Books and Audiobooks by Great Musical Icons

The Beatles

Paul McCartney
Many Years From Now Paperback, Pocketbook
Based on hundreds of hours of exclusive interviews over a period of five years, and with complete access to Paul’s own archives, Barry Miles has succeeded in letting Paul tell the story of his life as a Beatle in his own words. Many Years from Now includes Paul’s recollection of the genesis of every song that he wrote with John Lennon and the fascinating details about their remarkable collaboration.

George Harrison
I, Me, Mine Hardcover, Paperback,
Compiled George Harrison’s conversations with the author, I, Me, Mine touches on everything from early Beatlemania to India and Ravi Shankar to his love of gardening. The lyrics to over 80 of his songs, many in his own hand, are accompanied by his uniquely intimate and humorous commentary. There are also 50 archival photographs of George with the Beatles and solo capture a journey of creative and spiritual transformation. Brimming with the wit, warmth, and grace that characterized his lyrics and his life, I, Me, Mine is a treasured portrait of George Harrison and his music.

The Rolling Stones

Keith Richards
LIFE Hardcover, Paperback
Keith Richards created the songs that roused the world, and he lived the original rock and roll life. Now the man himself tells his story of life in the crossfire hurricane. Listening obsessively to Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters records, learning guitar and forming a band with Mick Jagger and Brian Jones. The Rolling Stones’s first fame and the notorious drug busts that led to his enduring image as an outlaw folk hero. Creating immortal riffs like the ones in “Jumping Jack Flash” and “Honky Tonk Women.” His relationship with Anita Pallenberg and the death of Brian Jones. Tax exile in France, wildfire tours of the U.S., isolation and addiction. Falling in love with Patti Hansen. Estrangement from Jagger and subsequent reconciliation. Marriage, family, solo albums and Xpensive Winos, and the road that goes on forever.

Bill Wyman
Stone Alone Hardcopy, Paperback
During the height of the Rolling Stones’ success, Bill Wyman kept a diary, recording the churning chaos of the band’s creative evolution, power plays, recording sessions, tours, romances, drug busts, and financial disarray. Stone Alone is a meticulous, shrewd and humorous look at the complex personalities of the Stones and the role they played in the startling cultural revolution of the times.

Ronnie Wood
Ronnie Hardcover, Paperback
Ronnie Wood is one of rock’s true originals. This is his story, in his own words, about his life, loves, family, friends, music, art and survival against the odds. It’s a roller-coaster ride of unbelievable highs and unimaginable lows.

Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan
Chronicles: Volume One Hardcover, Paperback
Everybody knew this guy had a way with words. But it’s safe to say that nobody expected his autobiography to be this intense. He rambles from one fragment of his life to another, with crazed characters and weird scenes in every chapter. It all hangs together, from his Minnesota boyhood (who knew Dylan started out as such a big wrestling fan?) to the “deserted orchards and dead grass” of his Eighties bottoming-out phase. He evokes his early folk-rogue days in New York, even though he hated being perceived as the voice of a generation: “I was more a cowpuncher than a Pied Piper.” 

Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen
Born to Run Hardcover, Paperback
“Both an entertaining account of Springsteen’s marathon race to the top and a reminder that the one thing you can’t run away from is yourself” (Entertainment Weekly), Born to Run is much more than a legendary rock star’s memoir. This book is a “a virtuoso performance, the 508-page equivalent to one of Springsteen and the E Street Band’s famous four-hour concerts: Nothing is left onstage, and diehard fans and first-timers alike depart for home sated and yet somehow already aching for more” (NPR).

Guns N’ Roses

Slash
Slash Paperback, Hardcover
Slash tells the tale that has yet to be told from the inside: how the legendary band Guns N’ Roses came together, how they wrote the music that defined an era, how they survived insane, never-ending tours, how they survived themselves, and, ultimately, how it all fell apart. Slash is a window into the world of the notoriously private guitarist and a front seat on the roller-coaster ride that was one of history’s greatest rock ‘n’ roll machines, always on the edge of self-destruction, even at the pinnacle of its success. Slash is everything Slash is: funny, honest, ingenious, inspiring, jaw-dropping . . . and, in a word, excessive.

Duff McKagan
It’s So Easy: and Other Lies Paperback
In a voice that is as honest as it is indelibly his own, Duff—one of rock’s smartest and most articulate personalities—takes readers on a harrowing journey through the dark heart of one of the most notorious bands in rock-and-roll history and out the other side.

Steve Adler
My Appetite for Destruction: Sex & Drugs & Guns N’ Roses Hardcover, Paperback
From Steven Adler, the original drummer for Guns N’ Roses, comes My Appetite for Destruction, the inside story of GNR. Offering a different perspective from the bestselling Slash, Adler chronicles his life with the band, and own intense struggle with addiction, as seen on Dr. Drew’s Celebrity Rehab and Sober House.

