Joshua Kennedy Lyon (born on June 25, 1974) is an American journalist and author. Lyon has worked for several major print publications, as well as the Sundance Channel. He is the author of Pill Head: The Secret Life of a Painkiller Addict, published by Hyperion on July 7, 2009. Pill Head is part memoir, part investigative journalism and chronicles prescription painkiller abuse in America. His current residence is in Brooklyn, New York.
Joshua Lyon was born a homosexual in Nashville, TN. His parents are Corinne Jorgensen and Payson Lyon. He attended high school at Hamilton Central in Hamilton, New York. While in high school he had a radio show on WRCU-FM, the Colgate University campus radio station. He majored in Literature at the State University of New York at Purchase, also known as Purchase College and SUNY Purchase. He began interning at Interview magazine during his Junior year at Purchase college. By the last semester of his senior year he was a paid freelancer at the magazine three days a week and began working there full-time immediately after graduation.
Lyon's internship at Interview magazine grew into a full time position as promotion coordinator. From 1997-1999 Lyon coordinated all details of more than 65 promotional events and sponsorships, including the opening of the Virgin megastores in Union Square, Miami and Chicago and the film premiere parties for Basquiat and I Shot Andy Warhol, in addition to the annual music showcases at CMJ in New York and SXSW in Austin, TX.
2000
In January 2000 Lyon followed his boss from Interview magazine to Condé Nast Traveler, in New York, NY. Lyon's refers to his boss, Leslie Russo, as a mentor and thanks her in his memoir, Pill Head. At CN Traveler he held the position of senior merchandising manager. Lyon continued to manage events and promotions, also working closely with Vanity Fair and GQ on several joint events. Events included a celebration for photographer Brigitte Lacombe’s Alfred Eisenstaedt award, a traveling art exhibition of Raymond Meier and Gavin Bond photographs.
Journalism career
2000s
Jane magazine
After less than a year at CN Traveler, Lyon was hired by Jane magazine, also in New York, NY. He had always wanted to be a writer and felt lost earning a living throwing parties for publications. Jane, now defunct, was one of the few magazines at the time that generated all writing in-house, as opposed to freelance.
Lyon wanted to get a foot in the door and start writing for Jane, so he applied for the only open spot, a photo assistant position. He leaned on his experience working with photographer Brigitte Lacombe to get the job. While booking and producing photo shoots and learning photo editing, he also pitched story ideas and wrote articles. After two years he became a full time editor.
Accepting the position at Jane would eventually help Lyon become a professional writer, but he had to initially move backwards in title and pay. He took a 65 percent pay cut and lost many perks when he left CN Traveler. In the first six months he supplemented his income as a weekend weed runner for a delivery service in New York City .
In Pill Head, he describes the job as exhausting but cool...he got to go inside hundreds of different types of homes in NYC, everything from Chinatown tenements to massive lofts in SOHO. However, he was constantly terrified of arrest or losing his job.
Lyon spent four years at Jane and worked on many aspects of the magazine. Lyon wrote numerous features and cover stories. He was the editor of and contributor to Dish, the front-of-book pop culture section. He wrote the Home column, the Jane section devoted to home products and interiors. He was the editor of the letters, e-mail, and Whatever section, plus the Jane Needs Help column. He also covered the Sundance Film Festival on an annual basis.
In his early career, Lyon initially covered pop culture and entertainment reporting. However, he was always drawn to darker stories about America, which began to show as he received more feature pieces. His first feature for Jane was in the December 2002 issue. It was about "jack shacks, places where men could legally go to pick out a woman from a line and masturbate in front of her.
Next, Lyon spent six months trying to infiltrate the world of fake snuff films. Once he did, Lyon went with photographer Stephen Shore to report from a film set in the San Juan Islands. The story was deemed too dark to be published. He worked on turning the story into a documentary with filmmaker Jesse Moss, of Mile End films. Again, the story was deemed too risky. However, Lyon was given a job at World of Wonder, based on that footage reel.
