NOVEMBER 2022 - AudioFile
Paul Bellantoni’s resonant, empathetic performance leaves nothing to be desired in this revealing, often touching biography of pop music giant George Michael. The vocal tone Bellantoni adopts is restrained and sometimes somber, an approach that sounds right, considering the outsized pathos generated by Michael’s charismatic, erotic, tortured life. There’s no need to add more drama to this story! Michael didn’t handle his celebrity status well. In this thoughtful, meticulously researched biography, award-winning music author James Gavin offers compelling insights into Michael’s conflicts about being gay and his all-too-public descent into the typical excesses of stardom—sexual acting out, substance abuse, and self-imposed legal and health problems. The audiobook includes analysis of Michael’s artistic output and revealing interviews with many who knew him. T.W. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
author of Mapplethorpe: A Biography Patricia Morrisroe
George Michael: A Life is quite a life—one you won’t easily forget. James Gavin has written a thoroughly researched, engrossing, and illuminating portrait of a pop icon battling his own demons, the era’s raging homophobia, and the ever-changing musical scene. Gavin captures the highs and lows with great intelligence and sensitivity. It’s insightful and profoundly moving.
Danny Fields
James Gavin is an ace biographer, and inGeorge Michael: A Life he tells the heartrending tale of a pop legend who couldn’t love himself but made the whole world feel good.
Sheila Weller
James Gavin has delivered a stunning, empathic, and peerlessly knowledgeable biography of George Michael. Gavin’s attention to his subject’s artistry, his honest treatment of Michael’s struggles, his sharp-eyed understanding of the last days of record-company dominance, and his comprehension of the shifting tides of gay acceptance in our culture are sublime. The author of biographies of Chet Baker, Lena Horne, and Peggy Lee has, with this book, firmed up his place as one of our very best writers about music and life.”
David Hajdu
Read without prejudice and be prepared to be rattled and moved. Only James Gavin could do justice to this story of mercurial creativity, sex, and self-destruction in the glittery, harrowing, ethereal heights of pop stardom.
bestselling author of Simply Halston: The Unto Steven Gaines
A compelling portrayal of one of the most enigmatic entertainers in music, a fascinating tale meticulously researched and written by James Gavin.
USA Today
Music biographer Gavin offers a probing, definitive portrait of the equally gifted and tortured artist, charting his meteoric rise in the ’80s through his public self-destruction and tragic death.”
Bay Area Reporter
Though much has been written (and rewritten) about our fallen hero aka Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou, this revealing (and often shocking) portrait by music biographer Gavin draws on scores of published media features and hundreds of interviews with friends, colleagues, and insiders. Exposing Michael's past battles with the media, his rampant sexual proclivities, and probing the later years as his personal life unraveled, this biography is moving, eye-opening, and essential, even for readers with just a casual interest in pop culture.”
People Magazine
"A fascinating, heartbreaking bio."
New York Times bestselling author of The Beatles&# Bob Spitz
James Gavin is a biographer of the highest order, with a gorgeous sense of narrative and insight galore. His George Michael: A Life is a backstage, all-access pass into a glittery world filled with dark corners and trap doors. It’s a thrilling, albeit cautionary tale of success, excess, and a remarkable performer who met his destiny head-on.
New York Times
Gavin’s engrossing biography of the singer takes the measure of a gifted, tragic and infuriating man.
former president of MTV Productions Doug Herzog
George Michael’s burning ambition, incredible talent, and dark secrets are examined by James Gavin in this engrossing behind-the-scenes portrait.
From the Publisher
Gavin’s engrossing biography of the singer takes the measure of a gifted, tragic and infuriating man.
—New York Times
"A fascinating, heartbreaking bio."—People Magazine
“James Gavin has delivered a stunning, empathic, and peerlessly knowledgeable biography of George Michael. Gavin’s attention to his subject’s artistry, his honest treatment of Michael’s struggles, his sharp-eyed understanding of the last days of record-company dominance, and his comprehension of the shifting tides of gay acceptance in our culture are sublime. The author of biographies of Chet Baker, Lena Horne, and Peggy Lee has, with this book, firmed up his place as one of our very best writers about music and life.”
