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Dolly Parton is adding to her book collection, with the upcoming Oct. 17 release Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones, an in-depth look at the country icon’s lifelong passion for style.
Parton collaborated on the book with author/journalist Holly George-Warren, with curation by Rebecca Seaver, Parton’s director of archive services. George-Warren has authored more than a dozen books, including the Janis Joplin biography, Janis: Her Life and Music.
“I am happy, proud and excited to present my book Behind the Seams to the public,” Parton said in a statement. “It is my hope that you will enjoy a look at my life in costume and hair and get to know some of the great people who have helped shape my life and my look. Enjoy!”
Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones offers a look at Parton’s private costume archive, with photographs highlighting many of her most iconic looks, beginning with the 1960s (Parton released her debut album, Hello, I’m Dolly, in 1967) and chronicling her style through present-day. The book spotlights her famous wigs, towering heels and sparkly stage clothes — including the bunny suit she wore on the cover of Playboy, attire worn at the storied Studio 54, and costumes from many of her film and television roles.
In true Parton style, the book is also filled with stories and plenty of humor, as she also discusses fashion that had an impact on her childhood and career, such as the clothes her mother would sew out of feed sacks (including her famous “Coat of Many Colors”). The book is the second in a trilogy that started with Songteller: My Life in Lyrics, which Parton wrote with esteemed author/journalist Robert K. Oermann.
Last year, Parton also teamed with author James Patterson on the fiction book Run Rose Run.
Paris: The Memoir, released Tuesday (March 14), sees heiress Paris Hilton opening up about several of the misconceptions around her life and career in the public eye.
Of the many topics covered, Hilton revealed that Demi Lovato gave her inspiration to come forward about her own story of abuse, shared her thoughts about being parodied in the music video for P!nk‘s 2006 hit “Stupid Girls,” and shed some additional light on what led to the now-infamous photograph of her, Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan.
Released in 2017, Lovato’s Simply Complicated documentary covered the singer’s personal struggles with abuse and coping in the public eye. “I was as stunned as the rest of the world by how real, vulnerable, and courageous she was in the Demi Lovato: Simply Complicated documentary in 2017,” Hilton recalled in the memoir. “In the doc, Demi shared a painful reckoning with a difficult past; in person, I saw her in the midst of an intense journey of self-acceptance and discovery. I envied that acceptance. I wanted that discovery for myself.”
As for P!nk’s “Stupid Girls,” Hilton said the pop star made the explicit decision to sing “about ‘outcasts and girls with ambition’” and chose “not to see it in me.”
“When everyone was buzzing about a sex tape of a certain teenage girl from a soon-to-be-hit TV show — a girl who said emphatically over and over that she did not want the tape out there — the takeaway was ‘Stupid Girl,’” Hilton said of P!nk in the book. “The whole video is a not-at-all-subtle send-up of ‘porno paparazzi girls’ in general and, specifically, me, in a parody of my infamous sex tape.”
She continued, “[The tape was] made when I was not legally old enough to be served a rum and coke in a bar, was released and monetized against my will, but when that thing hit the internet, the full weight of public outrage, scorn, and disgust came down on me instead of on the massive crowd of people who bought and sold it.”
The same year that “Stupid Girls” was released, Hilton was under media scrutiny again for what the media dubbed the “bimbo summit” — a photograph of her alongside Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan squeezed into a two-seat Mercedes-Benz. According to Hilton, she and Spears escaped a party through a bathroom window to not be rude to the hosts; Lohan was also leaving the same party days after she allegedly bit Hilton on the arm.
“[Lohan’s publicist] Elliot [Miltz] brought her over to the car and opened the door. To get her out of the rain, maybe? Or maybe to clear up any crazy rumors that might be flying around?” Hilton wrote. “And then Lindsay got in the car, which was kind of awkward because I was driving a Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren that had only two seats.”