Pink Floyd

Pink Floyd
Inside Out: A Personal History of Pink Floyd Paperback, Hardcover
The definitive history of Pink Floyd by founding member Nick Mason, this reading edition brings up-to-date the band’s incredible story as told uniquely from the inside out. Including the complete text of the original in an easy-to-read format, a new chapter covering the passing of Rick Wright and the release of the group’s final album, and 80 pages of images from Mason’s archives plus new photos, Inside Out is a masterly rock memoir and an eye-opener for both veteran fans and those just discovering the group.

Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin by Led Zeppelin – Incredible Collectors Edition!!
Led Zeppelin by Led Zeppelin is the first and only official illustrated book ever to be produced in full collaboration with the members of the band. Celebrating 50 years since their formation, this definitive 400-page volume charts the group’s unparalleled musical career from the very first performance in a tiny club, to their performance at London’s O2 Arena, when 20 million fans broke the world record for highest demand for tickets for a single concert.

The book features over 300 photographs―many seen here for the first time―of Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and John Bonham from photographers around the world, and photographs from the band members’ personal collections. The band are seen on and off stage, in candid moments and in the recording studio. Accompanying the photographs is rare and unseen artwork from the Led Zeppelin archives, and fascinating documents and images from the Atlantic Records vaults.

Jimmy Page
Jimmy Page
Jimmy Page by Jimmy Page is the photographic autobiography and visual history of the world’s most iconic guitar player. With incredible attention to detail, Page has chosen hundreds of photographs representing significant moments in his career: from a schoolboy with a rock-a-billy quiff through his extensive work as a session musician; including The Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin, ARMS, The Firm, Outrider, Coverdale & Page and Page & Plant; playing with Roy Harper and The Black Crowes

Page has officially put pen to paper about his career taking the form of extended captions, which describe and document pivotal moments and events making this book an historical document and a definitive visual record of a remarkable life of music.

Elton John

Elton John
Me: Elton John Official Autobiography Audiobook, Paperback, Hardcover
In his first and only official autobiography, music icon Elton John reveals the truth about his extraordinary life, from his roller-coaster lifestyle as shown in the film Rocketman, to becoming a living legend.

Christened Reginald Dwight, he was a shy boy with Buddy Holly glasses who grew up in the London suburb of Pinner and dreamed of becoming a pop star. By the age of 23, he was performing his first gig in America, facing an astonished audience in his bright yellow dungarees, a star-spangled T-shirt, and boots with wings. Elton John had arrived and the music world would never be the same again.

His life has been full of drama, from the early rejection of his work with song-writing partner Bernie Taupin to spinning out of control as a chart-topping superstar; from half-heartedly trying to drown himself in his LA swimming pool to disco-dancing with Princess Diana and Queen Elizabeth; from friendships with John Lennon, Freddie Mercury, and George Michael, to setting up his AIDS Foundation to conquering Broadway with Aida, The Lion King, and Billy Elliot the Musical. All the while, Elton was hiding a drug addiction that would grip him for more than a decade.

In Me, Elton also writes powerfully about getting clean and changing his life, about finding love with David Furnish and becoming a father. In a voice that is warm, humble, and open, this is Elton on his music and his relationships, his passions and his mistakes. This is a story that will stay with you by a living legend.

U2

U2
U2 by U2 Paperback, Hardcover
U2 by U2 is the only definitive, official history of one of the most famous bands in the world, by the members of the band themselves. Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen offer a unique, insightful account of everything fans want to know, from U2’s birth 25 years ago and its evolution to become the biggest band in the world to their personal dramas and successes to the politics and emotions that drive them and their music. As cool, elegant, and exciting as the band itself, U2 by U2 is a must-have for any music fan’s collection.

Alice Cooper

Alice Cooper
Me, Alice: The Autobiography of Alice Cooper
Me, Alice is the very hard to find Alice biography ‘as told to Steven Gaines’. It has been out of print since at least 1977 and was never published outside the USA.

Dennis Dunaway
Snakes! Guillotines! Electric Chairs!: My Adventures in the Alice Cooper Group Paperback, Hardcover,
As teenagers in Phoenix, Dennis Dunaway, bassist and co-songwriter for the Alice Cooper group, and lead singer Vince Furnier (who would later change his name to Alice Cooper) formed a hard-knuckles band that played prisons, cowboy bars, and teens clubs. Their wild, impossible journey took them from Hollywood to the ferocious Detroit music scene, and along the way they discovered the utterly original performance style and look that would make them the stuff of legend.

