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Johnny and Adrianne reside in South Florida with their Yorkie, Holly. Both are involved in the AA/Recovery community. Adrianne currently works at a recovery house and Johnny continues speaking, sponsoring and helping others in recovery.
Their memoir, The Painting and The Piano, was published in February 2016.
Growing up more than a thousand miles apart and worlds away from each other, Johnny and Adrianne seemed to have all that a child could ask for. However, the demons of their respective mothers would tear their young, fragile lives apart.
Eventually, destiny would bring Johnny and Adrianne together, but first they had to endure the painful toll that alcohol, drugs, and a negligent court system would take on them. With parts of Adrianne’s story ripped from national news headlines, their story takes them from the depths of despair and near death, to their first serendipitous introduction and the moment each knew they were finally safe.
Filled with hope, inspiration and humor, The Painting and the Piano is an unforgettable story of pain, loss and the undying human quest for happiness. Told as a tandem narrative, Adrianne and Johnny’s stories are unique, but share parallels that create a taut and emotionally compelling narrative.
Reviewed by Tracy Slowiak for Readers' Favorite
Have you ever read a book, that upon finishing, you just knew would be a story that would stay with you for a long, long time? Well, that certainly was the case for me when I finished the last words of The Painting and The Piano by authors John Lipscomb and Adrianne Lugo. Following the true story of the authors through their childhood and into adulthood, the story shows how the devastating effects of having a parent, and more specifically a mother, who deals with substance abuse issues can have lifelong consequences for children. John and Adrianne are raised thousands of miles from each other, and both seem to have all that a child could ever want, but their mother’s actions will cause their lives to be torn completely apart. With little help from anyone, including the court system, it is almost entirely left up to John and Adrienne themselves to find what all humans strive for; security, love and happiness.
I so loved The Painting and The Piano. Authors John Lipscomb and Adrianne Lugo have done a simply splendid job in telling their stories, although unique, in a wonderfully intertwined way that pulls them both together. The stories, though difficult, are told delicately, but with humor and will grab readers from the very beginning. I was absolutely unable to put down this book until the very end, and that is certainly not the case for me with many works of non-fiction. Any reader who enjoys a great work of non-fiction, an autobiography, or a story of redemption and triumph in the face of great odds and a difficult history, should absolutely read The Painting and The Piano. They will not regret it.
