Cover of Bill Graham Presents: My Life Inside Rock And Out

Bill Graham Presents: My Life Inside Rock And Out

Gritty, moving, funny, and always fascinating, Bill Graham Presentsis the inside story of the explosive and unforgettable man who created the business of rock.

Read more

As a child, Bill Graham fled Europe to escape Hitler's armies. He grew up on the streets of New York and in the dining rooms of the hotels in the Catskills. After failing as an actor, he headed for San Francisco right before the Summer of Love where he founded the Fillmore and launched the rock icons of a generation—Janis Joplin, Otis Redding, Jefferson Airplane, Cream, the Grateful Dead, and more. He was a complex, caring, compassionate whirlwind of energy who rock stars either loved or hated.

In his own voice and those of the people who knew him—Jerry Garcia, Keith Richards, Grace Slick, Ken Kesey, Eric Clapton, Pete Townshend, and Carlos Santana—we hear Bill's story as well as the scoop on the major events in rock for more than three decades, ending with his tragic death in a 1991 helicopter crash.

Audience
adult
Length
epic · 608 pages

Click a tag to see books like this one that share it. Point at it (on a phone, tap it) for less of it instead.

Read it? Sign in to help tag it.

Liked Bill Graham Presents: My Life Inside Rock And Out? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked Bill Graham Presents: My Life Inside Rock And Out. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. Long Time Gone Shares music, biography, memoir
  2. One Way Out: The Inside History of the Allman Brothers Band Shares music, biography, memoir
  3. Starting at Zero Shares music, biography, memoir
  4. Moon: The Life and Death of a Rock Legend Shares music, biography, memoir

“People who read Bill Graham Presents: My Life Inside Rock And Out tend to reach for these next.”

  1. Searching for the Sound: My Life with the Grateful Dead
  2. Haywire
  3. Skydog - The Duane Allman Story
  4. Home Before Daylight: My Life on the Road with the Grateful Dead

“If you want more of the same (biography about music), start with these.”

  1. Me, Alice: The Autobiography of Alice Cooper
  2. Chuck Berry: The Autobiography
  3. Electric Don Quixote: The Definitive Story of Frank Zappa
  4. Hellfire: The Jerry Lee Lewis Story

“If it was the music that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. Stick It!: My Life of Sex, Drums, and Rock 'n' Roll
  2. Buck 'Em!: The Autobiography of Buck Owens
  3. Beethoven
  4. Ska'd for Life: A Personal Journey with The Specials

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. Live at the Fillmore East and West: Getting Backstage and Personal with Rock's Greatest Legends
  2. Daddy's Little Secret: Pregnant at 14 and There's Only One Man Who Can Be the Father
  3. Harrington Street
  4. I Slept With Joey Ramone