Eight Rock Books That Have Yet to See the Light of Day

Thanks to the bestselling likes of Keith Richards’ Life, Tina Turner’s I, Tina and Bob Dylan’s Chronicles, Volume One, rock ‘n’ roll has made inroads in the e-book trade. Artists are receiving multimillion-dollar advances in some instances, with publishers betting {that a} important quantity of followers is perhaps concerned with studying about them in addition to listening to their music.

Each 12 months brings a gradual stream of tomes recounting the lives and instances of superstars, journeymen and, seemingly, most anybody who’s been round lengthy sufficient to have a narrative to inform. The fourth quarter of 2022 alone included books by Bono (Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story), Rob Halford (Biblical: Rob Halford’s Heavy Metal Scriptures) and Brian Johnson (The Lives of Brian) amongst others — and that is not counting unauthorized biographies or thematic items like Dylan’s The Philosophy of Modern Song.

But what about the books by no means acquired an opportunity to see? Several works had been (and should be) on the runway however haven’t made it onto the printed web page but. Here are eight of the most tantalizing titles which have but to see the mild of day.

This American Band — The Story of the Eagles
Ed Sanders made a reputation in the ’60s counterculture as half of the New York underground band the Fugs, and was additionally a poet, writer and writer. His broadly regarded e-book The Family: The Story of Charles Manson’s Dune Buggy Attack got here out in 1971, and by the finish of the decade he had a pair of affords: an in-depth have a look at the 1978 Jonestown bloodbath or a band-commissioned biography of Eagles, by way of a friendship with Glenn Frey. Sanders selected the latter then penned the 900-page, four-volume This American Band — The Story of the Eagles, which the writer known as “an exhaustive account.” His tome was sidelined, nevertheless, when the group first broke up in 1980. The events are legally prohibited from discussing the matter, although rumors of its launch often swirl. Sanders is alleged to be engaged on a quantity of Fugs tasks.

Mick Jagger, untitled
The Rolling Stones frontman reportedly penned a 75,000-word memoir throughout the early ’80s that was by no means revealed — ostensibly as a result of it was not as awash in the tales of wanton intercourse and medicines that booksellers needed. “I think the rock ‘n’ roll memoir is a glutted market,” Jagger advised The Hollywood Reporter in 2014. “If someone wants to know what I did in 1965, they can look it up on Wikipedia.” A duplicate of the typescript, nevertheless, resides with British writer John Blake, who advised The Spectator that it is a “a little masterpiece.” While Richards’ Life was a money-making memoir in 2010, Blake stated the Stones camp rebuffed his makes an attempt to publish Jagger’s e-book. Manager Joyce Smyth even advised him that Jagger has no reminiscence of writing it. “Mick wanted nothing further to do with this project,” Blake stated. “He never wanted to see it published.”

Paul McCartney, Japanese Jailbird
Paul McCartney wrote a 20,000-word account of the expertise after spending 9 days in a Japanese jail for possession of marijuana whereas Wings was touring in 1980. “I would have liked to have written about it while I was there. That would have made it much easier,” McCartney advised The Telegraph in 2014. He was not allowed writing supplies, nevertheless, “so I had it all in my brain. My brain was bursting with all these details. So when I got back, each morning I used go and write for a couple of hours. It was good ’cause all the details were fresh.” He printed only one copy for himself, intending to present it to his kids at any time when they expressed curiosity. “I thought, one day when we’re all old and my son’s a great big 30-year-old and says, ‘Dad, what about that Japanese thing?’ I’ll be able to say, ‘There you are. Read that,'” he stated throughout the 1989 McCartney on McCartney radio sequence. McCartney advised The Telegraph that he subsequently “gave all my kids a copy,” however did not know in the event that they’d learn it. He’s since reportedly decreed that Japanese Jailbird just isn’t to be revealed whereas he is alive.

Billy Joel, The Book of Joel
Billy Joel’s memoir was signed to HarperCollins and set to be delivered in June 2011. Joel canceled publication of the e-book in March of that 12 months, nevertheless, returning his advance. “It took working on writing a book to make me realize that I’m not all that interested in talking about the past,” Joel stated in a press release, “and that the best expression of my life and its ups and downs has been and remains my music.” HarperCollins had billed The Book of Joel as an “emotional ride” that detailed his marriages and battles with substance abuse in addition to his music profession. The writer had deliberate an preliminary run of 250,000 copies.

David Bowie, Bowie: Object
Once dubbed the “big white whale” of the publishing world, David Bowie by no means launched a memoir in his lifetime. He did, nevertheless, signal a take care of Penguin circa 2010 for Object. A pictorial e-book that includes 100 objects from the Bowie archive, it was meant to inform his story with “insightful, witty and personal text written by Bowie himself,” in accordance to a publish on his web site. Bowie died in January 2016, and there is been no phrase on whether or not the Object manuscript was ever delivered.

Sammy Hagar, Red Storm Rising and The Long Road to Cabo
Sammy Hagar approved his first e-book shortly after his heated departure from Van Halen in 1996. He ended up going to court docket to hold it from being revealed, as a result of Red Storm Rising piled somewhat an excessive amount of poundcake on his newly estranged bandmates. Fans had been left to comb by a couple of excerpts that leaked on-line over the years. In the ’70s, Hagar additionally labored intermittently on one other e-book that was tentatively titled The Long Road to Cabo. Collaborator Dick Richmond, a journalist based mostly in the Hagar stronghold of St. Louis, later advised The Riverfront Times that Hagar’s late supervisor Ed Leffler put the kibosh on the e-book when he joined Van Halen. Hagar finally dished a lot of filth in his personal 2011 memoir, Red: My Uncensored Life in Rock.

Kiss, Behind the Mask
David Leaf had gone from Casablanca Records mailroom worker to writer of books about Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys and the Bee Gees when Kiss tapped him in 1979 to write a certified biography to be titled Behind the Mask. Leaf not too long ago advised the Three Sides of the Coin podcast that he went on the highway with the band, doing intensive interviews with all 4 members in addition to supervisor Bill Aucoin, then accomplished a manuscript in comparatively quick order. At the time, nevertheless, Aucoin was negotiating for a Saturday morning tv cartoon for Kiss and feared that the a forthright e-book about the group — whose macabre theatrics and sexualized songs had been nonetheless controversial in some circles — would give teams like Action for Children’s Television ammunition to undermine his plans. Aucoin shelved the e-book as an alternative, and the manuscript sat in a storage facility till the early 2000s, when Leaf confirmed it to Kiss biographer Ken Sharp. Blown away by Leaf’s work, Sharp negotiated for the 2005 tome Kiss: Behind the Mask — The Authorized Biography, which used Leaf’s manuscript and up to date it with Sharp’s further work. Leaf, in the meantime, revealed an up to date model of God Only Knows: The Story of Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys and the California Myth in 2022.

MC5, untitled
At the time of his demise in 2016, veteran music journalist Ben Edmonds was engaged on a e-book about legendary Detroit rockers MC5, whom he’d lined for Creem and different publications. The e-book was unauthorized, however Edmonds had full cooperation from the band and did intensive interviews with MC5 principals and people round them. Edmonds requested Creem mate Jaan Uhelszki to see the challenge by, and she or he and former Guitar World editor Brad Tolinski are turning his notes into a brand new e-book that was scheduled to come out in 2024.