Rock Music Memoirs

Told from behind rock and roll's most notorious blue eyes, We've Got Tonight is the true story from one of rocks most notorious and sought after groupies. Most notable as the woman with legendary Who bassist, John Entwistle, when he died, Alycen Rowse spent almost three decades backstage seducing some of the world's most desirable rockers. From the bed of David Lee Roth in 1984 to the wildest years with rock gods Metallica to the side of the stage during the infamous AC/DC death concert all the way through to the new millennium and into that infamous Las Vegas bed, Alycen will tell it like ...

Mick Mars is the unsung architect of Mötley Crüe’s ferocious sound, a guitarist whose riffs forged the backbone of one of rock’s most notorious bands. While his bandmates lived in the spotlight of chaos and scandal, Mars battled a crippling disease in silence, carving menace and precision into every note. Mick Mars: Pain to Power and the Sound of Steel delivers the definitive portrait of a man who turned endurance into method and suffering into style. From his small-town beginnings in Terre Haute, Indiana, to the neon glare of Los Angeles, Mars’ journey is one of relentless grit. ...

For many, the name Jimi Hendrix conjures up a larger-than-life image of the man who set fire to guitars, women's hearts, and the status quo. In this groundbreaking account, music journalist Charles R. Cross takes a far deeper look. Beyond Hendrix's legendary onstage and offstage magnetism, and his excessive lifestyle, was a man who struggled to accept his role as an idol and privately craved the kind of normal family life he never had.

It was that voice, those eyes, that hair, the cars, the girls. Elvis Presley revolutionized American pop culture when, at age 21, he became a modern superstar. A Memphis Beau Brummel even before he found fame, Elvis had a personal style that, like his music, had an immediate impact on his audience that continues to influence us today.

Sid Vicious: One Junkie, One Knife, and No Fuckin’ Future is a raw, unapologetic look into the short, explosive life—and death—of punk rock’s most infamous icon. Told in a brutally honest, darkly sardonic voice, this book mixes biography with postmortem narration to deliver an unfiltered account of Sid Vicious, bassist for the Sex Pistols, and the chaos he embodied. From the gritty streets of 1970s London to the bloodstained floors of the Chelsea Hotel, this is more than a music biography—it’s a ghost’s confessional. Readers are taken inside the rise and collapse of the Sex ...

Steve Parish was never one to walk the straight-and-narrow, even during his childhood growing up in Flushing Meadow, Queens. Busted as a teenager for selling acid in the summer of 1968, Parish landed in Riker's Island. The experience changed him, and after getting out, he did his best to stay out of trouble, securing a job moving music equipment at the New York State Pavilion. The first show he worked was a Grateful Dead concert in July of 1969, and Parish was captivated by the music. A life seemingly headed nowhere had suddenly found its calling.

Grab your lace shawl and top hat and get ready to twirl—this is a full-throttle appreciation of the life and voice of Stevie Nicks from one of rock criticism’s most celebrated writers.

Best-selling author and Rolling Stone columnist Rob Sheffield explores the music and artistry of the rock goddess who has kept generations of music lovers totally bewitched and spellbound, with such classic rock hits as "Rhiannon" and "Gypsy".

A thought-provoking exploration of Bruce Springsteen’s iconic album, Born in the U.S.A.—a record that both chronicled and foreshadowed the changing tides of modern America On June 4, 1984, Columbia Records issued what would become one of the best-selling and most impactful rock albums of...

When Kurt Cobain died by his own hand in April 1994, it was an act of will that typified his short, angry, inspired life. Veteran music journalist Charles R. Cross fuses his intimate knowledge of the Seattle music scene with his deep compassion for his subject in this extraordinary story of artistic brilliance and the pain that extinguished it.

Step into the fractured mind of Kurt Cobain in Kurt Cobain: Drowning in My Words, a raw, unfiltered imagined memoir told entirely in his voice. Through dark humor, self-loathing wit, and heart-wrenching honesty, this book traces the iconic Nirvana frontman’s rise from a chaotic childhood in Aberdeen, Washington, to the global stages he grew to despise. Told in first-person with searing vulnerability and a punchline always lurking under the grief, Cobain revisits the moments that defined—and destroyed—him: from stealing his first guitar, to recording Bleach on fumes and cigarettes, to ...

