"A new take on a legendary partnership...Thoroughly delightful...Fans will love this fresh, insightful approach to the band."―Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)John Lennon and Paul McCartney knew each other for twenty-three years, from 1957 to 1980. This book is the myth-shattering biography of a relationship that changed the cultural history of the world.The Beatles shook the world to its core in the 1960’s and, to this day, new generations continue to fall in love with their songs and their story. At the heart of this phenomenon lies the dynamic between John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Few other musical partnerships have been rooted in such a deep, intense and complicated personal relationship. John and Paul’s relationship was defined by its complexity: compulsive, tender and tempestuous; full of longing, riven by jealousy. Like the band, their relationship was always in motion, never in equilibrium for long. John & Paul traces its twists and turns and reveals how these shifts manifested themselves in the music. The two of them shared a private language, rooted in the stories, comedy and songs they both loved as teenagers, and later, in the lyrics of Beatles songs.In John & Paul, acclaimed writer Ian Leslie uses the songs they wrote to trace the shared journey of these two compelling men before, during, and after The Beatles. Drawing on recently released footage and recordings, Leslie offers us an intimate and insightful new look at two of the greatest icons in music history, and rich insights into the nature of creativity, collaboration, and human intimacy. Read more

A smart, funny, and refreshing memoir from Mark Hoppus, the vocalist, bassist, and founding member of pop-punk band blink-182.This is a story of what happens when an angst-ridden kid who grew up in the desert experiences his parents’ bitter divorce, moves around the country, switches identities from dork to goth to skate punk, and eventually meets his best friend who just so happens to be his musical soulmate.Bassist, songwriter, and vocalist for renowned pop-punk trailblazers blink-182, Mark Hoppus, tells his story in Fahrenheit-182. A memoir that paints a vivid picture of what it was like to grow up in the 1980s as a latchkey kid hooked on punk rock, skateboards, and MTV; Mark Hoppus shares how he came of age and forms one of the biggest bands of his generation. Threaded through with the very human story of a constant battle with anxiety and Mark’s public battle and triumph over cancer, Fahrenheit-182 is a delight for fans and also a funny, smart, and relatable memoir for anyone who has wanted to quit but kept going. Read more

A fast-paced, tender-hearted rock ’n’ roll memoir for the ages, Mike Campbell’s Heartbreaker is part rags-to-riches story and part raucous, seat-of-the-pants adventure, recounting Campbell’s life and times as lead guitarist of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.Mike Campbell was the lead guitarist for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers from the band’s inception in 1976 to Petty’s tragic death in 2017. His iconic, melodic playing helped form the foundation of the band’s sound, as heard on definitive classics like “American Girl,” “Breakdown,” “Don’t Come Around Here No More,” “Mary Jane’s Last Dance,” “Learning to Fly” and “Into the Great Wide Open.”Together, Petty and Campbell wrote countless songs, including some of the band’s biggest hits: “Refugee,” “Here Comes My Girl,” “You Got Lucky” and “Runnin’ Down a Dream” among them.From their early days in Florida to their dizzying rise to superstardom to Petty’s acclaimed, platinum-selling solo albums Full Moon Fever and Wildflowers, Petty never made a record without him. Their work together is timeless, as are the career-defining hits Campbell co-wrote with Don Henley (“The Boys of Summer”) and with Petty for Stevie Nicks (“Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around”).But few know of the less-than-glamorous background from which Campbell emerged—a hardscrabble childhood on the north side of Jacksonville, often just days ahead of homelessness, raised by a single mother struggling on minimum wage. After months of saving, his mother bought him a $15 pawnshop acoustic guitar for his sixteenth birthday. With a chord book and a transistor radio, Campbell painstakingly taught himself to play.When a chance encounter with a guidance counselor inspired him to enroll in the University of Florida, Campbell—broke, with nowhere else to go and the Vietnam draft looming—moved into a rundown farmhouse in Gainesville, where he met a 20-year-old Tom Petty. They were soon inseparable. Together they chased their shared dream all the way to Los Angeles, where Campbell would meet his destiny, and the love of his life, Marcie.It was an at-times grueling dream come true that took Campbell from the very bottom to the absolute top, where Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers would remain for decades, creating an astonishing body of work.Brilliant, soft-spoken and intensely private, Campbell opens up within this book for the first time, revealing himself to be an astute observer of triumphs, tragedies and absurdities alike, with a songwriter’s eye for the telling detail and a voice as direct and unpretentious as his music.An instant classic, Heartbreaker is Mike Campbell’s heartfelt portrait of one throwaway kid’s lifesaving love of music and the creative heights he achieved through luck, collaboration, humility and extraordinary talent. Read more

