David Ritz

For the first time ever, and to help celebrate his 90th birthday in 2023, American icon Willie Nelson provides the stories behind the lyrics of 160 of his favourite songs, along with a dynamic assortment of never-before-seen photos and ephemera. From his earliest work in the 1950s to today, Willie looks back at the songs that have defined his career,...

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...

Then clawing his way back to the top again and again. In the early 1990s, Stone Temple Pilots—not U2, not Nirvana, not Pearl Jam—was the hottest band in the world. STP toppled such megabands as Aerosmith and Guns N' Roses on MTV and the Billboard charts. Lead singer Scott Weiland became an iconic front man in the tradition of Mick...