Musical Biographies and Memoirs

     “Waylon: Tales of My Outlaw Dad” is a biography of the late Waylon Jennings written by his son, Terry Jennings, with David Thomas. Terry was born when Waylon was only nineteen years old, so he was coming of age when his father’s career began its meteoric rise with hits like “I’ve Always Been Crazy” and “Good Hearted Woman”—one of Waylon’s most popular duets with Willie Nelson. Terry dropped out of high school to join his father on the road and the two became more like brothers than father and son. As a result, Terry spent formative years with legends like Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, and Jessi Colter—Waylon’s fourth and final wife. There was also a lot of hard partying, women, and drugs. Even as his father’s success grew with his critical acclaim, bestselling albums, sold-out tours, and even TV stardom with The Dukes of Hazzard, Waylon suffered from a myriad of demons. He went through three divorces, crippling debt, and bouts of depression that Terry believes traces back to the premature death of Buddy Holly. (Waylon was supposed to be on that doomed flight.) Terry debunks myths and shares never-before-told stories of his father with the great love and honesty.

     “Un-Ashamed” is an autobiography of rap artist Lecrae with Johnathan Merritt. This two–time Grammy winning artist has been through his share of adversity. He suffered through childhood abuse, drugs and alcoholism with a stint in rehab, an abortion, and an unsuccessful suicide attempt. Somewhere along the way, however, Lecrae found an unshakeable faith in Jesus and began turning to God for affirmation. He learned the lesson, “if you live for people’s acceptance, you’ll die from their rejection.” Now, he ignores the haters and makes peace with his craft. Lecrae holds nothing back as he reveals the most intimate details of his life as well as sharing handwritten journal entries and models how to be a Christian in a secular world.

     “Porcelain: A Memoir” is by DJ and musician Moby. There are many reasons why Moby should not have been as hugely popular in the unchecked, drug fueled, hedonism of the pumping underground dance clubs of NYC in the late 1980s and 1990s. First, he was a poor skinny white kid from Connecticut, but he was also a devout Christian, a vegan, and a teetotaler. He learned what it meant to be spat upon and to live on almost nothing. With the rise of AIDS and crack, it was a tough time for an artist to live on almost nothing in New York City, but it was also the time of a defiantly festive underworld culture. Moby managed to make his way, but he prepared to put his career behind him and poured all of his emotion into what he thought would be his swan song. Instead, it was the beginning of a surprisingly new phase in his life: the multimillion-selling album Play. This sincere portrait of a man with a passion for making music that steadied him in rough seas will inspire anyone pursuing a dream.

     “Kill ‘Em and Leave: Searching for James Brown and the American Soul” is a biography written by James McBride. For the author, this book is about more than James Brown. It is a metaphor for American life: the tension between North and South, black and white, rich and poor. McBride’s travels take him to the country town where Brown’s family and thousands of others were displaced by America’s largest nuclear power bomb-making facility; a South Carolina field where a long-forgotten cousin recounts, in the dead of night, a richer history of Brown’s sharecropping childhood—which had always been shrouded in mystery. He also seeks out the American expat in England who co-created the James Brown sound, visits the trusted manager who was Brown’s right hand for forty-one years, and relates the visit of Michael Jackson to the Augusta, Georgia funeral home where he sat all night with his musical godfather. Finally, McBride discusses the monster legal battles fought over Brown’s estate which prevented money from reaching the poor schoolchildren in Georgia and South Carolina, cost the estate millions in legal fees, and left James Brown’s body to lie in a gilded coffin in his daughter’s yard in South Carolina for more than eight years.