Waiting for Britney Spears

A True Story, Allegedly

By: Jeff Weiss

Narrated by: Jeff Weiss, Mel Bouzad, Sedona Soluoshon

"Like a J.D. Salinger novel rolled in Hunter S. Thompson's hallucinogen dust." —Ann Powers, author of Travelling: On the Path of Joni Mitchell

"[Waiting for Britney Spears] transformed and transported me." ―Hanif Abdurraqib, author of There's Always This Year

A frenetic, gonzo account of Britney Spears’s historic rise and equally tragic fall written and read by iconoclastic music journalist Jeff Weiss.

America, 2003: A country at war, its shiny veneer beginning to crack. Von Dutch and The Simple Life dominate. And on the cover of every magazine, a twenty-one-year-old pop star named Britney Spears. Tracking her every move for a third-tier gossip rag in Los Angeles was an unknown young writer taking whatever job he could while pursuing his distant literary dreams. He'd instead become an eyewitness to the slow tragedy of a changing nation, represented in spirit by “the coy it-girl at the end of history.”

Years later, after finally establishing himself as a celebrated journalist, Jeff Weiss presents Waiting for Britney Spears, a gonzo, nostalgic, and “allegedly true” recounting of his years as a tabloid spy in the lurid underbelly of Los Angeles. Weiss follows America’s sweetheart through Vegas superclubs and Malibu car chases, annulled marriages and soul-crushing legal battles, all the way to Britney’s infamous 2007 VMA performance. As Weiss lives through the chaos leading to Britney’s conservatorship, he observes, with peerless style, cringe-inducing fashion waves, destructive celebrity surveillance, and a country whose decline is embodied by the devastating downturn of its former golden child.

With the narrative flair that established him as a singular chronicler of modern pop culture, Weiss goes for broke in Waiting for Britney Spears, a descent into a neon hall of mirrors reflecting our obsession with fame, morality, and the mystery of what really happened to the last great pop star.

A Macmillan Audio production from MCD Books.

The monster is us

I will admit to being a rabid Perez Hilton fan all those years ago, watching with the rest of you as Britney disintegrated in real time. We knew those paps! They became part of the story. This is Jeff Weiss' sad, funny, vivid love letter to an icon done dirty by bad actor after bad actor (author included). In 2025, we can all look back at the machine that hung her out to dry--and the subsequent fallout--with so much more humanity than she was ever offered a the time. Those hooks, those performances, all of that talent, and the turn when all she wanted to do was live a dumb, boring life like the rest of us. It's all here, laid bare in Weiss' gorgeous prose. He's Joe Goldberg, the stalker who also truly, madly, deeply loves his prey. Come for the goss, stay for the wreckage, and enjoy Oliver, the Cockney photographer I'm not convinced is completely real. And please. As that one dude once implored so emotionally, leave Britney alone.

Burroughs Meets Almost Famous — and It Works.

Waiting for Britney Spears feels like Almost Famous written by William Burroughs — wild, surreal, and deeply personal. Jeff Weiss blends music journalism, memoir, and a kind of punk-poet philosophy into something completely unique.

The narration pulls you into the chaos of LA, celebrity obsession, and mental unraveling — and somehow, through all the grit and spirals, there’s real heart. It’s sharp, funny, sad, and electric. I couldn’t stop listening.

Britney fan

Very good, thank you for loving her so much, we all do, I can’t wait for part 2, please hurry

Excellent narrators. Propulsive plot.

Unique commentary on a slice of American history - I learned so much. Looking forward to the author’s next book.

Entertaining

At first I wasn't to sure about this book but I ended up listening to it again and again!