THE HOT ROD WORLD OF ROBERT WILLIAMS - Tapa dura

Robert Williams can do the work of five men.
Ed Big Daddy Roth

Robert Williams life reads like a full-color Johnson Smith Company catalog of every fascinating facet of lowbrow/underground/hot rod/rock & roll culture that has mostly remained hidden in darkness beneath the flat rock of decent American society.
Hot Rods, Motorsickles, Carnies, Juvenile Delinquents, Bikers, Hippies, and Punks, Bob has spent a lifetime simmering waist-deep in a spicy gumbo of gonzo weirdness, and now he s serving up a big bowl of his crazy life to you, oh hapless reader.
Did I forget to mention that he s also one of the greatest American artists of the last fifty years? Read on.
COOP

Williams paints the way Salvador Dali tries to paint.
Von Dutch

Superlatives, by necessity, must falter and be left moldering by the wayside in reference to Robert Williams.
Frank Kozik
Gearhead magazine, Issue #10

While previous volumes have celebrated the art of Robert Williams, until now none have placed Williams’ life and extraordinary body of work in proper context by examining his unrepentant jones for hot rods. And who better to put this story into words than the man himself?
In this illustrated, two-fisted narrative, Williams brings readers along on a raucous ride, recalling his impossibly wild formative years and immersion in the country’s nascent youth culture of hot rods, rock ’n’ roll, and bowling alley rumbles; his long appreciation of the hot rod’s circle-track roots; and his happenstance arrival at Roth Studios. Williams’ recollections are populated by a rich cast of characters at once madcap (Ed Roth), surly (Von Dutch), dashing (Pete Eastwood), and soon-to-be revered (Gray Baskerville, Jim Jacobs, and Pete Chapouris). Notably, Williams delves deeply into his associations with Roth and Dutch, provides the first complete lowdown on his and wife Suzanne’s remarkable hot rods (including his hugely influential deuce roadster), and draws a neat line between his vast knowledge of history and the state of hot rodding today.
Illustrated throughout with photographs from Williams’ personal collection and with several artworks, The Hot Rod World of Robt. Williams is a testament to the author’s legendary status among modern hot rodders and artists alike.