Life changed for Michael Francis at the age of 21 when Paul McCartney walked into his father's boxing gym to watch his friend John Conteh preparing for a fight. Paul hired Michael as his security guard, beginning a thirty-year music business career in which he worked with such legendary names as Led Zeppelin, Bad Company, The Osmonds, Sheena Easton, Frank Sinatra, Bon Jovi, Cher and Kiss. As tour manager, Michael was responsible for every aspect of their safety and their comfort, from making sure they were not mobbed on stage to making sure they got paid. Whatever they wanted, he got hold of. To some of them he became close. He was best man at Jon Bon Jovi's wedding, and provided personal security for five years for Cher at her Malibu home. He shared their wildest excesses, their highs and their lows; he saw their fears and, all too often, their loneliness and paranoia. Sometimes hilarious, frequently shocking, always perceptive, STAR MAN is the outrageous, uncompromising and brutally honest story of one man's life with the biggest stars of rock.

From the author of the critically acclaimed Elvis Presley biography: Last Train to Memphis brings us the life of Sam Phillips, the visionary genius who singlehandedly steered the revolutionary path of Sun Records. The music that he shaped in his tiny Memphis studio with artists as diverse as Elvis Presley, Ike Turner, Howlin' Wolf, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Johnny Cash, introduced a sound that had never been heard before. He brought forth a singular mix of black and white voices passionately proclaiming the vitality of the American vernacular tradition while at the same time declaring, once and for all, a new, integrated musical day. With extensive interviews and firsthand personal observations extending over a 25-year period with Phillips, along with wide-ranging interviews with nearly all the legendary Sun Records artists, Guralnick gives us an ardent, unrestrained portrait of an American original as compelling in his own right as Mark Twain, Walt Whitman, or Thomas Edison.

Dynamic, funny, and inspiring photos of global entertainment icon, entrepreneur, and trailblazer, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, featuring twenty years' worth of candids, family moments, and snapshots from film and television sets, many never-before-seen. Hiram Garcia, who has known Dwayne Johnson since college, is a longtime collaborator, producing partner, and talented photographer. As a film and television producer as well as in his role as the President of Production at Seven Bucks Productions, Garcia has unprecedented access to capture images on the sets of Seven Bucks’ films including such blockbuster hits as Jumanji: The Next Level, Jungle Cruise, Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, and more. As one of his closest friends, Garcia knows Johnson inside and out, and that deep relationship informs the photographs he shares in this book. Whether it’s an action-packed photo snapped during an intense film take, or a relaxed and candid shot of Johnson with his daughters, Garcia focuses his lens on the qualities he most admires in his friend: his extraordinary work ethic, his infectious smile, his empathy and sense of humor, and the joy and determination Johnson brings to everything he does. With scores of photos—most of them never been seen before and taken over two decades—The Rock: Through the Lens: His Life, His Movies, His World is enhanced by captions revealing the inside stories behind these remarkable images.

Drooling fanatic, n. 1. One who drools in the presence of beloved rock stars. 2. Any of a genus of rock-and-roll wannabes/geeks who walk around with songs constantly ringing in their ears, own more than 3,000 albums, and fall in love with at least one record per week. With a life that’s spanned the phonographic era and the digital age, Steve Almond lives to Rawk. Like you, he’s secretly longed to live the life of a rock star, complete with insane talent, famous friends, and hotel rooms to be trashed. Also like you, he’s content (sort of) to live the life of a rabid fan, one who has converted his unrequited desires into a (sort of) noble obsession. Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life traces Almond’s passion from his earliest (and most wretched) rock criticism to his eventual discovery of a music-crazed soul mate and their subsequent production of two little superfans. Along the way, Almond reflects on the delusional power of songs, the awkward mating habits of drooling fanatics, and why Depression Songs actually make us feel so much better. The book also includes: • sometimes drunken interviews with America’s finest songwriters • a recap of the author’s terrifying visit to Graceland while stoned • a vigorous and credibility-shattering endorsement of Styx’s Paradise Theater • recommendations you will often choose to ignore • a reluctant exegesis of the Toto song “Africa” • obnoxious lists sure to piss off rock critics But wait, there’s more. Readers will also be able to listen to a special free mix designed by the author, available online at www.stevenalmond.com, for the express purpose of eliciting your drool. For those about to rock—we salute you!

The eagerly-awaited personal memoir by award-winning author Geoffrey Notkin, and star of the popular television adventure series, Meteorite Men. A science writer and television host with a rock ’n’ roll heart describes his exciting, and sometimes astonishing, quest for meaning and understanding in an unexplainable universe. From the smoking volcanoes of Iceland to the sunblasted wasteland of Chile’s Atacama Desert, and the Australian Outback to the Siberian Arctic, Geoffrey Notkin recounts a forty-year odyssey of adventure that takes him to some of the world’s strangest and wildest places—where music and meteorites are often the only sign posts. Fourteen years in the making, Rock Star, chronicles Geoff's incredible adventures across four continents in search of elusive space rocks, his career as a rock 'n' roll musician, and his childhood in an oppressive British public school. It is populated by a cast of fascinating, larger-than-life characters, and relates hilarious behind-the-scenes stories about the making of Geoff's numerous TV shows. A unique, unforgettable, and beautifully-told story of adventure, passion, determination, danger, frustration, and ultimate triumph.

Sergeant Rock evolves from a native, baseball-playing, church-going Christian and skinny college kid to a well-trained killing machine in Vietnam. Leaving California to take part in the Tet Offensive in 1968, he finds the culture shock between the two overwhelming. Thrust into war and killing, he finds his approach to life and death must change quickly, but he holds fast to his beliefs. Though he saves others, his attitude toward killing and death changes for the worse, while his approach toward life improves. Sergeant Rock is a much better person for the choices he makes. In the course of a single Tet Offensive battle, his company loses all but 13 men, as 126 soldiers die in two hours. His faith increases when he meets his guardian angel during the battle. Sergeant Rock pushes his squad to their limits because he knows that death may lie just beyond the next bush. He may be only 20, but he thinks like an old veteran. With the body count in his mind, he wonders if he can ever be around normal people again. He experiences many horrors and watches friend after friend die as heroes. The hardships his squad must face, such as going without fresh water or clothes for 57 days, being shot down in a chopper, and just trying to stay alive are overwhelming. How much can our minds take before they crack? Sergeant Rock believes divine intervention is the only reason he is alive to tell his story.

Originally published: New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2005.