David Ritz has 12 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 15 narrators, with an average listener rating of 4.6★ across 192 ratings. The most-rated is Let Love Rule.
Let Love Rule
Summary
"This captivating audiobook purports to be about the musical development of the multitalented Lenny Kravitz.... As he draws listeners into his world, however, listeners begin to see that he's talking about something broader than music: This deeply thoughtful man is talking about how his passion for learning and expressing himself was shaped." (AudioFile magazine) "I see my story as a suite of songs that have a magical connection. I never understood that connection until I sat down to write. It was then that the magic started to flow." Let Love Rule is a work of deep reflection. Lenny Kravitz looks back at his life with candor, self-scrutiny, and humor. “My life is all about opposites,” he writes. “Black and white. Jewish and Christian. The Jackson 5 and Led Zeppelin. I accepted my Gemini soul. I owned it. I adored it. Yins and yangs mingled in various parts of my heart and mind, giving me balance and fueling my curiosity and comfort." Let Love Rule covers a vast canvas stretching from Manhattan’s Upper East Side, Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant, Los Angeles’ Baldwin Hills, Beverly Hills, and finally to France, England, and Germany. It’s the story of a wildly creative kid who, despite tough struggles at school and extreme tension at home, finds salvation in music. We see him grow as a musician and ultimately a master songwriter, producer, and performer. We also see Lenny’s spiritual growth - and the powerful way in which spirit informs his music. The cast of characters surrounding Lenny is extraordinary: his father, Sy, a high-powered news executive; his mother, Roxie Roker, a television star; and Lisa Bonet, the young actress who becomes his muse. The central character, of course, is Lenny, who, despite his great aspirational energy, turns down record deal after record deal until he finds his true voice. The creation of that voice, the same voice that is able to declare “Let Love Rule” to an international audience, is the very heart of this story. "Whether recording, performing, or writing a book," says Lenny, "my art is about listening to the inspiration inside and then sharing it with people. Art must bring the world closer together." A Macmillan Audio production from Henry Holt and Company
©2020 Lenny Kravitz (P)2020 Macmillan Audio
Rocks
Summary
In the tradition of the megabestseller Life by Keith Richards, Aerosmith’s Joe Perry opens up for the first time about the wild inside story of his life in the legendary band he cofounded in 1970 - which is still going strong today. In Rocks, Joe Perry exposes his unrepentant, unbridled life as the lead guitarist of Aerosmith. He delves deep into his volatile, profound, and enduring relationship with singer Steve Tyler and reveals the real people behind the larger-than-life rock gods onstage. The nearly five-decade saga of Aerosmith is epic, at once a study in brotherhood and solitude that plays out on the killing fields of rock and roll. With record-making hits and colossal album sales, Aerosmith has earned their place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But theirs is ultimately a story of endurance, and it starts almost half a century ago, with young Perry, the rebel whose loving parents wanted him to assimilate but who quit school because he didn't want to cut his hair. He met Tyler in a restaurant in New Hampshire and swayed him from pop music to rock and roll, and it didn't take long for the "Toxic Twins" to skyrocket into a world of fame and utter excess. From the megasuccessful song and music video with Run DMC, "Walk This Way", to the realization that he couldn’t pay his room service bill, Perry takes a personal look into the human stories behind Aerosmith, the people who enabled them, the ones who controlled them, and the ones who changed them. In his own words, Rocks is the whole story: "the loner’s story, the band’s story, the recovery story, the cult story, the love story, the success story, the failure story, the rebirth story, the redestruction story, the postdestructive rebirth story". PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
©2014 Joe Perry and David Ritz (P)2014 Simon & Schuster Audio
Me and Sister Bobbie
Summary
The untold story of Willie Nelson and his sister, Bobbie, who, over the course of their lives together, supported each other through personal tragedies and triumphs and forged an unbreakable bond through their shared love of music. Abandoned by their parents as toddlers, Willie and Bobbie Nelson found their love of music almost immediately through their grandparents, who raised them in a small Texas town. Their close relationship - which persists today - is the longest-lasting bond in both their lives. In alternating chapters, this heartfelt dual memoir weaves together both their stories as they experienced them side by side and apart. The Nelsons share powerful, emotional moments from growing up, playing music in public for the first time, and facing trials in adulthood, as Willie pursued songwriting and Bobbie faced a series of challenging relationships and a musical career that took off only when attitudes about women began to change in Texas. The memoir is Bobbie’s first book, and in it she candidly shares her life story in full for the first time. Her deeply affecting chapters delve into her personal relationships and life as a mother and as a musician with technical skills that even Willie admits surpass his own. In his poignant stories, Willie shares the depth of his bond with his sister and how that bond carried him through his most troubled moments. Willie and Bobbie have supported each other through unthinkable personal heartbreak, and they’ve always shared in each other’s victories. Through dizzying highs and traumatic lows, spanning almost nine decades of life, Willie and Bobbie have always had each other's back.Their story is an inspiring, lyrical statement of how family always finds the way.