Chester Bennington’s voice defined a generation. From the blistering roar of Hybrid Theory to the haunting vulnerability of One More Light, he gave sound to pain, resilience, and the struggles so many carry in silence. Chester Bennington and the Voice of a Generation is the definitive portrait of the man behind the music, tracing his journey from a troubled childhood in Phoenix to global superstardom as the frontman of Linkin Park. Through meticulous research and vivid storytelling, this book captures the highs and lows of Chester’s extraordinary career. Readers will witness his early ...

Keith Moon wasn’t just The Who’s drummer—he was their chaos engine, their comic relief, and their most volatile liability. Known for explosive performances and even more explosive offstage antics, Moon’s life was a whirlwind of fame, destruction, brilliance, and heartbreak. Keith Moon: The Last 24 Hours is an unflinching rock and roll biography that reconstructs the final day of this iconic musician's life, diving deep into the real events that led to his tragic death on September 7, 1978, at the age of 32. This book provides a blow-by-blow account of Moon’s last hours, based ...

Tommy Lee is more than Mötley Crüe’s drummer—he is the architect of arena spectacle. Tommy Lee — Wild Side charts his evolution from Athens-born child of musicians to the driving force of one of rock’s most notorious bands. Written with the precision of a music historian and the immediacy of an eyewitness, this biography explores not only the chaos of excess but the mechanics that made the chaos sustainable. From the Sunset Strip clubs of the late 1970s to the freight convoys of global stadium tours, Lee emerges as both performer and engineer. His drum cages, rollercoasters, and ...

Andy Summers is more than the guitarist who gave The Police their shimmering, unmistakable sound—he is a restless innovator whose career bridges stadium rock, avant-garde collaboration, solo experimentation, and acclaimed photography. Walking on the Moonlight traces his journey from Bournemouth dance halls to global arenas, from psychedelic detours with Dantalian’s Chariot to disciplined classical studies in California, from reggae-infused pop mastery with Sting and Stewart Copeland to solo works that fused jazz voicings, looping, and ambient soundscapes. This definitive biography ...

From the moment their hugely influential 1978 debut landed, Van Halen set a high bar for the rock 'n' roll lifestyle, creating an entirely new style of post-'60s hard rock and becoming the quintessential rock band of the 1980s. But the high-flying success was fraught with difficulty, as Eddie struggled with alcohol and drug addiction while simultaneously battling David Lee Roth over the musical direction of the band, eventually taking the band in an entirely new direction with Sammy Hagar and scaling new heights, before that iteration of Van Halen disintegrated.

With "virtuosic vulnerability" (The Atlantic), the iconic bassist and Red Hot Chili peppers co-founder pens a love letter to a youth spent wild in Los Angeles in his raw and riveting coming-of-age memoir. In Acid for the Children, Flea takes readers on a deeply personal and revealing tour of his...

An exhilarating, thoughtful, and beautifully written memoir by musician, songwriter, and lead singer-lyricist of Grammy award-winning metal band, System Of A Down, Serj Tankian. Serj Tankian will be the first to admit that his band, System Of A Down, was “unlikely a chart-topper as had...

Dave Navarro has always lived at the fault line where underground ferocity meets mainstream visibility. Dave Navarro – Strings and Scars traces his uncompromising journey from Echo Park adolescence scarred by tragedy to global stages with Jane’s Addiction and Red Hot Chili Peppers, revealing how one guitarist forged resilience through volatility. This definitive biography excavates Navarro’s story chronologically: his teenage immersion in guitar drills and punk tapes; the combustible formation of Jane’s Addiction in 1980s Hollywood clubs; the chaos of breakthrough records ...

This gritty bestselling memoir by the singer Mark Lanegan of Screaming Trees, Queens of the Stone Age, and Soulsavers documents his years as a singer and drug addict in Seattle in the '80s and '90s. When Mark Lanegan first arrived in Seattle in the mid-1980s, he was just "an arrogant...

From their beginnings as teenagers experimenting in a San Fernando Valley garage dubbed "The Hell Hole" to headlining major music festivals around the world, discover the whole story of Bad Religion's forty-year career in irreverent style.Do What You Want's principal storytellers are the four...