Jim Carroll

To rock audiences, Jim Carroll's crowning achievement was the near-hit "People Who Died," a brutally emotional punk record saluting the victims of the New York drug culture. In truth, however, Carroll's artistic legacy was considerably more complex and far-ranging -- an acclaimed diarist, poet, actor, and spoken word performer, his formative years even served as the subject of the film The Basketball Diaries. The product of a working-class background, Carroll was born and raised in New York City. He was a highly touted basketball prospect, and Jack Kerouac's On the Road inspi...