Publication Date: June 24, 2025
Rikki Thunder, twenty-two-year-old drummer for the scorching new ’80s metal band Whyte Python, is about to have it all: absurd wealth, global fame, and a dream girlfriend. But an unwitting role as an international spy? That was definitely not part of the plan.
It’s Los Angeles, 1986, and metal rules the world. For aspiring drummer Rikki Thunder, life is beautiful, just like his hair—even if he is sleeping in a condemned paint store and playing with a band that’s going nowhere. But when Rikki gets a shot to join L.A.’s hottest up-and-coming club band, Whyte Python, his young life takes a mind-blowing turn. Soon he and his new band mates have a hit single rocketing up the charts, Whyte Python is selling out major clubs, and Rikki has a gorgeous girlfriend in the audience and in his life. He literally could not ask for anything more.
But good fortune can be deceiving. As the band gets a deeper taste of success in the US, the late-80’s Cold War is breathing its last gasps around the world. American music is blasting through the Iron Curtain and a youth revolution is taking hold—with a hair band unknowingly playing host to the final battle for the hearts and minds of young people everywhere. Rikki Thunder soon questions the forces that are helping to propel Whyte Python, and he realizes the stakes of his musical journey—to spread peace, love, and epic shredding across the globe—might be far more dangerous than he had ever imagined.
Crafted on the satirical knife-edge between high-suspense and head-banging hilarity, The Whyte Python World Tour is a raucous, uplifting, and refreshing debut. Travis Kennedy’s adrenaline-charged novel is delightfully steeped in ’80s music and cultural nostalgia, delivering one of the most entertaining reads of the year.
As a teen of the ‘80s, anything related to hair bands draws a sense of nostalgia.
That’s only one of the draws for Travis Kennedy’s The Whyte Python World Tour set in 1986. Not only do we get to live vicariously through drummer Rikki Thunder, but there’s a fascinating touch of international suspense.
With biting satire, the story traces Rikki’s quest to make it big during the time when hairspray becomes a necessity for any reputable rocker. The cast of characters mimics any of the well-known metal bands of the era, with dysfunctional misfits coming together to make music.
The extra twist, though, centers around the band’s ascent to international stardom, particularly during the post-Cold War era, and unwitting involvement in matters well out of their comfort zone.
Told through Rikki’s perspective, The Whyte Python World Tour ramps up the nostalgia in the quest to be considered a real band—groupies included.
TRAVIS KENNEDY’s work has been featured in the Best New England Crime Stories and Best American Mystery Stories anthologies, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, and McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. He is the Grand Prize Winner of ScreenCraft’s 2021 Cinematic Book Contest for “Sharks in the Valley,” to be published as Welcome to Redemption. He lives in Scarborough, Maine, with his wife and their two children. The Whyte Python World Tour is his debut novel.
