"Tom Waits, even with his barnyard growl and urban hipster yawp, may just be what the Daily Telegraph calls him: "the greatest entertainer on Planet Earth." Over a span of almost four decades, he has transformed his music and persona, not to suit the times, but his whims. Along with Bob Dylan, he stands as an elder statesman still capable of putting out music that matters. Journalists intent upon cracking the code are more likely to come out of a...

Keeping up with Keef. This compilation of interviews encompasses the Rolling Stones' fifty-year career. Featuring articles from such celebrated publications as Melody Maker, Rolling Stone, and GQ, as well as interviews that have never previously appeared in print, it charts Keith Richards's journey from gauche young pretender to swaggering epitome of the zeitgeist to beloved elder statesman of rock.In the Stones' early years Keith stood in the shadows...

"It's going to be one hell of a great--everlastingly great--book with humor, tears, fun, emotion, and love," Judy Garland said of her plans to tell her life story. But she died at the age of forty-seven before seeing it through. Judy Garland on Judy Garland is the closest we will likely come to experiencing and exploring the legend's abandoned autobiography. Collecting and presenting the most important Garland interviews and encounters that took place...

Leonard Cohen, one of the most admired performers of the last half century, has had a stranger-than-fiction, roller-coaster ride of a life. Now, for the first time, he tells his story in his own words, via more than 50 interviews conducted worldwide between 1966 and 2012. In Leonard Cohen on Leonard Cohen, which includes a foreword by singer Suzanne Vega and eight pages of rarely, seen photos the artist talks about Bird on the Wire, Hallelujah, and...

David Bowie has been one of pop music's greatest interviewees since January 1972, when he famously risked career death by asserting to Melody Maker that he was gay. Although he wasn't yet a big star, it was a groundbreaking moment. And over the years, Bowie has failed to give an uninteresting interview. It might be said that he has habitually used the media for his own ends, but he has paradoxically also been searingly honest, declining to ever be...

Fleetwood Mac was a triumph from the beginning-their first album was the UK's bestselling album of 1968. After some low points-when founder Peter Green left, some fans felt that the band continuing was sacrilege-Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks joined, and the band's 1977 album Rumours became one of history's immortals, a true classic that remained in the charts for years and public affection forever.  In the press, the ethereal Californian Stevie...

The Clash thought they could change the world. They never did, but they created some of the greatest rock music of all time in the attempt. Clash interviews were mesmerizing. Infused with the messianic punk spirit, the Clash engaged with the press like no rock group before or since, treating interviews almost as addresses to the nation. Their pronouncements were welcomed but were hardly uncritically reported. The Clash's back pages are voluminous,...

The Who were a mass of contradictions. They brought intellect to rock but were the darlings of punks. They were the quintessential studio act yet were also the greatest live attraction in the world. They perfectly meshed on stage and displayed a complete lack of personal chemistry offstage. Along with their great live shows and supreme audio experiences, the Who provided great copy. During the 1960's and 70's, Pete Townshend, messianic about contemporary...

Few artists of the 20th century are as intriguing as Joni Mitchell. She was a solidly middle-class, buttoned-up bohemian; an anti-feminist who loved men but scorned free love; a female warrior taking on the male music establishment. She was both the party girl with torn stockings and the sensitive poet. She often said she would be criticized for staying the same or changing, so why not take the less boring option? Her earthy, poetic lyrics ("the geese...

From the moment Patti Smith burst onto the scene, chanting "Jesus died for somebody's sins, but not mine," the irreverent opening line to Horses, her 1975 debut album, the punk movement had found its dissident intellectual voice. Yet outside the recording studio-Smith has released eleven studio albums-the punk poet laureate has been perhaps just as revelatory and rhapsodic in interviews, delivering off-the-cuff jeremiads that emboldened a generation...