Reborn rockstar
Arthur "Artie" Cross gave fifteen years of his life to rock and roll, and it gave him nothing in return but tinnitus, a twelve-dollar bank balance, and a fatal van crash at thirty-four. He died a miserable, unfulfilled nobody, convinced his lifelong dedication to music had been a complete waste.
But death is only an intermission.
Artie jolts awake in a parallel universe, thrust into the soft, unpracticed body of a nineteen-year-old college dropout who shares his exact name. As he struggles to adapt to his new life, he makes a staggering discovery: in this universe, the legends of rock never existed. There is no Black Sabbath. No Led Zeppelin. No Queen. The global charts are choked by sterile, corporate, autotuned pop masquerading as "rock and roll." The music is safe, boring, and utterly soulless.
The throne is completely empty.
Armed with a cheap beginner’s guitar and the pristine memories of every legendary riff, face-melting solo, and stadium anthem ever written, Artie realizes he is the sole keeper of the greatest musical catalog in human history. He refuses to let the world live in silence. Operating from his cramped, dingy apartment under the mysterious online alias "The Madman," Artie begins dropping heavy, distorted, doom-laden riffs onto an unsuspecting internet.
He is about to introduce a sanitized world to the raw, unbridled chaos of true heavy metal. The corporate industry gatekeepers won't see him coming, and by the time they try to stop him, it will be too late. Artie isn't just seeking fame in his second life—he is going to burn the old system to the ground and build a rock empire from the ashes.
Mallu_sage · Music & Bands