Late at night on New Year’s Eve 2005, Carolyn Satlow, 17, and a group of her friends sneaked into their music school after hours. Her boyfriend had the key; also 17, he taught drums at the school, located in a dingy Philadelphia basement. While the rest of the group drank beers in the main rehearsal area, the couple went upstairs to a small practice room, where they started having sex. It was three in the morning. Suddenly, they heard a knock at the door. They froze, mortified. It was Paul Green, their teacher and the founder of the school.
Beginning in the late 90s, Green had transformed his own failed dreams of stardom into a second career, using the classic-rock canon as the basis for an innovative approach to music education. He called it the Paul Green School of Rock Music. Carolyn belonged to the outfit’s All-Stars program, a squad of Green’s most elite students. The program was incredibly close-knit—kids practiced most days of the week, and hung out almost exclusively with their fellow All-Stars, as well as with the vulgar, charismatic teacher who structured their lives.
