Rock Music Memoirs

Suzi Ronson was working in an English hair salon in the early 1970s when Mrs. Jones came in for her weekly shampoo and set. After being introduced to her son, David, and his wife, Angie, she soon finds herself at the Bowies' bohemian apartment and embroiled in their raucous world. Having crafted his iconic Ziggy Stardust hairstyle, Suzi becomes the only working woman in David's touring party and joins The Spiders from Mars as they perform around the globe.

Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers is the first book to celebrate the classic-era Motörhead lineup of Lemmy Kilmister, "Fast" Eddie Clarke, and Phil "Philthy Animal" Taylor. Through interviews with all of the principal troublemakers, Martin Popoff celebrates the formation of the band and the records that made them legends.

With nearly 40 million record sales, three albums topping the Billboard charts, a Grammy win and a legion of fans, System Of A Down are one of the biggest metal bands on the planet. At their core has always been Serj Tankian, whose journey from the streets of Beirut to rock superstardom is as remarkable and unlikely as you'll get. By dint of luck, circumstance, struggle, and more than a little talent, Serj has had the chance to live an extraordinary life, and retraces this remarkable journey, exploring what it's taught him - about music, about art, about activism, and about himself.

As the lead singer of the Doors, Jim Morrison's searing poetic vision and voracious appetite for sexual, spiritual, and psychedelic experience inflamed the spirit and psyche of a generation. Since his mysterious death in 1971, millions more fans from a new generation have embraced his legacy, as layers of myth have gathered to enshroud the life, career, and true character of the man who was James Douglas Morrison.

Lennon, Dylan, Alice, and Jesus examines wretched excess, self-absorption and miraculous redemption; the book is a raw, sensitive, and unforgettable journey of sex, drugs, rock and roll, and sweet salvation. Author Greg Laurie traces the lives of rock stars and entertainment figures and legends who wallowed in the decadence of both the high life and low life, as they alternately experienced Heaven and Hell on Earth. He travels with them into their demonic abysses and joyfully chronicles their ultimate ascension to their prodigal moments.

Joni Mitchell is a cultural touchstone for generations of Americans. In her heyday she released 10 experimental, challenging, and revealing albums; her lyrics captivated people with the beauty of their language and the rawness of their emotions, both deeply personal to Mitchell and universally relatable to her audience. In this intimate biography, composed of dozens of in-person interviews with Mitchell, David Yaffe reveals the backstory behind the famous songs.

Lou Reed was a musician, singer, songwriter, poet, and founding member of the legendary rock band the Velvet Underground. He collaborated with many artists, from Andy Warhol and John Cale to Robert Wilson and Metallica. Reed had a groundbreaking solo career that spanned five decades until his death in 2013.

Chrissie Hynde, the songwriter and front woman of The Pretenders in its various incarnations, has for 35 years been one of the most admired and adored and imitated figures in rock. This long-awaited memoir tells her life story in full and utterly fascinating detail, from her all-American Ohio '50s childhood to her classic baby-boomer seduction by the rock of the '60s to her sojourn in the crucible of punk that was '70s London to her instant emergence with her band, The Pretenders, in 1980 into stardom as a frontwoman and songwriter.

It was a Friday evening in May when seventeen-year-old Robin Xavier left his childhood home in Chattanooga, Tennessee, with nothing but a guitar, a stolen credit card, fifty-two ounces of beer, $67.42, fourteen cigarettes, two disposable lighters, two grams of cocaine, one photograph, and a tooth. A raw and unapologetic coming-of-age story, BirdSong follows the journey of seventeen-year-old Robin Xavier from world-class nobody to world-famous rock star. Coming from an abusive childhood home, Robin’s mental and physical scars haunt him incessantly, and the only relief he can find is in a ...

In Surrender, it’s Bono who picks up the pen, writing for the first time about his remarkable life and those he has shared it with. In his unique voice, Bono takes us from his early days growing up in Dublin, including the sudden loss of his mother when he was 14, to U2’s unlikely journey to become one of the world’s most influential rock bands, to his more than 20 years of activism dedicated to the fight against AIDS and extreme poverty.

The Beatles left an indelible mark not only on music, but on the culture in which they created it. In a time of great and sudden change, they led a generation into new territory, redefining the social landscape as a place where men and women could try on new roles. They led this change through their music, their public personae, and - under scrutiny - their example. The Beatles Guide to Love & Sex examines all three - the songs, the parts they played in public, and the way they led their lives, for better or worse. John, Paul, George and Ringo began their journey as typical working-class ...

The definitive anthology of Jim Morrison's writings with rare photographs and numerous handwritten excerpts of unpublished and published poetry and lyrics from his 28 privately held notebooks.

It's 1982 and the Ramones are in a gutter-bound spiral. Following a run of inconsistent albums and deep in the throes of internal tensions, the legendary quartet is about to crash and burn. Enter Richie Ramone. Then a 26-year-old from New Jersey named Richard Reinhardt, he's snapped up by the group to be their new drummer and instantly goes from the obscurity of the underground club scene to membership in the most famous punk-rock band of all time, revitalizing the pioneering outfit with his powerful, precise, and blindingly fast beats.

One of America’s finest historians shows us how Bob Dylan, one of the country’s greatest and most enduring artists, still surprises and moves us after all these years. Growing up in Greenwich Village, Sean Wilentz discov­ered the music of Bob Dylan as a young teenager; almost half a century later, he revisits Dylan’s work with the skills of an eminent American historian as well as the passion of a fan.

In this conclusion to his trilogy of authoritative books on Canada's most beloved and successful rock band, Martin Popoff takes us through three decades of "life at the top" for Rush's Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, and Neil Peart. Though this era begins with the brisk-selling Roll the Bones and sees throngs of fans sell out international tours, there is also unimaginable tragedy.

The long-awaited autobiography of one of rock's true megastars. Rod Stewart (aka Rod The Mod and to a very select few, Dad) was born the working-class son of a Scottish plumber in North London. He was never, as some stories later had it, a professional footballer or a gravedigger, though he did become a bit of a singer - and a fairly good one at that.

You're a fan of the 1970s music scene and love a juicy memoir. Under My Skin is a #1 BESTSELLER in 5 categories. Author Elise Krentzel took charge of the tumultuous 1970s by making a name for herself as a rock journalist when still a teenager. As a kid, her parents encouraged her to sing, play music, and write, but she wasn’t allowed to be “herself.” Alienated, she hid her heart and learned to become a stranger in her skin as the torment of early childhood taught her to mistrust everyone, especially herself. As an adolescent traveling in Europe, she came to realize there was more to ...

A fitting tribute to the troubled genius who revolutionized electric bass playing and bridged the gaps between jazz, R&B, rock, and funk. From his early days in R&B club bands through his international stardom with fusion group Weather Report and on to his solo career and tragic death at age 35, this book portrays the life and music of Jaco Pastorius, the self-proclaimed "world's greatest bass player".

Electric Wizard have set the bar for heaviness. With their potent VHS-horror aesthetic, lyrics dripping with Lovecraftian horrors, and a monumental sound that provided a template for the myriad bands who followed - not to mention the fights, drugs and sex in the trail of destruction they've left behind them - this is the right time for the band's story to be told. Electric Wizard draw on myriad occult influences to create their own world: menacing, lurid, depraved.

In 2018, during an interview with journalist Tanya Pearson, Shirley Manson lamented: "It’s a blanket fact that after September 11th, nonconformist women were taken off the radio.” This comment echoed a reality Pearson had personally witnessed as a musician and a fan, and launched her into a quest to figure out just what happened to these extraordinary female figures. Pretend We’re Dead seeks to answer two big questions.