Following the memoir’s release, Hilton took to Instagram to share her excitement about its arrival. “Today is the day. My book, “Paris: The Memoir” is available NOW!” she captioned a series of photos of her posing with the book. “Writing this book has been one of the most terrifying yet rewarding things I’ve ever done. I can’t wait for you to get to know the real me.”
Paris: The Memoir is available for purchase now.
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The National Museum of African American History and Culture is set to release a new book capturing the impact of Black music on American society and the world.
In a press release issued on Wednesday (February 23rd), the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) celebrated the release of Musical Crossroads: Stories Behind the Objects of African American Music. The new book covers the impact of Black music on America and the world from the 19th Century to the present day, featuring compelling images of over 200 images of items from the institution’s permanent collection which were featured in a 2017 exhibition by the same name.
“Harriet Tubman’s hymnal, Charlie Parker’s saxophone, Chuck Berry’s Cadillac Eldorado, Sammy Davis Jr.’s childhood tap shoes, the Parliament Funkadelic Mothership—these are among the nearly 4,000 items that make up the music collection stewarded by the National Museum of African American History and Culture,” said NMAAHC Director Kevin W. Young.
The essays in the Musical Crossroads book are contained within five chapters: Music and the Meaning of Things, Roots and Branches, Music in the Community, Music of the Community, I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free, and The Power(s) of Black Music. Essays have been contributed by a select array of writers and researchers, with former NMAAHC Music and Performing Arts Curator Dwandalyn D. Reece serving as editor.
“Music is the great equalizer around the world. No matter where it originates or what form it takes, it has played a crucial role in shaping the human experience and preserving the history of that experience for centuries,” Reece wrote in the press statement. “The museum’s music collection includes celebrated artists, diverse music genres, high-profile professionals, institutions, and historical events, as well as artifacts that reflect the role music plays in the day-to-day lives of individuals in their homes, churches, schools, and local communities.”
The book is published in conjunction with GILES Ltd, a company based in the United Kingdom. Musical Crossroads: Stories Behind the Objects of African American Music will be available to the public for purchase on March 7th, 2023 wherever books are sold.
Ever wanted to read a detailed, autobiographical account of how a star such as Barbra Streisand is born? If so, the following news definitely won’t rain on your parade. The 80-year-old chart-topping singer and actress announced Tuesday (Feb. 7) that her highly anticipated memoir, titled My Name Is Barbra, is finally coming to bookstores near you on Nov. 7.
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The news arrived via a simple, elegant announcement on the Broadway star’s Instagram, along with a glamorous black and white photo of a younger Babs that may or may not be the book’s cover. “Barbra’s memoir ‘My Name Is Barbra’ coming November 7th,” the announcement reads.
My Name Is Barbra will be published by Penguin Random House and is already available for $45 preorder on the publishing company’s website, where a “coming soon” sign is displayed in place of the book’s cover. “Barbra Streisand is by any account a living legend, a woman who in a career spanning six decades has excelled in every area of entertainment,” reads Penguin’s description of the book.
“In My Name Is Barbra, she tells her own story about her life and extraordinary career, from growing up in Brooklyn to her first star-making appearances in New York nightclubs to her breakout performance in Funny Girl (musical and film) to the long string of successes in every medium in the years that followed.”
“The book is, like Barbra herself, frank, funny, opinionated, and charming,” adds the description, noting that Streisand will recount her early career struggles, film work and the recording processes behind her extensive discography. She’ll also divulge details about her friendships with stars such as Marlon Brando and Madeleine Albright, along with the “fulfillment she’s found in her marriage to James Brolin.”
Streisand, who’s also author of My Passion for Design, has been teasing fans with the possibility of a memoir for years. The project eventually started to materialize back in 2015, when it was first announced that she would publish a memoir, originally slated to arrive in 2017. It wasn’t finished in time, however, something the performer opened up about in a 2018 interview with The New Yorker.