Speaking out for the first time about his adventures in the Alice Cooper group, Dunaway reveals a band that was obsessed with topping themselves, with their increasingly outlandish shows and ever-blackening reputation. Dunaway takes readers into back rooms, behind brainstorming sessions, and into the most exclusive parties of the 1970s, revealing the talent, drama, and characters that drove two teenagers to create what would become America’s highest-grossing act.

From struggling for recognition to topping the charts with a string of hits including “I’m Eighteen,” “School’s Out,” and “No More Mr. Nice Guy,” the Alice Cooper group was entertaining, outrageous, and one of a kind.

Snakes! Guillotines! Electric Chairs! is a riveting account of the band’s creation in the ’60s, their strange glory in the ’70s, and the legendary characters they met along the way.

Michael Bruce
No More Mr Nice Guy: The Inside Story of the Alice Cooper Group
Written by Alice Cooper’s guitarist and keyboard player, this is an anthology of the band that encapsulated the decadent spirit of the 1970s. Following the group on their journey from Arizona garage band to eventual rise to stardom, it reveals the truth behind the drinking and the rock ‘n’ roll. This “true life” story includes the hangings, the executions, the ghoulish makeup, the egos and of course, the rock ‘n’ roll. Revised and updated it includes previously unseen photographs and memorabilia.

The Eagles

Don Felder
Heaven and Hell: My Life in the Eagles Hardcover, Paperback, Kindle
The Eagles are the bestselling, and arguably the tightest-lipped, American group ever. Now band member and guitarist Don Felder finally breaks the Eagles’ years of public silence to take fans behind the scenes. He shares every part of the band’s wild ride, from the pressure-packed recording studios and trashed hotel rooms to the tension-filled courtrooms, and from the joy of writing powerful new songs to the magic of performing in huge arenas packed with roaring fans.

Johnny Cash

Johnny Cash
Cash: The Autobiography Hardcover, Paperback
He was the “Man in Black,” a country music legend, and the quintessential American troubadour. He was an icon of rugged individualism who had been to hell and back, telling the tale as never before. In his unforgettable autobiography, Johnny Cash tells the truth about the highs and lows, the struggles and hard-won triumphs, and the people who shaped him.

In his own words, Cash set the record straight — and dispelled a few myths — as he looked unsparingly at his remarkable life: from the joys of his boyhood in Dyess, Arkansas to superstardom in Nashville, Tennessee, the road of Cash’s life has been anything but smooth. Cash writes of the thrill of playing with Elvis, the comfort of praying with Billy Graham; of his battles with addiction and of the devotion of his wife, June; of his gratitude for life, and of his thoughts on what the afterlife may bring. Here, too, are the friends of a lifetime, including Willie Nelson, Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan, and Kris Kristofferson. As powerful and memorable as one of his classic songs, Cash is filled with the candor, wit, and wisdom of a man who truly “walked the line.”

The Band

Levon Helm
This Wheel’s on Fire: Levon Helm and the Story of the Band
The Band, who backed Bob Dylan when he went electric in 1965 and then turned out a half-dozen albums of beautifully crafted, image-rich songs, is now regarded as one of the most influential rock groups of the ’60s. But while their music evoked a Southern mythology, only their Arkansawyer drummer, Levon Helm, was the genuine article. From the cotton fields to Woodstock, from seeing Sonny Boy Williamson and Elvis Presley to playing for President Clinton, This Wheel’s on Fire replays the tumultuous history of our times in Levon’s own unforgettable folksy drawl. This edition is expanded with a new afterword by the authors.

Robbie Robertson
Testimony: A Memoir – Paperback, Hardcover
Robbie Robertson’s singular contributions to popular music have made him one of the most beloved songwriters and guitarists of his time. With songs like “The Weight,” “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” and “Up on Cripple Creek,” he and his partners in The Band fashioned a music that has endured for decades, influencing countless musicians.

In this captivating memoir, written over five years of reflection, Robbie Robertson employs his unique storyteller’s voice to weave together the journey that led him to some of the most pivotal events in music history. He recounts the adventures of his half-Jewish, half-Mohawk upbringing on the Six Nations Indian Reserve and on the gritty streets of Toronto; his odyssey at sixteen to the Mississippi Delta, the fountainhead of American music; the wild early years on the road with rockabilly legend Ronnie Hawkins and The Hawks; his unexpected ties to the Cosa Nostra underworld; the gripping trial-by-fire “going electric” with Bob Dylan on his 1966 world tour, and their ensuing celebrated collaborations; the formation of the Band and the forging of their unique sound,  culminating with history’s most famous farewell concert, brought to life for all time in Martin Scorsese’s great movie The Last Waltz. 