Featuring an exclusive, never-before-heard piece of music, the last written together by the legendary Van Halen brothers!In this intimate and open account—nothing like any rock-and-roll memoir you’ve ever read—Alex Van Halen shares his personal story of family, friendship, music and brotherly love in a remarkable tribute to his beloved brother and band mate.Told with acclaimed New Yorker writer Ariel Levy Brothers is seventy-year-old drummer Alex Van Halen’s love letter to his younger brother, Edward, (Maybe “Ed,” but never “Eddie”), written while still mourning his untimely death.In his rough yet sweet voice, Alex recounts the brothers’ childhood, first in the Netherlands and then in working class Pasadena, California, with an itinerant musician father and a very proper Indonesian-born mother—the kind of mom who admonished her boys to “always wear a suit” no matter how famous they became—a woman who was both proud and practical, nonchalant about taking a doggie bag from a star-studded dinner. He also shares tales of musical politics, infighting, and plenty of bad-boy behavior. But mostly his is a story of brotherhood, music, and enduring love."I was with him from day one,” Alex writes. “We shared the experience of coming to this country and figuring out how to fit in. We shared a record player, an 800 square foot house, a mom and dad, and a work ethic. Later, we shared the back of a tour bus, alcoholism, the experience of becoming successful, of becoming fathers and uncles, and of spending more hours in the studio than I’ve spent doing anything else in this life. We shared a depth of understanding that most people can only hope to achieve in a lifetime."There has never been an accurate account of them or the band, and Alex wants to set the record straight on Edward’s life and death. Read more

Instant #1 New York TimesBestseller * Named one ofVariety’s Best Music Books of 2021 * Included in Audible’s Best of The Year list * A Business Insider Best Memoirs of 2021 * One of NME's Best Music Books of 2021 * 2 Million Copies Sold WorldwideThe Remastered Edition…Because There’s Always More to the StoryDave Grohl’s The Storyteller created a sensation when it was initially published, becoming a global bestseller and thrilling fans and critics alike. Readers came to the book for Dave’s heartfelt voice, his love of family and music, and the energy that pours from every page.Dave’s is an extraordinary life made of up ordinary moments, and he tells stories just like he writes songs—from his soul. Whether recounting his time as kid in Toughskins in the Virginia suburbs, as a skinny teenager drumming his heart out for punk band Scream, living through the explosion and implosion of Nirvana, or hustling all the way around the world to escort his daughters to the Father/Daughter dance (only to be ignored as soon as his girls found their friends) The Storyteller is just like its author, as real as it gets.To show his appreciation for his fans, and to celebrate his love of writing, this edition offers a wide variety of extra content, including:An essay on how Dave approaches creativity (Here’s a hint: you don’t have to think outside of the box. Just ignore it.)A series of prompts to jump start your creativityThe story of when Dave first met Paul McCartneyA collection of Dave’s curated playlists, giving a glimpse into some of the music he lovesThe Storyteller has challenged what a music memoir can be. With this edition, the legacy continues. Read more

