First published 2020
Alan Leeds stands in a Virginia radio station in the mid-1960s, interviewing James Brown to promote a local show. The young DJ from Queens has no idea this moment will launch him into the inner circle of the hardest working man in show business. What begins as concert promotion quickly evolves into a full-time role managing Brown's tours across America. Leeds finds himself navigating a complex world of local promoters eager to exploit the legendary performer, while discovering that Brown himself defies every expectation. The man behind the cape and splits proves to be a shrewd businessman, uncompromising artist, and fascinatingly contradictory figure. As Leeds travels the Chitlin Circuit during soul music's most vital era, he witnesses a world largely hidden from white America in the years following the Civil Rights Movement. Through business deals and personal moments, both hilarious and tense, Leeds learns that working for James Brown means mastering an art form all its own. This memoir captures the raw energy and complicated dynamics of Black popular music through the eyes of someone who lived it from the inside.
Genres: 20th-century, african-american, non-fiction, biography-memoir, music, american-history
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: insider-perspective, memoir, rags-to-riches
Setting: America, Chitlin Circuit, Queens, Virginia
Period: 1960s, Mid-20th Century
264 pages · Hardcover · Post Hill Press