Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Daisy Jones & The Six has made a huge impression, generating buzz ever since its initial publication in 2019. Reese Witherspoon picked it for her esteemed book club that year, and before the novel was even released, her production company, Hello Sunshine, acquired the rights to adapt the story for television. That adaptation premiered on Prime Video in early March 2023, with Witherspoon as executive producer, and Riley Keough starring as Daisy Jones, sparking fresh excitement for this fan favorite listen.
Following the formation, rise to stardom, and unraveling of a 1970s rock band, Daisy Jones & The Six is told through a series of interviews aiming to uncover what ultimately broke up the band. At first, The Six was a separate act from solo artist Daisy Jones, though the musicians shared the same manager. After accompanying the band on a song that’s undeniably dynamite, Daisy proves to be a valuable addition to The Six. As the band takes off, Jenkins Reid paints a vivid, intimate look at what the rock and roll scene of the 1970s was like, including the darker sides of stardom, drug use, and reckless behavior.
It’s easy to see why Daisy Jones & The Six was a 2020 Audie Award finalist—the story really shines in audio. With a dynamic full-cast recording, each character is voiced by a different actor (with Jennifer Beals in the role of Daisy), making the story easy to follow and even more engaging. The cast's character creation is unparalleled, and the different vocal performances fit the behind-the-scenes, insider access vibe of the narrative. Exclusive to the audiobook is an instrumental track of the song "Honeycomb," along with a downloadable PDF of lyrics.
As Daisy Jones & The Six focuses so much on the artistry and creation of music, it’s no surprise that the focus on sound extends to both the audiobook production and the show's interpretation of those songs. You can find music from the series available for streaming on Amazon Music, or for a 70s-accurate listening experience, buy the album Aurora on vinyl.
The series had 10 episodes, the last of which aired on March 24, 2023. With the show at a close, you may be left wondering what to listen to next to fill that void. Worry not—these incredible audiobooks capture the same vintage rock-n-roll feeling as Daisy Jones & The Six.
If you loved listening to Daisy Jones & The Six for both the full cast narration and the story itself, for your next audiobook, look no further than The Final Revival of Opal & Nev. Narrated by a full cast, this Audie Award winner is the perfect follow-up listen and an incredible feat of storytelling in its own right. It's the 1970s, and Opal knows she can make it as a star. British singer-songwriter Neville Charles seems to agree, and the pair begin to make funk rock music together in New York City. A rival band signs with the same label as Opal and Nev, and when that band displays a Confederate flag during one of their shows, Opal is compelled to act, spurring a violent backlash. Now, in 2016, decades after Opal’s protest, music journalist Sunny Shelton starts a series of interviews to collect an oral history of the duo and the band's dissolution.
Part of what made Daisy Jones & The Six so special was how real it felt, capturing all the mayhem and magic of the rock-n-roll scene. If you’re looking for a nonfic listen that serves as a factual recollection of the era, then Parachute Women is for you. The Rolling Stones are one of the most iconic rock groups of all time, from their song lyrics to their style to the artistic choices they made in each and every performance. But as they say, behind every great man is an even greater woman—four women, more specifically, in the case of the Stones. Marianne Faithfull, Marsha Hunt, Bianca Jagger, and Anita Pallenberg are the women who inspired songs, wrote songs themselves, remixed tracks, styled the band, and kept their fingers on the heartbeat of culture to keep the group one step ahead, altering the trajectory of the band without any of the credit.
Listeners who related to Daisy Jones’s independent-minded attitude are going to fall in love with chemist Elizabeth Zott. It’s the 1960s, and women, no matter how brilliant, are not welcome inside laboratories. So when Calvin Evans, a grumpy Nobel Prize–nominated genius, takes interest in (and shortly thereafter, falls in love with) Elizabeth’s exceptional mind, she learns what chemistry feels like outside the lab. A few years later, Elizabeth, now a single mother, hosts Supper at Six, a TV cooking show that explains the chemistry of baking alongside the recipes. Her audience grows, but the bigger she gets, the more unsettled certain interest groups become. After all, a cooking show centered on opening women’s minds to new possibilities doesn’t quite fit the status quo.
Fleetwood Mac, the legendary rock band that partly inspired the fictional Daisy Jones & The Six, was blessed with talent and marred by turmoil. Their star rose to meteoric new heights in 1975, when Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks joined the band. Of this Audible Original centered on Nicks, one of the most influential vocalists and songwriters in rock history, Editor Rachel wrote, “Rob Sheffield’s essay is the perfect primer for what, exactly, went down in that bed that Fleetwood Mac posed on for the Annie Liebowitz Rolling Stone cover, as well as all the other juicy gossip—partner swapping, coke binges, and all. But what I love most about The Wild Heart of Stevie Nicks is how Rob Sheffield, one of my favorite pop music critics of all time, can take songs that have been played so many times they almost seem ordinary and make them feel magical again.”