“Four years in. They wanted the book in two years,” she told to the publication. “I find it hard to look back. You know, I have to look myself up … I find that it’s hard to look at yourself. I don’t mean hard as in negative. I mean, it feels egotistic to look at something about yourself … The only reason I said I’ll do the book now is because I couldn’t get movies that I wanted to make made.”
See the announcement for Barbra Streisand’s memoir, My Name Is Barbra, below:
The following is an excerpt from Gary Graff’s new book Alice Cooper @ 75 (Motorbooks, pre-order here), a lavish, comprehensive look at the game-changing shock rocker, which comes out Tuesday (Jan. 31), days ahead of Cooper’s actual 75th birthday on Feb. 4. Below, Graff – a veteran rock journalist and longtime Billboard contributor – tells the real story behind the name Alice Cooper.
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The Alice Cooper band had been through a couple of names, including the Earwigs and the Spiders, before settling on the Nazz when it moved from Phoenix to Los Angeles. But during the fall of 1968, another Nazz out of Philadelphia, led by Todd Rundgren, released its first album and had a hit with “Open My Eyes,” nixing the name for Cooper (then still Vincent Furnier) and company. Discussions were soon under way about a new moniker.
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During this time, some of the band members joined then-manager Dick Phillips at his mother’s house. She was reputed to be a medium and pulled out a Ouija board to have a little fun. When Furnier asked the spirits whom he’d been in a previous life, the board led him toward the spelling of A-L-I-C-E-C-O-O-P-E-R.
A great story. But not a true one.
That actual adoption of the Alice Cooper name was more mundane. “I just kind of said, ‘Alice Cooper.’ It just came out of my mouth. That was it,” he said. “It had a quality to it—a little deranged, a little wholesome, a little spooky maybe. And . . . I felt like it would make people go, ‘Wait . . . what?! Alice Cooper? They’re all guys. Who’s Alice Cooper?’”
In Alice Cooper: Golf Addict he elaborated, “There was something about it. I conjured up an image of a little girl with a lollipop in one hand and a butcher knife in the other. Lizzie Borden. Alice Cooper. They had a similar ring.”
The moniker opened a wealth of conceptual possibilities for a group of long-haired rock ’n’ rollers who were already exercising their theatrical creativity on stage. They got help from friends in the groupie-cum-band GTOs (Girls Together Outrageously) and turned to the movies for inspiration. Tapping Bette Davis’s disturbing look in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, Cooper began applying black mascara to roughly circle his eyes. “I had absolutely no qualms about it,” Cooper told Behind the Music. “I had to build a reputation somehow in this city.” Barbarella’s Great Tyrant (played by Anita Pallenberg) and The Avengers’ Emma Peel, meanwhile, were sources for futuristic leather and glam costuming that was both flashy and foreboding. It all struck a not-so-delicate balance between a soft femininity that complemented the band’s brand of counterculture vaudeville and the more aggressive aspects of its performance art.
“A guy, not a girl,” Cooper wrote. “A group not a solo act. A villain, not a hero or an idol. A woman killer. Weird. Eerie. Twisted. Ambiguous. It all came together—and nobody was doing anything remotely similar. On top of it all, everyone in the band was straight.”
Alice Cooper was never supposed to be one person, however. It was conceived solely as the band’s name, with Vince Furnier as a member of the band. But the singer’s name became Alice, as the song says—perhaps inevitably. “I was Vince,” said Cooper, who would change his legal name before the band’s first album. “But when we became Alice Cooper, everyone was like, ‘You’re Alice . . .Hey, Alice!’ ‘Oh . . . you mean me?’ It just stuck, and pretty soon I was Alice.”
The Ouija board myth hung around, however. And the original band would continue to reference it throughout its time together, including in guitarist Mike Bruce’s memoir No More Mr. Nice Guy. “It gave us a myth, a great story,” Cooper said. “People loved it even better than the truth.”
Of her many accolades, Mary J. Blige can soon add “children’s book author” to her already impressive list of achievements. The “Just Fine” singer shared the news about her debut effort on Instagram on Wednesday (Nov. 16) and revealed that story — which will be published by HarperCollins next year — is title Mary Can! and reflects her personal struggles while growing up.
