Insane Clown Posse's Juggalos and Phish Fans Explored in New Book.

When memoirist and head writer for The A.V. Club Nathan Rabin first set out to write about obsessed music fans, he had no idea the journey would take him to the deepest recesses of both the pop culture universe and his own mind. For two very curious years, Rabin, who Mindy Kaling called “smart and funny” in The New Yorker, hit the road with two of music’s most well-established fanbases: Phish’s hippie fans and Insane Clown Posse’s notorious “Juggalos.” Musically or style-wise, these two groups could not be more different from each other, and Rabin, admittedly, was a cynic about both bands. But once he gets deep below the surface, past the caricatures and into the essence of their collective cultures, he discovers that both groups have tapped into the human need for community. Rabin also grapples with his own mental well-being—he discovers that he is bipolar—and his journey is both a prism for cultural analysis and a deeply personal exploration, equal parts humor and heart.

About three years ago, former AV Club head writer Nathan Rabin set out to write a book about the diehard fans of Phish and Insane Clown Posse. "It was originally going to be this sort of dry, ethnological, sociological text," he says. "It was going to be this wry, ironic outsider casting an amused, affectionate look at these strange people." The idea changed quickly after he started traveling the country to Phish and ICP concerts. "My plan proved unfeasible," he says. "Both because my heart wasn't in it, but also because I don't have the journalistic skill set to write that kind of book. So it started as an outsider looking in, but it became my story - the story of someone who had their brain cracked open and all these weird experiences and people and music sort of seeped in." Rabin went full-on gonzo while reporting the book, ingesting all sorts of mind-altering drugs, traveling the country by Greyhound bus, scalping tickets and interacting with the hardest of hardcore fans. He also blew through much of his savings, nearly broke up with his girlfriend and found out he is bipolar. His book, You Don't Know Me But You Don't Like Me: Phish, Insane Clown Posse and My Misadventures with Two of Music's Most Maligned Tribes, hits shelves this week.