Told in revelatory first person, this immersive account of Paul McCartney and Wings is the engrossing oral history of a band that came to define a generation.Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run tells the astonishing, almost improbable, story of Paul McCartney and his newly formed band from 1971 through its dissolution barely a decade later. Drawn from over 500,000 words of interviews with McCartney, key players, and family members, Wings poignantly recounts, now with a half-century’s wisdom, the story of a man and musician navigating the aftermath of The Beatles’ breakup, soon joined by his wife―American photographer Linda McCartney―on keyboard and vocals; drummer Denny Seiwell; and guitarist Denny Laine, among many others. Organized around nine Wings albums, the narrative follows the adventurous band as they survive a robbery on the streets of Nigeria, appear unannounced at various university halls, tour in a sheared-off double-decker bus with their children, all while producing some of the most enduring music of the decade. With 150 black-and-white and color photographs, many previously unseen, this is a landmark work of soaring originality. Read more

In this New York Times bestseller, Tina Turner—the legendary queen of rock & roll—reveals personal stories she’s never told before, about her complicated relationship with her mother, the tragic death of her son, and finally finding true love with Erwin, setting the record straight about her illustrious career in this "rollicking, dishy, emotional memoir" (People). From her early years in Nutbush, Tennessee to her rise to fame alongside Ike Turner to her phenomenal success in the 1980s and beyond, Tina candidly examines her personal history, from her darkest hours to her happiest moments and everything in between. My Love Story is an explosive and inspiring story of a woman who dared to break any barriers put in her way. Emphatically showcasing Tina’s signature blend of strength, energy, heart, and soul, this is a gorgeously wrought memoir as enthralling and moving as any of her greatest hits. Read more

The long-awaited memoir from the iconic Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, Rush bassist, and bestselling author of Geddy Lee's Big Beautiful Book of Bass.Includes two new songs by Geddy Lee, available exclusively in the My Effin’ Life audiobook.Geddy Lee is one of rock and roll's most respected bassists. For nearly five decades, his playing and work as co-writer, vocalist and keyboardist has been an essential part of the success story of Canadian progressive rock trio Rush. Here for the first time is his account of life inside and outside the band.Long before Rush accumulated more consecutive gold and platinum records than any rock band after the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, before the seven Grammy nominations or the countless electrifying live performances across the globe, Geddy Lee was Gershon Eliezer Weinrib, after his grandfather murdered in the Holocaust.As he recounts the transformation, Lee looks back on his family, in particular his loving parents and their horrific experiences as teenagers during World War II.He talks candidly about his childhood and the pursuit of music that led him to drop out of high school.He tracks the history of Rush which, after early struggles, exploded into one of the most beloved bands of all time.He shares intimate stories of his lifelong friendships with bandmates Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart—deeply mourning Peart’s recent passing—and reveals his obsessions in music and beyond.This rich brew of honesty, humor, and loss makes for a uniquely poignant memoir. Read more

Winner of the 2018 Audie Award for Autobiography/Memoir"Writing about yourself is a funny business.... But in a project like this, the writer has made one promise: to show the reader his mind. In these pages, I've tried to do this." (Bruce Springsteen, from the audio of Born to Run) In 2009, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band performed at the Super Bowl's halftime show. The experience was so exhilarating that Bruce decided to write about it. That's how this extraordinary autobiography began. Over the past seven years, Bruce Springsteen has privately devoted himself to writing the story of his life, bringing to this audio the same honesty, humor, and originality found in his songs. He describes growing up Catholic in Freehold, New Jersey, amid the poetry, danger, and darkness that fueled his imagination, leading up to the moment he refers to as "The Big Bang": seeing Elvis Presley's debut on The Ed Sullivan Show. He vividly recounts his relentless drive to become a musician, his early days as a bar-band king in Asbury Park, and the rise of the E Street Band. With disarming candor, he also tells for the first time the story of the personal struggles that inspired his best work and shows us why the song "Born to Run" reveals more than we previously realized. Born to Run will be revelatory for anyone who has ever enjoyed Bruce Springsteen, but this book is much more than a legendary rock star's memoir. This is a book for workers and dreamers, parents and children, lovers and loners, artists, freaks, or anyone who has ever wanted to be baptized in the holy river of rock and roll. Rarely has a performer told his own story with such force and sweep. Like many of his songs ("Thunder Road", "Badlands", "Darkness on the Edge of Town", "The River", "Born in the U.S.A.", "The Rising", and "The Ghost of Tom Joad", to name just a few), Bruce Springsteen's autobiography is written with the lyricism of a singular songwriter and the wisdom of a man who has thought deeply about his experiences. Author bio: Bruce Springsteen has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the New Jersey Hall of Fame. He is the recipient of 20 Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, and the Kennedy Center Honors. He lives in New Jersey with his family. Read more

