IRON IN THE BLOOD: A Q&A with the handsome author of a magnificent new book
In which I interview Jay Busbee, author of a new book on the Auburn-Alabama rivalry, and feel like I've known him all my life
There’s just something special about Southern literature, its unique (for America) combination of hope and loss, divine inspiration and earthly futility, crime and salvation, all wrapped in a thick blanket of heat and humidity. We’ve interviewed a lot of authors around these parts lately, telling tales of the Kentucky Derby and the Atlanta police and Mississippi crime and college football scandal. But we’ve never had an interview quite like this, with a writer so familiar I feel like I’ve known him forever.
Jay Busbee is the author of the brand-new book IRON IN THE BLOOD: How the Alabama vs. Auburn Rivalry Shaped the Soul of the South. He was kind enough to make some time in his busy schedule for us, so without further ado, our Q&A with the devilishly handsome author of what some people are calling the Book of the Millennium…
Congratulations on the new book.
Hey, thanks! Have you read it yet?
Not all at once. Piece by piece. Word by word, you might say, over the course of the last two years.
Well, we all read at different rates. Key is just to get it done, because you do not want to miss the post-credits scene in this one.
I’ll keep an eye out for that. So tell me about the book, how it came to be. Give me the elevator pitch, which you really should have honed by now.
Sure. IRON IN THE BLOOD is the story of the Alabama-Auburn rivalry, the greatest rivalry in the most American sport there is: college football. This is the entire history of the rivalry, from the creation of both schools right up to 2025.
With all due respect to Ohio State-Michigan, or Red Sox-Yankees, or Duke-UNC, or Lakers-Celtics, Auburn-Alabama defines what rivalry is — the combination of mutual loathing and mutual need, the close-proximity, in-your-face nature of the two sides, the everything-leads-to-the-Iron-Bowl inevitability of the calendar.
Put another way: most rivalries are lucky to have one single game that deserves its own name. The Iron Bowl has half a dozen, at least — Kick Six, Gravedigger, The Kick, The Run In The Mud, Punt Bama Punt, the Camback, Bo Over The Top … and we spotlight all of them and more in this book.
Plus, this rivalry — which dates back to 1893 — has played out against the sweep of Southern history, from Reconstruction to the Civil Rights era to the pandemic. The book centers on Alabama, but we have detours to the beaches of Normandy, Kent State, the Jan. 6 riots and many more crucial elements of American history.
Also, a dude wrestles a bear.
Cannot imagine how that last part fits in here.
It’s a mystery. Oh, wait, if words don’t persuade you, here’s some video — a couple spectacular book trailers done by the great Logan Busbee. First, Alabama’s legacy of championships:
And next, Auburn authoring the greatest play in college football history:
Damn! I’m ready to run through a brick wall for those schools, and I didn’t even go to either of them!
Right? That’s what this rivalry does to you. You can be all, “Oh, college football is so sleazy, SEC football is just a bunch of corrupt hicks,” and then you come to a tailgate on the Plains or in T-Town and friend, you’re a believer. You’ll leave with a sunburn, a hangover and splotches of memories of the best weekend you’ve had in awhile.
In. So in. So where did this idea first come to you?
Well, I have no ancestral connection to either school. I went to William & Mary, whose football stadium is about the size of a decent tailgate at Alabama or Auburn. When I was a kid, I had family friends connected to Auburn, so I somehow ended up with an Auburn baseball cap. And I was wearing it out in Colorado once, and somebody walked past me and said, “Roll Tide!” I got fired up and ready to fight, and I wasn’t even sure why!
Since then, I’ve heard Roll Tides and War Eagles literally all over the world — from Paris to Beijing — and that kind of passion is just absolute gold. The idea to do a book had been percolating in my head for years, since the 2009-2014 days of the Camback, the Kick Six, four (and almost five) titles in five years, the Toomer’s Oaks and so much more. I noticed that nobody had done a full-on history of the entire Iron Bowl, and I figured, why not? So a couple years back, I whipped up a proposal, and here we are.
How did the writing go?