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“Mary Can! is an inspirational and motivating story about a young girl who proves that anyone can make their dreams come true if they just believe in themselves,” Blige captioned the book’s official cover art, which features an illustration of a young Black girl sitting in front of a brownstone building and drawing in green sidewalk chalk.
“It’s such a personal story for me, based off my own experiences as a child and even as an adult. I was so used to people telling me ‘no’ and that I ‘couldn’t’ which only motivated me more,” the 51-year-old singer continued. “My hope with this book is that it instills in kids from an early age that they can do anything they aspire to do. There are no limits to what they can accomplish!”
Blige elaborated on the story behind Mary Can! in an interview with People, explaining that she wants “kids to know that there are no limits to what they can accomplish. My wish is for my nieces and nephews to feel they can achieve anything they imagine. Growing up, I was constantly told that my dreams were too big, too bold, and too far out of reach. I think we need to reinforce that nothing is impossible.”
The announcement of Blige’s children’s book comes on the heels of her multiple 2023 Grammy Award nominations. She earned a total of six nods, including best R&B performance for “Here With Me” featuring Anderson .Paak; best traditional R&B performance for “Good Morning Gorgeous”; best R&B song for “Good Morning Gorgeous”; and best R&B album for Good Morning Gorgeous — the album and its title track, meanwhile, earned bids in the album of the year and record of the year categories.
Mary Can! will be released via HarperCollins on March 28, 2023.
See Mary J’s book announcement below.
In the first statement released since his death Saturday at age 34, Aaron Carter‘s management team is decrying “obscenely disrespectful and unauthorized releases” planned from the late star, including an album, single and book.
The statement, sent from Taylor Helgeson of Big Umbrella Management, thanked Carter’s ex-girlfriend Hilary Duff for speaking out against a posthumous book release, titled Aaron Carter: An Incomplete Story of an Incomplete Life. An excerpt from the memoir published by Page Six claims that the stars lost their virginity to each other, and Duff is taking issue with the lack of fact checking for the project. “It’s really sad that within a week of Aaron’s death, there’s a publisher that seems to be recklessly pushing a book out to capitalize on this tragedy without taking appropriate time or care to fact check the validity of his work,” Duff said in a statement provided to Billboard.
In the statement from Carter’s management team, they thank Duff for her response to the book, which they say is “unauthorized,” along with a single and album release.
“In the few short days following our dear friend’s passing we have been trying to grieve and process while simultaneously having to deal with obscenely disrespectful and unauthorized releases including an album, a single and now it seems a book,” the statement reads. “This is a time for mourning and reflection not heartless money grabs and attention seeking. We would ask the parties responsible to remove the aforementioned content and that no further content be released without approval from his family, friends, and associates.”
Billboard has reached out to Ballast Books, the publisher behind the planned memoir release, for response to the managers’ claims.
As for music, an independent album called Blacklisted was released on Sunday, the day after Carter’s death, by producers Morgan Matthews and John Wyatt Johnson. “We decided to release Blacklisted tomorrow to honor him and share his exceptional artistry with his fans around the world as we all mourn his loss,” the producers said in a statement on the day of Carter’s death.
Carter was found dead Saturday at age 34. No cause of death has been announced for the pop star, TV personality and brother of Backstreet Boys’ Nick Carter.
Also in their statement, the Big Umbrella team thanks fans for their “overwhelming support and kind words during this difficult time,” adding: “We love you Aaron, you are so deeply missed.”
Read the full statement from Carter’s management below:
We as Aaron’s Management are grieving deeply for the loss of our dear friend and colleague Aaron, the silence is deafening and our world is different without you here. We would like to thank everyone for their overwhelming support and kind words During this difficult time. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family, friends, and beautiful son Prince. We love you Aaron, you are so deeply missed.