The New York Times bestselling debut book of poetry from Lana Del Rey, Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass.“Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass is the title poem of the book and the first poem I wrote of many. Some of which came to me in their entirety, which I dictated and then typed out, and some that I worked laboriously picking apart each word to make the perfect poem. They are eclectic and honest and not trying to be anything other than what they are and for that reason I’m proud of them, especially because the spirit in which they were written was very authentic.” —Lana Del Rey Lana’s breathtaking first book solidifies her further as “the essential writer of her times” (The Atlantic). The collection features more than thirty poems, many exclusive to the book: Never to Heaven, The Land of 1,000 Fires, Past the Bushes Cypress Thriving, LA Who Am I to Love You?, Tessa DiPietro, Happy, Paradise Is Very Fragile, Bare Feet on Linoleum, and many more. This beautiful hardcover edition showcases Lana’s typewritten manuscript pages alongside her original photography. The result is an extraordinary poetic landscape that reflects the unguarded spirit of its creator. Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass is also brought to life in an unprecedented spoken word audiobook which features Lana Del Rey reading fourteen select poems from the book accompanied by music from Grammy Award–winning musician Jack Antonoff. Read more

Alice in Chains was the first of grunge's big four - ahead of Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden - to get a gold record and achieve national recognition. With the charismatic Layne Staley behind the microphone, they became one of the most influential and successful bands to come out of the Seattle music scene. But as the band got bigger, so did its problems. Acclaimed journalist David de Sola follows the members from their inauspicious beginnings at a warehouse under the Ballard Bridge through the history of the band, charting: The local hair metal scene in Seattle during the 1980s. How drugs nearly destroyed the band and claimed the lives of Staley and founding bassist Mike Starr. Jerry Cantrell's solo career and Mike Starr's life after being fired from the band. The band's resurrection with William DuVall, the Atlanta singer/guitarist who stepped into Layne Staley's shoes. Based on a wealth of interviews with people with direct knowledge of the band and its history, many of whom are speaking on the record for the first time, Alice in Chains will stand as the definitive Alice in Chains biography for years to come. Read more

WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE The celebrated first memoir from arguably the most influential singer-songwriter in the country, Bob Dylan.“I’d come from a long ways off and had started a long ways down. But now destiny was about to manifest itself. I felt like it was looking right at me and nobody else.” So writes Bob Dylan in Chronicles: Volume One, his remarkable book exploring critical junctures in his life and career. Through Dylan’s eyes and open mind, we see Greenwich Village, circa 1961, when he first arrives in Manhattan. Dylan’s New York is a magical city of possibilities—smoky, nightlong parties; literary awakenings; transient loves and unbreakable friendships. Elegiac observations are punctuated by jabs of memories, penetrating and tough. With the book’s side trips to New Orleans, Woodstock, Minnesota, and points west, Chronicles: Volume One is an intimate and intensely personal recollection of extraordinary times. By turns revealing, poetical, passionate, and witty, Chronicles: Volume One is a mesmerizing window on Bob Dylan’s thoughts and influences. Dylan’s voice is distinctively American: generous of spirit, engaged, fanciful, and rhythmic. Utilizing his unparalleled gifts of storytelling and the exquisite expressiveness that are the hallmarks of his music, Bob Dylan turns Chronicles: Volume One into a poignant reflection on life, and the people and places that helped shape the man and the art. Read more

THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE An electrifying cultural biography of the greatest and last American rock band of the millennium, whose music ignited a generation—and reasserted the power of rock and roll"[Carlin's] unique gift for capturing the sweep and tenor of a cultural moment...is here on brilliant display."—Michael ChabonIn the spring of 1980, an unexpected group of musical eccentrics came together to play their very first performance at a college party in Athens, Georgia. Within a few short years, they had taken over the world–with smash records like Out of Time, Automatic for the People, Monster and Green. Raw, outrageous, and expressive, R.E.M.’s distinctive musical flair was unmatched, and a string of mega-successes solidified them as generational spokesmen. In the tumultuous transition between the wide-open 80s and the anxiety of the early 90s, R.E.M. challenged the corporate and social order, chasing a vision and cultivating a magnetic, transgressive sound.In this rich, intimate biography, critically acclaimed author Peter Ames Carlin looks beyond the sex, drugs, and rock’n’roll to open a window into the fascinating lives of four college friends–Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Bill Berry–who stuck together at any cost, until the end. Deeply descriptive and remarkably poetic, steeped in 80s and 90s nostalgia, The Name of This Band is R.E.M. paints a cultural history of the commercial peak and near-total collapse of a great music era, and the story of the generation that came of age at the apotheosis of rock. Read more

THE INSPIRATION FOR THE MAJOR MOTION PICTURE A COMPLETE UNKNOWN. One of the music world’s pre-eminent critics takes a fresh and much-needed look at the day Dylan “went electric” at the Newport Folk Festival.On the evening of July 25, 1965, Bob Dylan took the stage at Newport Folk Festival, backed by an electric band, and roared into his new rock hit, Like a Rolling Stone. The audience of committed folk purists and political activists who had hailed him as their acoustic prophet reacted with a mix of shock, booing, and scattered cheers. It was the shot heard round the world—Dylan’s declaration of musical independence, the end of the folk revival, and the birth of rock as the voice of a generation—and one of the defining moments in twentieth-century music.In Dylan Goes Electric!, Elijah Wald explores the cultural, political and historical context of this seminal event that embodies the transformative decade that was the sixties. Wald delves deep into the folk revival, the rise of rock, and the tensions between traditional and groundbreaking music to provide new insights into Dylan’s artistic evolution, his special affinity to blues, his complex relationship to the folk establishment and his sometime mentor Pete Seeger, and the ways he reshaped popular music forever. Breaking new ground on a story we think we know, Dylan Goes Electric! is a thoughtful, sharp appraisal of the controversial event at Newport and a nuanced, provocative, analysis of why it matters.“In this tour de force, Elijah Wald complicates the stick-figure myth of generational succession at Newport by doing justice to what he rightly calls Bob Dylan’s ‘declaration of independence’ . . . This is one of the very best accounts I’ve read of musicians fighting for their honor.” — Todd Gitlin, author of The Sixties and Occupy Nation Read more

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One of SPIN'S Best Music Memoirs of 2022!Brian Johnson’s memoir from growing up in a small town to starting his own band to ultimately replacing Bon Scott, the lead singer of one of the world biggest rock acts, AC/DC. They would record their first album together, the iconic Back in Black, which would become the biggest selling rock album of all time.Brian Johnson was born to a steelworker and WWII veteran father and an Italian mother, growing up in New Castle Upon Tyne, England, a working-class town. He was musically inclined and sang with the church choir. By the early ’70s he performed with the glam rock band Geordie, and they had a couple hits, but it was tough going. So tough that by 1976, they disbanded and Brian turned to a blue-collar life.Then 1980 changed everything. Bon Scott, the lead singer and lyricist of the Australian rock band AC/DC died at 33. The band auditioned singers, among them Johnson, whom Scott himself had seen perform and raved about. Within days, Johnson was in a studio with the band, working with founding members Angus and Malcolm Young, Cliff Williams, and Phil Rudd, along with producer Mutt Lange.When the album, Back in Black, was released in July—a mere three months after Johnson had joined the band—it exploded, going on to sell 50 million copies worldwide, and triggering a years-long worldwide tour. It has been declared “the biggest selling hard rock album ever made” and “the best-selling heavy-metal album in history.”The band toured the world for a full year to support the album, changing the face of rock music—and Brian Johnson’s life—forever. Read more

