25 Years of ‘Friday Night Lights’ – Buzz Bissinger on The Chad Hasty Show [INTERVIEW]

Monday, author H.G. “Buzz” Bissinger joined The Chad Hasty Show to talk about the 25th anniversary of his book, Friday Night Lights, A Town, A Team and A Dream.

Bissinger is on tour promoting the silver anniversary of the book, which has sold over two million copies and was named as the best football book ever by Sports Illustrated.

The story follows the 1988 Odessa Permian Panthers football team and associated drama through the season in which the team narrowly missed winning the state championship.

When asked by Hasty to what he credits the success of his book and subsequent movie and television dramas about the story, Bissinger replied:

I tapped into something that truly is timeless in American culture which is high school football, the beauty of it, the excitement of it, this very intense, unique relationship that kids, teenage kids, have with their town playing for pride of team and town and community, and I think 'Friday Night Lights' captured a lot of that.

The new edition of Friday Night Lights includes a new afterword with updates on what has become of many of the players on the 1988 team.

Bissinger will appear at the following locations for book signings in September:

Hastings (Odessa, TX), 7 p.m. CDT, 9/14
Midland County Public Library (Midland, TX), Centennial branch, 5:30 p.m. CDT, 9/15
Yucca Theater (Midland, TX), panel event, 7:30 p.m. CDT, 9/15
Abilene Public Library (Abilene, TX), 12 p.m. CDT, 9/18
Half Price Books (Dallas, TX), 2 p.m. CDT, 9/19
Book People (Austin, TX), 2 p.m. CDT, 9/20

Listen to Chad's interview with Buzz Bissinger in the video box above.

The Chad Hasty Show airs weekday mornings live, from 8:30 AM to 11:00 AM and Saturdays 2 PM to 4 PM on News/Talk 790 KFYO, online at KFYO.com, and on the free RadioPup app. Follow Chad on Twitter via @ChadHastyRadio & KFYO Radio at @KFYO!