Most Popular Books by David Ritz

The rock musician discusses growing up in an abusive household, the formation of his original successful band, his struggles with addiction to drugs and alcohol, and his spiritual rehabilitation and recommitment to Christianity.

Country icon, bestselling author, and living legend Willie Nelson pairs his gift for storytelling and herbal remedies with his wife Annie’s passion for home cooked meals in this cookbook of cannabis-infused delicacies. In the Nelson family’s first ever cookbook, we’re cooking with good vibes only. Drawn from their favorite meals on nationwide tours, at the ranch, at home, and in their favorite cities along the way, these recipes have stories to tell—and what better way to enjoy a good meal than with a high-flying tale and a relaxing buzz? Each recipe provides a cannabis kick to ease the mind as much as the body, making their cookbook an exciting, comforting, and lively way to dive into their story, as they draw from meals shared with family, friends, and fans alike. The recipes themselves are delicious and easy to make at home. Buffalo wings, chocolate cake, fried chicken. Only the good stuff. And it includes an additional chapter providing a full suite of cannabis-infused base ingredients—cannabutter, finishing oil, simply syrups, sugars, salts, and tinctures.

Atlantic Records partner and producer, Wexler presided over the evolution of the modern music business and made prodigious contributions through to our cultural history. Wexler has worked with the entire range of American genius: Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, and others. 75 photographs.

Guillaume: A Life is the autobiography of esteemed Broadway, Hollywood, and television star Robert Guillaume. Ten months after suffering a stroke, Guillaume—perhaps best known as television’s Benson—began this autobiography with award-winning author and collaborator David Ritz. The book goes beyond the recounting of a long and successful career to examine the forces that shaped the man: family, religion, race, and class. Startlingly candid and disarmingly self-aware, Guillaume seeks to know and understand himself, his treatment of the women in his life, and the choices he made along the way. He pursues the truth, however painful it may be, says Ritz, guided by two questions, “Who the hell am I?” and “What made me do what I did?” Born in St. Louis in 1927 to a young, abused, unstable mother, and reared by a strong, hardworking grandmother, Robert Guillaume managed to move from the poverty and adversity of his youth to a rich, full career as an actor and a singer. Fierce determination and sharp focus enabled this man born to hardship and racial discrimination to study, learn, cultivate his natural talents, and succeed at the performance career he pursued with a vengeance. Guillaume first performed in the strict Catholic schools and churches to which his grandmother, who understood that education would be the key to any success he might achieve, sent him. There his love of classical music was nurtured, and he was encouraged to perform. From a child longing for his mother’s love to a man unsure of the meaning of love for many of the women in his life, from a young performer struggling to succeed on Broadway and in Hollywood to a grief-stricken father watching his son die of AIDS, Robert Guillaume tells what it was like to realize celebrity and what he sacrificed in the process. Readers will savor the success story of this artist who achieved great recognition and fame, but who never lost sight of his beginnings. Appealing to all audiences, Guillaume is a revealing and poignant autobiography of an extraordinary and distinguished American thespian.

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 on stage. 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 quits school because he doesn''t want to cut his hair. He meets Tyler in a restaurant in New Hampshire, sways him from pop music to rock-and-roll, and it doesn''t take long for the "Toxic Twins" to skyrocket into a world of fame and utter excess. From the mega-successful song and music video with Run DMC, "Walk This Way," to the realization that he can''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.

Albertina Merci is back in this delightful second book featuring everyone’s favorite blues singer turned evangelist! After Albertina’s dear friend Mr. Mario, the owner of Mr. Mario’s Downhome Café, has a heart attack and then loses his wife to diabetes, he decides that his lifetime love of soul food is over for good. Mr. Mario vows to go healthy, both personally and professionally, and tries to get Albertina on board, but it quickly becomes clear that he may be looking for more than pastoral support. And while he is undeniably romantic, Mr. Mario believes in the power of man…not God. The only heat isn’t in the kitchen, though. Clifford Bloom, a white DJ who has been a fan of Albertina’s since her days as a blues singer, is now a member of her church and he always seems to be there just when Albertina needs him. Could this blossoming friendship be leading somewhere romantic? Caught between two very different men, Pastor Merci also has to battle to save her little church in the heart of Los Angeles as mega-church pastor Bishop Gold wants not only the land where her church sits, but her nephew Patrick’s loyalty, as well.

Pearson, who plays Snoop on the HBO hit series "The Wire," reveals her incredible, hard-knock life story, one that dramatically parallels the life of her character on TV.

The multi-Grammy Award-winning pioneering soul musician tells the story of his childhood, career, and legacy—in this own words. Ray Charles (1930-2004) led one of the most extraordinary lives of any popular musician. In Brother Ray, he tells his story in an inimitable and unsparing voice, 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 thirty-two. 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 and couldn''t do. As the Chicago Sun-Times put it, Brother Ray is "candid, explicit, sometimes embarrassing, often hilarious, always warm, touching and deeply human—just like his music."