Travis Barker’s soul-baring memoir chronicles the highlights and lowlights of the renowned drummer’s art and his life, including the harrowing plane crash that nearly killed him and his traumatic road to recovery—a fascinating never-before-told-in-full story of personal reinvention grounded in musical salvation and fatherhood.After breaking out as the acclaimed drummer of the multiplatinum punk band Blink-182, everything changed for Travis Barker. But the dark side of rock stardom took its toll: his marriage, chronicled for an MTV reality show, fell apart. Constant touring concealed a serious drug addiction. A reckoning did not truly come until he was forced to face mortality: His life nearly ended in a horrifying plane crash, and then his close friend, collaborator, and fellow crash survivor DJ AM died of an overdose.In this blunt, driving memoir, Barker ruminates on rock stardom, fatherhood, death, loss, and redemption, sharing stories shaped by decades’ worth of hard-earned insights. His pulsating memoir is as energetic as his acclaimed beats. It brings to a close the first chapters of a well-lived life, inspiring readers to follow the rhythms of their own hearts and find meaning in their lives. Read more

I am Tommy Lee, born Thomas Lee Bass in Athens, Greece, on October 3, 1962, and raised in a suburb of California by an American father and a Greek mother. At seventeen, I joined Mötley Crüe and we became one of the baddest-ass rock bands in history. We sold over 40 million albums, we wreaked havoc, we scared parents, and we titillated too many fathers' daughters. I've been married three times: once for just a few days to a Penthouse Pet, for seven years to Heather Locklear, and then for five years to Pamela Anderson, with whom I have two beautiful sons. I've gotten into a lot of fights and I've been to jail a few times.But this book isn't your typical journey in a straight line from day one to day now. I'm more interested in revealing what's most important about my life, like how I cook my steaks; what I think of the tabloids, the truth, my ex-wives, my ex-band, my music; and what an innocent observer might find hanging around my house any given Sunday. You'll get plenty of facts and I'll tell you a story, but my real mission here is to paint you a picture of my life. I want to show you how my memories smell.I'd like to get into it now, so please take your seats. I advise you to keep your arms and legs inside the car at all times. If you have a pacemaker, a heart condition, or if you are pregnant or too damn short to reach the safety bar, I ask that you turn back immediately. Those with weak stomachs, strict morals, or chronic indigestion should put the book down now. For the rest of you, there's one truth that's real across the board: What you send out is what you get back. Send out the good, people, and it will come back to you. There's another thing I've learned over the years, in court, in fights, and in arguments with people I love: There isn't one truth, there are many. This book is my truth.NOTE:  THE EBOOK DOES NOT INCLUDE PHOTOGRAPHS THAT APPEAR IN THE PRINT EDITIONS. Read more

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NEW UPDATED EDITIONBob Dylan is one of the most iconic figures in modern music, and for two decades, Howard Sounes’ Down the Highway has been the definitive biography of an American icon. Based on years of research, documentary evidence, and interviews with 250 of Dylan’s intimates―many exclusive―Down the Highway has gone beyond the scope of other accounts to become the most complete, authoritative biography of Bob Dylan now in print. It was praised by The Orlando Sentinel for the insights it offers to Dylan at work . . . from young upstart to grand old man of rock ‘n’ roll. . . . This book makes us realize now, while he’s still with us, how valuable he has been to our culture these last forty years.”Sounes’s prodigious research has resulted in new insights on every aspect of Dylan’s life. He has obtained exclusive information to provide the clearest picture yet of Dylan’s 1966 motorcycle accident and subsequent “lost years” in Woodstock, New York, and he uncovered the star’s unknown second marriage. He gives inside accounts of the tours, the creation of every album and the most celebrated songs, Dylan’s labyrinthine love life, his life-threatening heart illness in 1997, and more―directly from interviews with girlfriends, family, friends, producers, concert promoters, and fellow musicians.As Dylan approaches his eightieth year, Howard Sounes once again brings Down the Highway up to date, following the last decade of Dylan’s life and career. Candid, refreshing, and written with a sincere appreciation of Dylan’s music and influence, Down the Highway is an essential book for the millions of people who have enjoyed Dylan’s music over the years. Read more