began as a member of the Town Criers, a successful southern California folk group in the early 1960s.
From there he moved to executive tenures as US manager of the Beatles at Apple Records, director at Capitol Records, vice president at MGM Records, and president at Barnaby/CBS Records.
As a record producer, Mansfield was instrumental in launching country music’s “Outlaw” movement in the 1970s, producing Waylon Jennings’ number-one 1975 landmark recording, Are You Ready for the Country, and Jessi Colter’s number-one hit “I’m Not Lisa.”
He also produced the Gaither Vocal Band’s 1991 Grammy and Dove Award–winning Homecoming album, which also launched another historical movement, the resurgence of Southern gospel music via the Gaither Homecoming series of recordings, videos, and concerts.
He became an ordained minister, a sought-after speaker, and the author of seven books: The Beatles, The Bible and Bodega Bay; The White Book, Between Wyomings, Stumbling on Open Ground, Rock and a Heart Place, Philco, and The Roof: The Beatles’ Final Concert. Mansfield succumbed to a relapse of a rare form of blood cancer — Waldenstrom’s Macroglobulinemia — on Nov. 17, 2022, at age 85.
Terrill is a veteran film, sports, and music writer and the author of nearly 30 books, including best-selling biographies of the King of Cool, Elvis Presley, and Pete Maravich. Three of his books are in development to be made into movies.
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