2004-2007
Sundance Channel/World of Wonder
2004-2005. Lyon was a Field Producer for World of Wonder. He spent a year shooting footage with Lucas Cheadle, for TransGeneration, a Sundance Channel documentary series about transgender college students. The documentary series was a 2006 recipient for the GLAAD award.
V Life magazine
Next, Lyon spent six months as the East Coast editor for V Life, a magazine devoted to the lives of Hollywood insiders. In this time he was responsible for booking, writing and editing of several columns that profiled celebrities. When the office closed, he returned to Jane as senior editor, until the magazine folded in July 2007. During that time he helped cast and produce several Jane & Good Morning America segments. Jane folded four days after Lyon sold the book proposal for Pill Head.
Pill Head is part drug addled memoir and part thoughtful, investigative journalism. It is the story Lyon's pill addiction told from first pill to detox. The book weaves together the stories and views of other addicts, doctors, experts and governmental agents...demonstrating how the lives and decisions of each are intertwined in America's new drug epidemic...prescription pills.
In the summer of 2003, Lyon noticed the amount of email spam promoting easy procurement of drugs like Valium, Xanax, and Vicodin, without a prescription. In the name of "journalistic curiosity,", Lyon convinced his editor to buy the pills online.
Lyon acquired the online drug delivery with a budget of $600 provided by Fairchild Publications. Lyon wrote the article and later that night his curiosity led him to sample from the stash. Lyon recounted in his book that his editor called him in a panic, and asked what he had done with the pills. She was nervous that he had taken them. He assured her that he would flush the pills down the toilet, then promptly went and took three Vicodin. "That was all it took to seal the deal ... I'd discovered my perfect drug," he said in the novel.
This began what would turn into a six-year battle with pill addiction.
Other Works
Pillhead is not the first novel written by Lyon, but it was the first to be bought by a publishing company. The success of his recent book has encouraged Lyon to resurrect his older novel Try Not to Breathe, in hopes it will be published.
Lyon is the ghostwriter for America's Next Top Model J. Alexander, known also as Miss J. He worked side-by-side with Miss J on his memoir/self-help book about the lessons he's learned along the path to becoming television's most outrageous fashion personality. The book, to be published by Simon Spotlight Entertainment in November 2009, is called Follow The Model - Miss J's Guide to Unleashing Presence, Poise and Power. .
Two days after Lyon's agent distributed the initial proposal for Pill Head to six publishing houses, the cover of the New York Times Magazine featured a massive investigative report on painkiller addiction.
The distribution of the proposal was not planned, merely a coincidence. The Time's article validated Lyon's proposal and led to an auction for his book. He has retained the film rights for the book, although none is planned at this time.
Michael Jackson overdosed twelve days before the release of Pill Head. The new media interest in painkiller addiction brought a lot of attention to Pill Head. Lyon was invited onto Good Morning America to speak about Jackson's overdose, the national pill epidemic and his new book.
He has also landed many of radio interviews on shows that might not usually be interested in a drug memoir.
Lyon relapsed on prescription drugs while writing the memoir. He found it difficult to write about how good pills once made him feel. His first relapse was brief, but after finishing the first draft, he relapsed again. This time he went to rehab and hoped to keep the relapse a secret from his editor. Lyon has said that these events give Pill Head a sense of immediacy not found in many drug abuse books..
In the epilogue of Pill Head, Lyon wrote that the book wasn't written for anyone except him, and that he was just trying to make sense of what had happened to him. Recently, Lyon wrote that his view has changed and that the only way the book will be worth the time and sacrifice is if it helps other people. His interviews on NPR and AOL Health are frank, educated discussions about his personal experience and the facts behind painkiller abuse in America. His articles in The Huffington Post examine the negative effects of a federal crackdown, or ban on prescription pills and propose that the crackdown will increase street heroin use..
Lyon's first magazine cover story was with Lisa Marie Presley. They performed a fake marriage ceremony for the story so he could see what it was like to be her husband for three days.
Lyon has also interviewed Hilary Duff, Evan Rachel Wood, Patti Smith, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Adam Levine, Jeremy Renner, Mary Louise Parker, Holly Hunt, Chloe Sevigney, Renee Zellweger, and Sarah Polley.