—Sheila Weller, author of Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon—and the Journey of a
“James Gavin is a biographer of the highest order, with a gorgeous sense of narrative and insight galore. His George Michael: A Life is a backstage, all-access pass into a glittery world filled with dark corners and trap doors. It’s a thrilling, albeit cautionary tale of success, excess, and a remarkable performer who met his destiny head-on.”—Bob Spitz, New York Times bestselling author of The Beatles: The Biography and Led Zeppelin: The Bio
“A compelling portrayal of one of the most enigmatic entertainers in music, a fascinating tale meticulously researched and written by James Gavin.”—Steven Gaines, bestselling author of Simply Halston: The Untold Story and The Love You Make: An Insi
“Read without prejudice and be prepared to be rattled and moved. Only James Gavin could do justice to this story of mercurial creativity, sex, and self-destruction in the glittery, harrowing, ethereal heights of pop stardom.”—David Hajdu, author of Lush Life: A Biography of Billy Strayhorn and Positively 4th Street: The Live
“George Michael: A Life is quite a life—one you won’t easily forget. James Gavin has written a thoroughly researched, engrossing, and illuminating portrait of a pop icon battling his own demons, the era’s raging homophobia, and the ever-changing musical scene. Gavin captures the highs and lows with great intelligence and sensitivity. It’s insightful and profoundly moving.”—Patricia Morrisroe, author of Mapplethorpe: A Biography
“James Gavin is an ace biographer, and inGeorge Michael: A Life he tells the heartrending tale of a pop legend who couldn’t love himself but made the whole world feel good.”—Danny Fields, manager, the Ramones
“George Michael’s burning ambition, incredible talent, and dark secrets are examined by James Gavin in this engrossing behind-the-scenes portrait.”—Doug Herzog, former president of MTV Productions
“Though much has been written (and rewritten) about our fallen hero aka Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou, this revealing (and often shocking) portrait by music biographer Gavin draws on scores of published media features and hundreds of interviews with friends, colleagues, and insiders. Exposing Michael's past battles with the media, his rampant sexual proclivities, and probing the later years as his personal life unraveled, this biography is moving, eye-opening, and essential, even for readers with just a casual interest in pop culture.”
—Bay Area Reporter
“Music biographer Gavin offers a probing, definitive portrait of the equally gifted and tortured artist, charting his meteoric rise in the ’80s through his public self-destruction and tragic death.”
—USA Today
People
"A fascinating, heartbreaking bio."
AudioFile
Paul Bellantoni's resonant, empathetic performance leaves nothing to be desired in this revealing, often touching biography of pop music giant George Michael.
NOVEMBER 2022 - AudioFile
Paul Bellantoni’s resonant, empathetic performance leaves nothing to be desired in this revealing, often touching biography of pop music giant George Michael. The vocal tone Bellantoni adopts is restrained and sometimes somber, an approach that sounds right, considering the outsized pathos generated by Michael’s charismatic, erotic, tortured life. There’s no need to add more drama to this story! Michael didn’t handle his celebrity status well. In this thoughtful, meticulously researched biography, award-winning music author James Gavin offers compelling insights into Michael’s conflicts about being gay and his all-too-public descent into the typical excesses of stardom—sexual acting out, substance abuse, and self-imposed legal and health problems. The audiobook includes analysis of Michael’s artistic output and revealing interviews with many who knew him. T.W. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2022-03-08
A comprehensive biography of the massively popular singer and songwriter.
The broad contours of George Michael’s life (1963-2016) in the spotlight are well known to pop-culture fans. In this detailed, evenhanded biography, Gavin, biographer of Chet Baker, Peggy Lee, and Lena Horne, puts those moments into context and offers explanations for Michael’s often confusing actions. As the charismatic, swaggering frontman of Wham! and then the multiplatinum solo superstar behind Faith and its string of hits, Michael seemed unstoppable in the 1980s. “I’m 21 years old and I’m not saying this to brag, but I’ve achieved more as a performer, writer, and producer than anyone else ever has by the same age,” Michael said early in his winning streak. However, in pop culture, the highs rarely last—especially, as Gavin points out, when the star is a closeted man, taunting both competitors and the media. “He had set himself a dangerous trap,” Gavin writes. “He wanted to titillate with sex and keep his secrets untouched.” From there, Michael’s problems only multiplied. The love of his life died from AIDS, his drug addiction intensified and expanded beyond marijuana, and his sexual adventures got him arrested in a public restroom in Los Angeles. To his credit, Gavin handles Michael’s problematic years as equitably as the storybook ones. When the facts are inconclusive, as they are surrounding Michael’s death in 2016, Gavin makes sure to say so: “Had he, in fact, committed suicide? Perhaps not consciously, despite prior efforts. But anyone who remembered Michael’s belief that he had set himself up passive-aggressively to be outed in 1998 had cause to wonder if he had taken steps to set his own death in motion.” Though some of the author’s descriptions of the 1980s music scene are only serviceable, his first-rate reporting makes this biography sing.
Gavin’s real stories of triumphs and tragedies poignantly explain one of pop’s most enigmatic stars.