©2020 Willie Nelson, Bobbie Nelson, David Ritz (P)2020 Random House Audio
Death of a King
Summary
A revealing and dramatic chronicle of the 12 months leading up to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination. Martin Luther King, Jr. died in one of the most shocking assassinations the world has known, but little is remembered about the life he led in his final year. New York Times best-selling author and award-winning broadcaster Tavis Smiley recounts the final 365 days of King's life, revealing the minister's trials and tribulations - denunciations by the press, rejection from the president, dismissal by the country's black middle class and militants, assaults on his character, ideology, and political tactics, to name a few - all of which he had to rise above in order to lead and address the racism, poverty, and militarism that threatened to destroy our democracy. Smiley's Death of a King paints a portrait of a leader and visionary in a narrative different from all that have come before. Here is an exceptional glimpse into King's life - one that adds both nuance and gravitas to his legacy as an American hero.
©2014 Tavis Smiley and David Ritz (P)2014 Hachette Audio
Respect
Summary
The definitive biography of the Queen of Soul from acclaimed music writer David Ritz. Aretha Franklin began life as the golden daughter of a progressive and promiscuous Baptist preacher. Raised without her mother, she was a gospel prodigy who gave birth to two sons in her teens and left them and her native Detroit for New York, where she struggled to find her true voice. It was not until 1967, when a white Jewish producer insisted she return to her gospel-soul roots, that fame and fortune finally came via "Respect" and a rapidfire string of hits. She has evolved ever since, amidst personal tragedy, surprise Grammy performances, and career reinventions. Again and again, Aretha stubbornly finds a way to triumph over troubles, even as they continue to build. Her hold on the crown is tenacious, and in Respect, David Ritz gives us the definitive life of one of the greatest talents in all American culture.
©2014 David Ritz (P)2014 Hachette Audio
KG: A to Z
Summary
A unique, unfiltered memoir from the NBA champion and 15-time all-star ahead of his induction into the Hall of Fame. Kevin Garnett was one of the most dominant players the game of basketball has ever seen. He was also one of its most outspoken. Over the course of his illustrious 21-year NBA career, he elevated trash talk to an art form and never shied away from sharing his thoughts on controversial subjects. In KG: A to Z, published ahead of Garnett’s induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame, he looks back on his life and career with the same raw candor. Garnett describes the adversity he faced growing up in South Carolina before ultimately relocating to Chicago, where he became one of the top prospects in the nation. He details his headline-making decision to skip college and become the first player in two decades to enter the draft directly from high school, starting a trend that would be followed by future superstars like Kobe Bryant and LeBron James. He shares stories of playing with and against Bryant, James, Michael Jordan, and other NBA greats, and he chronicles his professional ups and downs, including winning a championship with the Boston Celtics. He also speaks his mind on a range of topics beyond basketball, such as fame, family, racism, spirituality, and music. Garnett’s draft decision wasn’t the only way he’d forever change the game. His ability to play on the perimeter as a big man foreshadowed the winning strategy now universally adopted by the league. He applies this same innovative spirit here, organizing the contents alphabetically as an encyclopedia. If you thought Kevin Garnett was exciting, inspiring, and unfiltered on the court, just wait until you hear what he has to say in this audiobook.
©2021 Garnett Enterprises LLC. All rights reserved. (P)2021 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.
Balance
Summary
Nik Wallenda, "King of the High Wire", doesn't know fear. As a seventh generation of the legendary Great Wallendas, he grew up performing, entertaining, and pushing the boundaries of gravity and balance. When Nik was four years old, he watched a video from 1978 of his great -randfather, Karl Wallenda, walking between the towers of the Condado Plaza Hotel in Puerto Rico, stumbling, and falling to his death because of improper rigging. When Nik heard his father quote his great-grandfather - "Life is on the wire, everything else is just waiting" - the words resonated deep within his soul and he vowed to be a hero like Karl Wallenda. Balance is the theme of Nik's life: between his work and family, his faith in God and artistry, his body and soul. It resonates from him when performing and when no one is looking. When walking across Niagara Falls, he prayed aloud the entire time, and to keep his lust for glory and fame in check, Nik returned to the site of his performance and spent three hours cleaning up trash left by the crowd. Nik Wallenda is an entertainer who wants to not only thrill hearts, but to change hearts for Christ. Christ is the balance pole that keeps him from falling.
