Bill Graham Presents: My Life Inside Rock And Out [Paperback]

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

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.

A worthy coda to the master showman's illustrious career, the book is at once a deeply personal and insightful history of modern rock. Rolling Stone One of the best-if not the best-books ever written about the world, and the business, of rock 'n' roll. New York Post An extraordinary insider account of the golden age of rock 'n' roll. Boston Globe