We would also like to thank Hillary Duff for her statement regarding the Book that is set to be released. In the few short days following our dear friends passing we have been trying to grieve and process while simultaneously having to deal with obscenely disrespectful and unauthorized releases including an album, a single and now it seems a book.
This is a time for mourning and reflection not heartless money grabs and attention seeking. We would ask the parties responsible to remove the aforementioned content and that no further content be released without approval from his family, friends, and associates.
As AC/DC’s frontman since 1980, Brian Johnson is used to shaking people all night. But writing his new memoir, The Lives of Brian, affected him in a different way.
“I had to be careful, because sometimes it can get a little emotional, and it all comes out,” Johnson tells Billboard from his home in Sarasota, Fla., which he had to vacate briefly during Hurricane Ian. “It goes from your brain into your heart, through the soul and then the hand and you’re writing and you gotta stop and, ‘Whoo, this might be a bit much now, come on.’ And there were tears. There were times I actually started crying.”
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One of those times, Johnson says, came as he wrote about being treated for debilitating hearing issues during October 2015 at the same medical facility where AC/DC co-founder and guitarist Malcolm Young was being for dementia. “When I was writing about being next to Malcolm, just over the way, it was horrible,” Johnson recalls. “The tears were falling when I was writing it. It was a very touching moment.” The two bandmates did not connect, however; he writes that Young’s wife limited visitors to immediate family only. Young passed away during November 2017 at the age of 64.
Johnson says he had other Kleenex-dampening moments throughout his writing, which he did primarily by longhand. The 373-page The Lives of Brian, which publishes Oct. 25, is his second book and the follow-up to the car-centric Rockers and Rollers: A Full-Throttle Memoir in 2011. And it may surprise fans how little is in the book about AC/DC; he limits the discourse to his joining the group (including the first audition when he was late because he was playing pool downstairs with crew members), recording the 25-times platinum Back in Black album, the hearing issues that took him out of the band, temporarily, during the 2015-2016 Rock Or Bust World Tour and the making of 2020’s Billboard 200-topping album Power Up.
Why not more?
“I didn’t want to write an AC/DC book, ’cause that’s not my book. It never will be. It’s not my story to tell,” Johnson explains. “That book is for the boys, or whoever was there from the start. That’s what I want to read. I want to read what it was like when Malcolm and Angus just had a meeting and said, ‘Right, let’s do this’ and got the drummer and the singer. I think it would be fantastic if it came out, if somebody wanted to do it. But that’s not my book. And I think a book about the present day or, say, when I joined to the present day would be nothing more than a catalog, a diary of what happened.”
“The Lives of Brian”
Courtesy Photo
Johnson does tease at the end of The Lives of Brian that “I will save all those stories for another time, another book,” but he now considers that an “unfortunate” and unintended promise. “I should have said that’s another book, but it’s not mine,” he says. “I wouldn’t write another book about the band, absolutely not. If there’s something else to write about I would, but there isn’t. It’s somebody else’s story. If I can think of something like the great f-ck-ups on stage, maybe, THAT would be a f-ckin’ book!”
Johnson had no problem filling The Lives of Brian with other compelling stories, however, both humorous and heart-wrenching. Writing in a conversational style that conveys the energy of his soul-banshee vocal delivery, Johnson digs into his family history — an Italian mother who came back to England with Johnson’s father after World War II (“He must’ve had a silver tongue, ’cause my ma was from a better place”) — and growing up poor working class in industrial northern England. Music seemed a way out, and Johnson chronicles early days of “having to go on stage and sing, not a clue what the f-ck I was doing but enjoying it and, ‘Hey, this is good when people clap at the end. That makes me feel good, that does.’”
The Lives of Brian details his early bands, most notably Geordie, which had some British and European hits and toured around the continent. It was with Geordie that Johnson met his AC/DC predecessor, Bon Scott, who at the time was in a lighter-weight band called Fang. “They opened for us,” says Johnson, who writes in the book about Scott and Fang sneaking into Geordie’s hotel room one night after the band’s tour bus broke down. “I think at the time Bon was learning his trade,” Johnson recalls. “He was playing flute and (Fang) was a bit Jethro Tull-y. It was very different than what he would do with (AC/DC).” Johnson’s kindness was repaid down the road, however.
