'Honolulu Blues' memoir reveals how the Lions shaped one fan's life
“Being a Lions fan is like being a musician on the Titanic. Each Sunday arrives with a choice and each week I choose to play music on the deck of a sinking ship,” writes Joel Walkowski of his lifelong interest in the…
“Being a Lions fan is like being a musician on the Titanic. Each Sunday arrives with a choice and each week I choose to play music on the deck of a sinking ship,” writes Joel Walkowski of his lifelong interest in the Detroit Lions.
Walkowski vividly recounts the heartache and defeats — and some more recent moments of happiness — that come with following the Lions in “Honolulu Blues: How Loving a Losing Team Created a Winning Man.”
But the book is more than a sports chronicle. Comparing the course of his life to that of Detroit’s NFL franchise, Walkowski reveals how the Lions both shaped the person he has become and echoed the problems in his own family. “I am the Lions,” he writes early in the story. “I am not a success. I usually come up short. But we win another way: by greeting each day with enthusiasm.”
On the Simon & Schuster website, "Honolulu Blues," which arrived July 14, is called a memoir that "proves the Lions story is the story of being human — carving your own path out of the ruts of the past and accepting that you don’t have to win to be worth rooting for."
With the start of 2026 Lions training camp just days away, Walkowski is making several stops in Michigan to promote his unique autobiography. He'll be at Book Suey in Hamtramck on Friday night, July 24, the Barnes & Noble in Troy on Saturday afternoon, July 25, and Schuler Books in Ann Arbor on July 29. (For more on the book tour, go to BigWalkowski.com.)
Walkowski lives in New York City but returns often to Detroit for his day job with General Motors, where he is involved in marketing for Cadillac. He also is a veteran standup comedian who appears on the "NFL Fan Therapy" web series and has written for Comedy Central roasts.
When not busy with cars or humor, he runs a SMART (Self-Management and Recovery Training) meeting in Brooklyn and is devoted to the Big Walkowski, a nonprofit basketball tournament he founded to raise money for organ donation.
In “Honolulu Blues,” however, readers are immersed in the challenges faced by Walkowski and his family in southeast Michigan. Growing up in East Dearborn, he recalls, he was hooked on Adderall by age 7 and battled addiction for years before becoming sober and getting his life back on track.
His father, nicknamed Banjo Bob, had to deal with his own legacy of autism, addiction and childhood trauma. Father and son were able to bond by watching Lions games together, a ritual that continued as Banjo Bob’s health deteriorated and Walkowski came to terms with his dad’s mortality.
Through lessons that the Lions taught him, Walkowski learned how to care deeply for things (and people) that were bound to let him down. “Honolulu Blues” is marked by Walkowski’s ability to frame disappointments with laughter and appreciate rare light moments in the midst of tragedy.
Of the now-demolished Lions home, the Pontiac Silverdome, he writes, “There are mausoleums that have more happy memories.” Describing how the team management utilized Barry Sanders, he puts it this way in one chapter: “Football gods gifted Detroit a Michelin Star chef. The Lions essentially asked him to serve as line cook to keep the lights on at a failing restaurant.”
And in one scene that could make you weep and smile, Wolkowski tries to hold a meaningful conversation with his dying father by asking whether he has any regrets. “Of course not. I own 17 banjos,” replies the ever-colorful Bob.
During a recent interview with the Free Press, Walkowski says the tone of the book is much the same as what watching a Lions game with him is like. “It can be deep, it can be funny, but it’s my authentic experience.”
Despite his joking manner in print and conversation, he is serious about the fact that the Lions, a team that would make the same mistakes over and over again, “are a perfect proxy for a family beset by addiction.”
“There’s a way of doing business that held (the Lions) back for a period of years,” he says. “It wasn’t until there was a ground-up reinvention that they were able to move forward.”
If the book has a football hero, it would be Barry Sanders, whom Walkowski remembers as a unifying figure in the Detroit region and describes as a complex personality. Discussing the role of a higher power in some addiction programs, Walkowski says: “My higher power is this team. I can extrapolate them to find the lesson. And if Barry isn’t the central figure in that story, I don’t know who would be.”
As for the villain, there is no love lost by Walkowski for Matt Patricia and his dismal record as Lions head coach. “As an addict, it’s always got to be what the substance wants. And (with) Patricia, it’s not finding any balance. It’s not finding any common ground. It’s his way or the highway,” says Walkowski. “So I do think the way he did business was a fair proxy for substance abuse.”
Although he dedicated his book to a cousin of who died in a car crash, Walkowski says his original thought was to put, “To Matt Patricia, screw you.”
In contrast, Walkowski finds current Lions coach Dan Campbell to be someone whose emotional connection to the team reflects the positive things Walkowski has found in recovery. Campbell’s impact on leading the Lions almost to the Super Bowl was a bright spot for Walkowski as he was losing his dad.
“For them to go on that run as my father was (at the end of) his life, it was a difficult time in my life. But dang, did we have something to talk about and bond over and look forward to during our darkest hour.”
Walkowski says it took him three years of putting pen to paper every day to finish “Honolulu Blues,” which found a publisher, Matt Holt Books, on its second pitch. His focus now is to spread the word about the memoir to as many people as possible. Although he has tried to reach out to the Lions organization and some of its players, he has had no success there.
Maybe that’s the way it was meant to be. He thinks many fans will relate to how his loyalty to the Lions endures even when they crush hopes or don’t meet expectations.
If the Lions ever do reach the Super Bowl for the first time and actually win, Walkowski already knows what he will do.
“Of course, I have my dad’s ashes saved to spread outside the Super Bowl someday. I’ve got to take him to the Super Bowl. He would be so excited about this chapter in my life.”
Contact Detroit Free Press pop culture critic Julie Hinds at jhinds@freepress.com.
'Honolulu Blues: How Loving a Losing Team Created a Winning Man'