©2013 Nik Wallenda (P)2013 Hachette Audio
Brother Ray
Summary
Ray Charles (1930-2004) led one of the most extraordinary lives of any popular musician. In Brother Ray, he reveals his life story unsparingly, from the chronicle of his musical development to his heroin addiction to his tangled romantic life. Overcoming poverty, blindness, the loss of his parents, and the pervasive racism of the era, Ray Charles was acclaimed worldwide as a genius by the age of 32. By combining the influences of gospel, jazz, blues, and country music, he invented, almost single-handedly, what became known as "soul". And throughout a career spanning more than a half century, Ray Charles remained in complete control of his life and his music, allowing nobody to tell him what he could or couldn't do. The San Francisco Chronicle calls Brother Ray "an emotional blast as vivid and real, sweaty and straight talking as the man himself".
©1992, 2003, 2004 David Ritz; 1978 Ray Charles and David Ritz (P)2005 Blackstone Audiobooks
Before You Judge Me
Summary
A powerful chronicle of the 16 weeks leading up to King of Pop Michael Jackson's death Michael Jackson's final months were like the rest of his short and legendary life: filled with deep lows and soaring highs, a constant hunt for privacy, and the pressure and fame that made him socially fragile and almost - ultimately - unable to live. With the insight and compassion that he brought to his best-selling telling of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s final year, Tavis Smiley provides a glimpse into the superstar's life in this emotional, honest, yet celebratory audiobook. Listeners will witness Jackson's campaign to recharge his career - hiring and firing managers and advisors, turning to and away from family members, fighting depression and drug dependency - while his one goal remained: to mount the most spectacular series of shows the world had ever seen. Before You Judge Me is a humanizing look at Jackson's last days.
©2016 Tavis Smiley and David Ritz (P)2016 Hachette Audio
Divided Soul
Summary
In this intimate biography of the Prince of Soul, David Ritz provides a candid look at a star and a friend. Ritz had been collaborating with Marvin Gaye on his story for several years before the singer's tragic death and had conducted a series of extraordinary interviews in which Gaye discussed his deepest secrets. What emerges is a full-scale portrait of a charming but tortured artist, a brilliant singer with a divided soul. Here is Marvin's story, from his early years in the slums of Washington, D.C. to his rise to the top of the Motown industry, his fall from grace, his comeback, and finally his sudden, shocking end at the hands of his own father. It is also the story of his glorious music and the music of Black America over the past 50 years, an epic tale whose cast of characters includes Diana Ross, Berry Gordie, Smokey Robinson, and Stevie Wonder.
©1991 David Ritz (P)1995 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Howling at the Moon
Summary
During the 1970s and '80s, the music business was dominated by a few major labels and artists such as Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Billy Joel, Paul Simon, Barbra Streisand and James Taylor. They were all under contract to CBS Records, making it the most successful label of the era. And, as the company's president, Walter Yetnikoff was the ruling monarch. He was also the most flamboyant, volatile, and controversial personality to emerge from an industry and era defined by sex, drugs, and debauchery. Having risen from working-class Brooklyn and the legal department of CBS, Yetnikoff, who freely admitted to being tone deaf, was an unlikely label head. But he had an uncanny knack for fostering talent and intimidating rivals with his appalling behavior, usually fueled by an explosive combination of cocaine and alcohol. His tantrums, appetite for mind-altering substances, and sexual exploits were legendary. In Japan to meet the Sony executives who acquired CBS during his tenure, Walter was assigned a minder who confined him to a hotel room. True to form, Walter raided the minibar, got blasted, and seeing no other means of escape, opened a hotel window and vented his rage by literally howling at the moon. In Howling at the Moon, Yetnikoff traces his journey as he climbed the corporate mountain, danced on its summit, and crashed and burned. Reflecting on the sinister cycle that left his career in tatters and CBS flush with cash, Yetnikoff emerges with a hunger for redemption and a new reverence for his working-class Brooklyn roots.
©2004 Walter Yetnikoff with David Ritz (P)2004 Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc.
Just Work
Summary
From Kim Scott, author of the revolutionary New York Times best seller Radical Candor, comes Just Work: Get Sh*t Done, Fast & Fair - how we can recognize, attack, and eliminate workplace injustice - and transform our careers and organizations in the process. We - all of us - consistently exclude, underestimate, and underutilize huge numbers of people in the workforce even as we include, overestimate, and promote others, often beyond their level of competence. Not only is this immoral and unjust, it's bad for business. Just Work is the solution. Just Work is Kim Scott's new book, revealing a practical framework for both respecting everyone’s individuality and collaborating effectively. This is the essential guide leaders and their employees need to create more just workplaces and establish new norms of collaboration and respect. A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin's Press "Too many workplaces undervalue talented women and people of color while promoting mediocre white men. As a tech exec, entrepreneur, and CEO coach, Kim has zero tolerance for injustice. Her book tackles serious issues with clarity and humor to highlight smart steps that we can all take to combat discrimination and promote fairness." (Adam Grant)
©2021 Kim Scott (P)2021 Macmillan Audio