America''s Queen of Soul recounts the story of her life, from her childhood as a minister''s daughter in Detroit to her rise to success, offering insights into the faith and determination that have taken her to the top.

From Andrew Dice Clay, the “Undisputed Heavyweight Comedy King,” comes the unapologetic and uncensored autobiography fans have been waiting for. Andrew Dice Clay’s raw stand-up delivery has shocked and entertained audiences for decades and continues to do so to this day. When he released his debut album, Dice, in 1989, the parental advisory label simply read “Warning: This album is offensive.” His material stretched the boundaries of decency and good taste to their breaking point, and in turn he became the biggest stand-up comic in the world. In The Filthy Truth, Dice chronicles his remarkable rise, fall, and triumphant return. Brooklyn-born Andrew Clay Silverstein started out at Pips Comedy Club in Sheepshead Bay and eventually made a name for himself a decade later with a breakout appearance on the Rodney Dangerfield HBO special Nothing Goes Right. With that single TV appearance he became the new king of comedy, and Dicemania was born. He was the first and only comedian to sell out over three hundred sports arenas across the country to an audience of more than twelve million people. He was also the first comedian to sell out Madison Square Garden two nights in a row. But Dice’s meteoric rise and spectacular fame brought on a furious backlash from the media and critics. Billboards for his album produced by Rick Rubin and for his movie The Adventures of Ford Fairlane were defaced and ripped down as fast as they were put up. By the mid-nineties, though still playing to packed audiences, the turmoil in his personal life, plus attacks from every activist group imaginable, led him to make the decision to step out of the spotlight and put the focus on raising his boys. The Diceman was knocked down, but not out. Taking inspiration from what Frank Sinatra once told him—“You work for your fans, not the media. The media gets their tickets for free”—Dice is now back with critically acclaimed roles in HBO’s Entourage and Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine, and is once again playing to sold-out audiences. Filled with no-holds-barred humor and honesty, The Filthy Truth sets the record straight and gives fans plenty of never-before-shared stories from his career and his friendships with Howard Stern, Sam Kinison, Mickey Rourke, Sylvester Stallone, Axl Rose, and countless others.

With an undefeated 100 boxing record, Laila Ali can definitely hold her own in the ring. She has received a firestorm of media coverage, and her recent bout with Jacqui Frazier was the most highly publicized female boxing fight ever. Now, she offers her formula for physical, emotional, and mental power in a motivational memoir that delivers 15 rounds of straight-talking, hard-hitting advice. She reveals how she overcame child abuse, weight issues, isolation, and overall bad behavior by tenaciously developing a talent that she enjoyedprofessional boxing. She demonstrates how to sidestep feelings of self-pity and defeatism and achieve success in all arenas: diet, family, personal relationships, physical training, and more. Combining spiritual inspiration with practical guidance, Laila Alis program will show readers of all ages and backgrounds how to transform the demons of self-doubt into positive, winning energy.

From Miami Beach to Hollywood, from Las Vegas to Rome, from Wall Street to the mean streets of Detroit and Chicago, Family Blood is about the underside of the big-money music scene as three tempestuous generations of an American family struggle to control the nation''s hottest performers and their acts.

Three generations of passionate and driven women struggle to achieve show business fame, personal fortune and romantic love satisfaction.

Acclaimed R&B singer Bettye LaVette celebrates her storied career in show business in this compelling memoir. As a teenager in Detroit, Bettye LaVette had a hit single with “My Man—He’s a Lovin’ Man.” By the time she was twenty, she had faded back into obscurity and was barely surviving in New York City. For the next forty years, despite being associated with legends such as Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, Marvin Gaye, and James Brown, she remained relatively unknown outside a circle of devoted fans. Every time it seemed that her dream of stepping into the spotlight was finally coming true, bad luck smashed her hopes, again and again. Then, after a lifetime of singing in clubs and lounges, her unforgettable televised performances at the 2008 Kennedy Center Honors and at President Obama’s pre-Inaugural Concert at the Lincoln Memorial in 2009 won her the recognition she had sought for her entire life. Bettye LaVette’s career has been a one-of-a-kind roller-coaster ride through the world of music; it has taken her from the peaks to the pits and back. In this unflinchingly honest memoir, she boldly recounts her freewheeling childhood—her parents ran an illegal liquor business out of their living room, which was frequented by some of the top acts of the forties and fifties—her short-lived conquest of the R&B world in the 1960s, her decline into poverty and despair, and her recent comeback and career revival, with two Grammy-nominated CDs and numerous appearances on major television talk shows. Poignant, brazen, and fearless, A Woman Like Me is a tour de force from one of the most outspoken female performers singing today—and she’s a force to be reckoned with.