Bumping into Geniuses: My Life Inside the Rock and Roll Business

The title comes from Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun's answer when asked how to make money with music: “the way to get rich was to keep walking around until you bumped into a genius,” as Goldberg paraphrases. Inside the industry for almost four decades, Goldberg now looks back at those he bumped into during his rise from rock writer to public relations to personal management, plus heading three major record companies (Atlantic, Mercury, Warner Bros.). As he puts it, “The idea of this book is to give some impressionistic views, through my eyes, and through the examples of a handful of artists, of the rock and roll business from 1969 through 2004.” He began at Billboard , where his “rhapsodic review” of the Woodstock festival established him as a rock journalist, and his opening chapter covers Paul Williams (Crawdaddy ), Gloria Stavers (16 Magazine ) and other editors and critics of the 1960s. Doing PR for Led Zeppelin was his “introduction to the adrenaline of a big-time rock tour,” and his backstage memories of those days are vivid and razor sharp, offering an intimate glimpse into PR strategies and tactics. The parade of personalities runs the gamut from Bonnie Raitt and Stevie Nicks to Kurt Cobain and Warren Zevon. Goldberg summons up some fascinating anecdotes as he writes about these performers with much honesty and compassion, bringing it all back home. (Sept.)