This is the story of a time and place–the moment when rock ‘n’ roll became life, when legends like Buddy Holly and Bo Diddley criss-crossed the circuit of clubs and roadhouses from Texas to Toronto, when The Beatles, Hendrix, The Stones, and Warhol moved through the same streets and hotel rooms. It’s the story of exciting change as the world tumbled through the ’60s and early 70’s, and a generation came of age, built on music, love and freedom. Above all, it’s the moving story of the profound friendship between five young men who together created a new kind of popular music.

Testimony is Robbie Robertson’s story, lyrical and true, as only he could tell it.

The Who

Pete Townshend
Who I Am: A Memoir
One of rock music’s most intelligent and literary performers, Pete Townshend—guitarist, songwriter, editor—tells his closest-held stories about the origins of the preeminent twentieth-century band The Who, his own career as an artist and performer, and his restless life in and out of the public eye in this candid autobiography, Who I Am.

With eloquence, fierce intelligence, and brutal honesty, Townshend has written a deeply personal book that also stands as a primary source for popular music’s greatest epoch. Readers will be confronted by a man laying bare who he is, an artist who has asked for nearly sixty years: Who are you?

Roger Daltrey
Thanks a Lot Mr Kibblewhite: My Story – Hardcover, Paperback, Kindle
Born during the air bombing of London in 1944, Daltrey fought his way (literally) through school and poverty and began to assemble the band that would become The Who while working at a sheet metal factory in 1961. In Daltrey’s voice, the familiar stories―how they got into smashing up their kit, the infighting, Keith Moon’s antics―take on a new, intimate life. Also here is the creative journey through the unforgettable hits including My Generation, Substitute, Pinball Wizard, and the great albums, Who’s Next, Tommy, and Quadrophenia. Amidst all the music and mayhem, the drugs, the premature deaths, the ruined hotel rooms, Roger is our perfect narrator, remaining sober (relatively) and observant and determined to make The Who bigger and bigger.

Rush

Geddy Lee
My Effin’ Life: From Holocaust Roots to Rock and Roll Stardom – Hardcover, Paperback, Kindle
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 was murdered in the Holocaust.

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.

KISS

Ace Frehley
No Regrets: A Rock ‘n’ Roll Memoir – Hardcopy, Paperback, Kindle
HE MUSIC, THE MAKEUP, THE MADNESS, AND MORE. . . . In December of 1972, a pair of musicians placed an advertisement in the Village Voice: “GUITARIST WANTED WITH FLASH AND ABILITY.” Ace Frehley figured he had both, so he answered the ad. The rest is rock ’n’ roll history.

He was just a boy from the Bronx with stars in his eyes. But when he picked up his guitar and painted stars on his face, Ace Frehley transformed into “The Spaceman”—and helped turn KISS into one of the top-selling bands in the world. Now, for the first time, the beloved rock icon reveals his side of the story with no-holds-barred honesty . . . and no regrets.

For KISS fans, Ace offers a rare behind-the-makeup look at the band’s legendary origins, including the lightning-bolt logo he designed and the outfits his mother sewed. He talks about the unspoken division within the band—he and Peter Criss versus Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons—because the other two didn’t “party every day.” Ace also reveals the inside story behind his turbulent breakup with KISS, their triumphant reunion a decade later, and his smash solo career. Along the way, he shares wild stories about dancing at Studio 54 with “The Bionic Woman,” working as a roadie for Jimi Hendrix, and bar-flying all night with John Belushi. In the end, he comes to terms with his highly publicized descent into alcohol, drugs, and self-destruction—ultimately managing to conquer his demons and come out on top.

This is Ace Frehley. No makeup. No apologies. No regrets.

Willie Nelson

Willie Nelson
It’s a Long Story : My Life – Hardcopy, Paperback, Kindle
Willie Nelson shares his life story in this “heartfelt” bestselling memoir of true love, wild times, best friends, and barrooms (Washington Post). “Unvarnished. Funny. Leaving no stone unturned.” . . . So say the publishers about this book I’ve written. What I say is that this is the story of my life, told as clear as a Texas sky and in the same rhythm that I lived it. It’s a story of restlessness and the purity of the moment and living right. Of my childhood in Abbott, Texas, to the Pacific Northwest, from Nashville to Hawaii and all the way back again. Of selling vacuum cleaners and encyclopedias while hosting radio shows and writing song after song, hoping to strike gold. It’s a story of true love, wild times, best friends, and barrooms, with a musical soundtrack ripping right through it. My life gets lived on the road, at home, and on the road again, tried and true, and I’ve written it all down from my heart to yours.
-Signed, Willie Nelson.