Well, I have a day job, and I didn’t have the luxury of a 12-month free-and-clear calendar. On the other hand, I spend a fair amount of time traveling for that day job, and can find free time while on the road. So I carved out time to write while in the media palace at Augusta National, the press tents at Valhalla and Pinehurst, press boxes in Athens and Tuscaloosa and Knoxville and Auburn, pubs in Paris during the Olympics, and alongside the Limpopo River in Botswana in a vacation which had been unfortunately pre-scheduled for about two weeks before my deadline:
But nobody gets into writing because they want a reliable 9-to-5 schedule, and nobody gets into writing books because they want a reasonable work-life balance.
All that sounds a whole lot like humblebragging, sir.
Buddy, I’m trying to sell books here. I have no shame whatsoever.
The thing about IRON IN THE BLOOD is, for all the dozens of books on the rivalry and its key figures, nobody had ever written a complete, end-to-end history of the Iron Bowl itself in this kind of narrative style, telling stories rather than just recounting facts. And somewhere in the process, when I was neck-deep in hundreds of books, magazines, links, email inquiries and interview transcriptions, I realized why nobody had done it. But, hey, it’s done … even if Auburn did instantly render it instantly dated by retroactively adding four more new national titles. Jerks.
Well, I for one am excited to read this book. Again. Where can I get a copy, and what can we do to help you succeed in your quest for literary domination?
The book goes on sale on Tuesday, August 26, and I would urge — nay, beg — you to pre-order it. You can check any of the retailers listed here.
Pre-orders are an author’s best friend, because they give publishers a sense of how popular a book is, and they all aggregate to the Week 1 numbers. The book has already hit #1 in some of the many charts Amazon uses to track new releases, but I want this bad boy to hang out atop the leaderboard for awhile, Scottie Scheffler-style.
Next-best thing to ordering the book is reviewing it, at both Amazon and Goodreads. Tell the world how much you love the book, and be honest … but maybe not too honest. (As the great Bomani Jones says, if you give me less than five stars, I’m inclined to think you’re a hater.)
Tell your friends, particularly those with an allegiance to Auburn or Alabama. Tell your enemies. Tell people who hate both Auburn and Alabama that the book makes excellent toilet paper. (It doesn’t, but again — I’m trying to sell books here. Do with it what you will after you buy it.)
I want to get my book autographed! How do I do that?
Two ways! Find me at one of our tour stops:
Aug. 26, Birmingham, Alabama Booksmith
Sept. 3, Atlanta, Manuel’s Tavern
Sept. 25, Brooklyn, Greenlight Bookstore/ Squawkin’ Sports
Oct. 11, Auburn, Auburn Oil Books
…with many more to be added.
Alternately, buy a copy of the book, send me your receipt at jay.busbee@yahoo.com and I’ll sign a bookplate and send it right out to ya! And if you want to re-sell the book for vast sums on ebay, hit me up and I’ll sign a few more copies for you. Let’s both get rich.
Well, I feel confident in saying that this sounds like the best book to be published this or any other year, and I feel certain that you’ll receive all your due accolades, riches and free drinks.
Hell yes. That’ll do.
In all seriousness, I want to thank you — my friend reading this — for your support and your eyeballs. I hope you’ll pick up a copy of the book, and I really hope you’ll enjoy it. If it weren’t for you, I’d just be talking to myself … and that’s plain creepy.
I think so too.
Of course you do.
See you again with more updates soon, and thank you. Roll Tide, War Eagle, and let’s go sell some damn books!
—Jay
Land Cat, Georgia
This is issue #168 of Flashlight & A Biscuit. Check out all the past issues right here. Feel free to email me with your thoughts, tips and advice. If you’re new around here, jump right to our most-read stories, or check out some of our recent hits:
Home Turn, our new show for NASCAR Studios, is right here for you to watch:
Crime and college football, a glorious pairing
Drinking beers at a serial killer’s last resort
My uncle knocked out Joe DiMaggio
Talking with Michael Farris Smith about Mississippi, the darkness and his new novel
Our first documentary, on the famous Rama Jama’s diner in Tuscaloosa, Alabama
What does “Flashlight & A Biscuit” mean, anyway?
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