Set in the 1970s, Groupies follows college dropout Faun Novak as she navigates life after her mother’s death. Like Daisy Jones & The Six, this listen offers a behind-the-scenes look at band life when Faun reconnects with her childhood friend Josie, a budding model living in Los Angeles. Josie is dating Cal Holiday, frontman of the famed rock band Holiday Sun, and invites Faun to come along on tour. Mesmerized, Faun starts documenting everything happening on the road and rock scene with her Polaroid camera. But it’s more than just the band that grabs her attention—the so-called “groupies” fascinate her too. Before long, she has a hard time balancing her art with the band's expectations, friendships, romance, and her dwindling bank account. When Faun gets a glimpse of the dark side of fame, her delicate balancing act starts to crash and burn.
If you loved the romantic tension between Daisy and Billy Dunne, The Girl with Stars in Her Eyes is a must listen. Antonia “Toni” Bennette isn't a rock star—yet. She's just a girl with a guitar (and a memorable name), but she's determined to make it big. She's a solo act, until she meets the dreamy Sebastian Quick. A little older, he's full of big dreams and promises. But the day he turns 18, he bolts. Years of hard work later, Toni is all grown up and making a name for herself in Philadelphia's indie rock scene. When there's an opportunity to audition for a hot new band, the Lillys, she seizes it—and then discovers that Seb is their manager. No problem, Toni tells herself. It's about her career, right? Only, she's never quite gotten over Seb.
For fans looking for something more contemporary and a bit softer, try Open Road Summer. Like Daisy Jones & The Six, this sweet YA romance captures all the drama that accompanies going on tour. Reagan O’Neill and her best friend, Lilah Montgomery, both had their hearts broken right before summer break. Luckily, Lilah is a country superstar whose 24-city tour is about to kick off. They’re ready for a girls trip and a summer free from boys—except for Lilah’s opening act, Matt Finch. He’s polite, charming, and awfully cute. Before she knows it, Reagan is flirting with breaking her promise for a drama-free summer by flirting with Matt. Rebecca Gibbell narrates it all "PERFECTLY," to quote one of many listener raves.
Two New Yorkers in their 20s, Seth and Carter have nothing in common but their love of music. Working together accidentally, they record an unknown performer in the park and send his song out over the internet, claiming it’s a long lost recording from Charlie Shaw, a blues performer from the 1920s. When an expert reaches out to tell them that their phony recording is actually real, Seth and Carter set out to find the truth and uncover a hidden history of greed, envy, exploitation, racism, and a murder. If the lore of Daisy Jones & The Six and its meditation on art and music pulled you in, you won’t be able to pause the haunting White Tears.
Music has the power to unite people in unexpected ways. Autumn, Shay, and Logan—one a performer, one an expert, and one a songwriter—are a testament to that. But when tragedy strikes each of them, somehow music is no longer enough. They each spiral into their own unhealthy ways of coping and struggle to keep it together. Finally, one band’s music reunites them. Through music, Autumn, Shay, and Logan find a path to not only healing but also rediscovering joy. Told from three diverse points of view, The Beauty That Remains is, like Daisy Jones & The Six, a powerful story about loss, grief, transformation, and, above all, the wonder of music.
In Daisy Jones & The Six, the character of keyboardist Karen Karen captured some of the frustrations. For a real-life inside take on what it’s like being a woman in a male-dominated music scene, listen to this memoir. Carrie Brownstein is best known on screen for co-developing and starring in the hit show Portlandia and on the airwaves for her music work with riot grrrl punk band Sleater-Kinney. Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl is a personal tell-all of her life in music, time on the road, and what it feels like to be a young woman in a rock-n-roll band. In her own voice, Brownstein recounts her struggles with sexism in the music industry, her fight to be taken seriously as a guitarist, and her transition to a different kind of art, as a comedic performer.
Emma Gable, a blind teenager, feels trapped by both the confines of her small town and the behavior of her dysfunctional family. Her only source of escape is dialing up random numbers on the phone in her bedroom, just to hear a voice on the other end. It’s all in good fun until Emma connects with the Phone Phreaks, a mysterious group of proto-hackers who have it out for Bell Telephone Company. Bell security agent Bill Connolly is fiercely dedicated to tracking down the Phreaks, and he thinks that Emma might just be his best lead. Fans of Daisy Jones & The Six in search of more full-cast recordings set in the '70s are sure to enjoy Phreaks, a surprisingly touching Audible Original that speaks to current privacy concerns and dials into our thirst for community.
