Putting together this book was like being drunk in the backseat with a road-raged driver. The research team would interrogate me about facts I clearly couldn’t remember, and I’d turn to my wife, who has been half my brain during our 40-plus-year marriage. If she didn’t recall, I’d ask friends, family, even fans, until someone finally nudged some long-unused neuron into recollection, and I’d jot it down, send it to the writers who would line everything up with established facts, and then wash, rinse, repeat.
The real wonder is what the imaging team did with the gooey, crusty old photo negatives and faded newspaper clippings I sent them. Cameras weren’t all that great back in the day, and over the years, I lost many of the original photos, or they were so damaged that you couldn’t tell what was in them. It’s thanks to their wizardry that the images in this book bring the story to life with such stunning detail and clarity. Clearer than my memory for sure, and I was there!
When I first started down this path, I just wanted to be the nerd behind the glass, twisting knobs, writing sheet music, and running cables. But fate intervened, and I was dragged out of my cozy, warm booth into the cold limelight a whopping 1500 plus times throughout my career. My wife has long said she married two men: the one who gets shit done and the one who hops around onstage like a monkey with a jalapeño up its ass.
There wouldn’t be much to talk about were it not for the long-standing partnership with Capitol Records and Sony Entertainment, both of which were there from the beginning and have supported the hundreds of musical projects I’ve produced since. The music business is tough, and without their support, I would likely be dressed in a gorilla suit, spinning a sign outside some discount cell phone outlet.
Let me close with this: I am blessed to have such a team by my side from the start. We laughed, cried, and walked through fire together. Some are no longer with us, yet together we made this journey magical. So, without further ado, we hope you enjoy the story…