“It’s so great to think that I met him and did two gigs with him, and the wonderful part is that he actually mentioned me to Angus and Malcolm when they were talking about rock singers. (Scott) said, ‘Well, I met a f-ckin’ one that was worth his weight.’ I never saw him after that, but it was amazing that we did meet.”
The Lives of Brian’s telling of Johnson joining AC/DC is also highlight, documenting the band’s hospitality — they had his native Newcastle Brown Ale waiting for him — and the singer guiding them through an unexpected rendition of Ike & Tina Turner’s “Nutbush City Limits.” “I was me,” Johnson recalls. “I don’t give a f-ck. I was like, ‘That was brilliant! Wasn’t that great?!’ And these guys were just not used to that kind of thing, and they were looking at each other going, ‘Yeah, well, do you know one of our songs?’ and I go, ‘Whole Lotta Rosie’? And they all went, ‘Yeah!’”
Johnson — who had a business replacing auto roofs at the time — left convinced that he wouldn’t get the job. “I finished me Brown Ale and I said, ‘Y’know what, lads, thank you so much. I’ll never forget this. Wait’ll I get home and tell the boys I’ve had a sing with AC/DC — they’ll never f-ckin’ believe it. Anyway, I’ve gotta get shootin’. Got to open the shop tomorrow, and I’ve got a gig tomorrow night.’
“Then one of the managers (Peter Mensch) comes out and says, ‘Where are you going?’ ‘I’m f-ckin’ going home.’ ‘You can’t’ go home!’ I said, ‘Why not?’ He’s going, ‘Well, well, well, the lads haven’t finished yet.’ But it was true — I had to open up the shop in the morning and we did have a gig that night. But it was a joyful ride back.”
Mensch prevailed upon Johnson to return and the rest, of course, is history. He reveals in the book that he made Malcolm Young call him twice to make sure the job offer was real, and Johnson also recalls playing Back in Black for the first time at one of his Geordie II bandmate’s house because Johnson didn’t have a turntable of his own. “He was like, ‘Come on, the quicker we get this over with the quicker we can get the band started again,” Johnson remembers. “So I drive to his house and I get (the album) out and he’s going, ‘F-ckin’ black?! Is that it?’ Then we put it on and it starts with ‘Hells Bells’ and he’s going, ‘Ooh, it’s taking its time isn’t it?’ Then I start singing and he went, ‘Oh, no, that’s way too high!’ It wasn’t anything bad or nasty, just, ‘That’s way too high, son’ and he took it off and said, ‘Come on, let’s go get some beer.’ And that was my introduction to the f-ckin’ album.”
Johnson has recorded an audiobook version of The Lives of Brian but laughs off the idea of a movie based on it. “If they do, I’ll shoot the balls off anybody. I hate movies about bands,” says Johnson, adding that his management has received multiple offers for the film rights. “One of theme even sent a full script. I read about 30 pages in and it was awful. That was just one and I knew the others were going to be the same, so…nah.”
As The Lives of Brian rolls out, Johnson is looking at other endeavors. He’s been active in helping Asius Technologies develop the hearing aids that allow him to perform live again — most recently at the Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concert on Sept. 3 in London. He also has a hankering to “jump into my race car, put the helmet on, qualify as high as I can and just go racing.”
He’s more circumspect about AC/DC, however. He refers to the band as “still a working entity of sorts” but stops short of revealing any future touring or recording plans.
“I would love to do music again,” Johnson says, “whether it’ll be guesting with somebody, whether it be actually playing live with the boys. I’ve heard that term ‘hell freezes over’ a million times before with people saying, ‘I’m not doing that again.’ But I’d be up for it. I think everybody hopes to make more music.”
