Match the Music Star With Their Memoir (Part 5) Quiz

Answer: Michael Diamond and Adam Horowitz

While Adam "MCA" Yauch of the Beastie Boys passed away in 2012, the two surviving members, Michael "Mike D" Diamond and Adam "Ad-Rock" Horowitz, released their scrapbook on October 30, 2018, and it became a #1 New York Times Bestseller. Mr. Diamond and Horowitz alternate telling the story, starting with their beginning as a hardcore punk band in NYC in 1981, and proceeding to their rise to global fame with the album "Licensed to Ill" including their fallout with Def Jam Records, and their social activism for the Tibetan freedom movement.

Answer: David Lee Roth

In 1997, former Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth published "Crazy From The Heat", which was also the title of his successful 1985 solo EP album. The book was compiled in a unique way: an unnamed Princeton University student recorded over 100 hours of Mr. Roth's spoken stories and monologues, which was then transcribed into a 1,200-page document, which was then edited down to the 359-page book, which covers the early years of Van Halen, as well as his solo career and their failed reunion.

Answer: Donald Fagen

Donald Fagen, the co-founder and lead vocalist of the legendary rock band Steely Dan, published "Eminent Hipsters" in 2013. The book is more of a memoir of Mr. Fagen's cultural influences which include composer Henry Mancini, radio broadcaster Jean Shepard, and others, than it is a traditional autobiography. He doesn't delve much into the success of the band Steely Dan, but instead offers his insights into cultural criticism.

Answer: Nick Cage, w/ Seán O'Hagan

This 2022 book by Nick Cave was written by way of a series of deep conversations (40 hours over two years during the COVID-19 pandemic) he had with the Irish journalist Seán O'Hagan. The book is structured around thematic chapters covering subjects such as religion, belief, art, freedom, grief, love, creativity, etc. Events include his childhood, his battle with heroin addiction, his various relationships, his work ethic, and the grief and loss experienced upon the death of his 15-year-old son, Arthur, in 2015.

Answer: James Brown

Published in 1986, this book by the man who has been called "the hardest working man in show business" tells about his rise from poverty to becoming a very influential musician of the 20th century. He grew up in a brothel in Augusta, Georgia, and spent his early years in reform school.

He writes of the invention of funk music, and his legendary performances, including the famous "Live at the Apollo" album. He doesn't shy away from his problems with the law, and taxes, and substance abuse. And he gets into his associations with other music legends like Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Tina Turner, and Michael Jackson.

Answer: Count basie

"Good Morning Blues" is the life story of one of jazz's most important figures, told in his own words. Published in 1985, the book features the appealing humor and wisdom of William "Count" Basie, pianist, composer, and bandleader who helped define the sound of the swing era.

It took ten years of conversations between Mr. Basie and Albert Murray, a renowned jazz historian, who co-founded Jazz at Lincoln Center in 1987. Basie Basie discusses his experiences some of the most renowned artists in entertainment: Fats Waller, Frank Sinatra, Fred Astaire, Sammy Davis Jr., Quincy Jones, Billie Holiday, Tony Bennett, etc.

Answer: Patti Smith

Patti Smith's memoir begins in 1967 when, at the age of 20, she left a restrictive life in rural New Jersey, armed for the excitement and promise of New York City. There, she would meet the aspiring artist Robert Mapplethorpe. From then on, the couple struggled through poverty, and cultivated their artistic visions, along with the nature of their relationship.

They lived in the Hotel Chelsea, a legendary oasis for writers, musicians, and artists. The "Godmother of Punk" published "Just Kids" in 2010, as a love letter to her "artist soulmate" as well as a look back at the bohemian scene in New York City of the late 1960s and 1970s.

Answer: Usher

"The Last Showman" is an original audio production released as part of Audible's Words + Music series, co-written by Gerrick Kennedy with Usher. The memoir blends storytelling with live musical performances. He credits his performer influences James Brown, Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley, Prince, Frank Sinatra, and Gene Kelly as his "teachers." During his childhood in Chattanooga, Tennessee, he sang in the church choir, and when his family moved to Atlanta, he found his place in the music industry.

Interspersed among the talking are live performances of his songs "Burn", "Confessions Pt. II", "Can U Handle It?", and "Bad Girl".

Answer: Jimmy Buffet

Jimmy Buffett's #1 New York Times bestselling memoir, "A Pirate Looks at Fifty," was released in 1998, to celebrate his 50th birthday. The autobiography is in part a travelogue, as it follows Mr. Buffet on a three-week trip through the Caribbean and Central America as he muses about his life, career, and the experiences that shaped him. Flying his family and friends in his Grumman Albatross seaplane, they covered Key West, the Amazon basin, and many other locales, and during the journey, he reminisces about his youth, his early music career in New Orleans, and his rise to fame.

Answer: Dolly Parton

Dolly Parton's bestseller looks at her life via the 60 years of songwriting she is famous for and features 175 songs (some in print for the first time). Each song is accompanied by personal backstories about the stories behind the songs. When she wrote them, how, and what they mean to her.

She mentions that the song of hers that is most covered by other artists is "Jolene". She tells us that, early in her career, every major record company on Nashville's Music Row turned her down as a singer, but she reveals next to nothing about her marriage of over years to the reclusive Carl Dean.

She sums up her songwriting approach: "I write a lot from my own heart. But I also just have a big imagination. When I was young, we didn't go to the movies, so I just created my own stories.

It's kind of embedded in me to make up songs and stories."