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Fama e Loucura: Entrevistas Censuradas Com os Maiores Artistas do Planeta
Em Fama & Loucura, Neil Strauss (que já trabalhou por mais de vinte anos em algumas das maiores publicações do mundo — como o jornal The New York Times e a revista Rolling Stone) revela 228 entrevistas com alguns dos maiores nomes da música, do cinema e da TV que nunca chegaram a ser publicadas, mostrando os momentos mais insanos e as experiências mais incomuns que já teve com pessoas famosas. Acompanhe as aventuras do autor, enquanto ele bebe com Bruce Springsteen, janta com Gwen Stefani, entra na mesma banheira que Marilyn Manson, fala sobre fama com David Bowie e muito mais.
552 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2011
282 people are currently reading
2758 people want to read
About the author
Neil Strauss
48 books1,762 followersNeil Strauss is the author of the New York Times bestsellers The Game, Rules of the Game, Emergency, and Everyone Loves You When You're Dead. He is also the coauthor of four other bestsellers--Jenna Jameson's How to Make Love Like a Porn Star, Mötley Crüe's The Dirt, and Marilyn Manson's The Long Hard Road Out of Hell, and Dave Navarro's Don't Try This at Home. He can be found at www.neilstrauss.com.
His latest book, The Truth: An Uncomfortable Book About Relationships, was released on October 13. The review in Grantland described it as follows:
"I want you to read this book. I want your partners to read this book. I want your families, your friends, your coworkers, and your colleagues to read this book. I want women to read it, and men -- especially men -- to read it. But more than that, I want you to think critically about it, about what it says about you and the world around you and your romantic relationships. I want it to inspire you to dig deep inside yourself and figure out what's stopping you from making yourself happy: I want it to inspire you to embrace and engage with love, in an honest and healthy way."
His latest book, The Truth: An Uncomfortable Book About Relationships, was released on October 13. The review in Grantland described it as follows:
"I want you to read this book. I want your partners to read this book. I want your families, your friends, your coworkers, and your colleagues to read this book. I want women to read it, and men -- especially men -- to read it. But more than that, I want you to think critically about it, about what it says about you and the world around you and your romantic relationships. I want it to inspire you to dig deep inside yourself and figure out what's stopping you from making yourself happy: I want it to inspire you to embrace and engage with love, in an honest and healthy way."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 236 reviews
October 12, 2019
Enjoyable!
September 15, 2019
I think I overestimated my interest in celebrities. One of the magazines Strauss writes for is Rolling Stone, which is a magazine I like a lot and have read for years. I like reading about people who overcome dark things and end up successful—an abusive childhood or getting clean and sober, stuff like that. Some of these famous people—some comedians, but lots of musicians—are just out of their minds. I read several other books while reading this because reading interview after interview gets old.
June 6, 2011
Neil Strauss has interviewed thousands of people, many of them extremely famous. Rather than reprinting some of his best-known pieces, he decided to go back to his original recordings and transcripts and collect only the parts that he felt had the ring of truth about them. Instead of blah-blah designed to promote a project, this book is full of odd, funny, affecting, sometimes embarrassing exchanges.
Here are a few of the more interesting questions he asked.
To Bruce Springsteen: "I hadn't planned to ask this, but have you ever been in therapy?"
To Ike Turner: "So you think your reputation comes from the way your face looks onstage?"
To Dave Pirner: "Did someone teach you how to say 'off the record' since our last interview?"
To Hugh Hefner: "How would you feel if [estranged wife] Kimberley started dating twin brothers?"
To Tom Cruise: "I don't know if you are allowed to say, but what OT [Operating Thetan] number are you?"
To Brian Richardson: "But they're just going to work you until you die if you let them. Don't you feel like taking time off and just not being a Backstreet Boy?"
To Stephen Colbert: "Did you ever go through a period where you lost your faith?"
To Ozzy Osbourne: "Do you ever feel responsible when people do stupid things because of your music?"
To Daron Malakian: "Have you ever been on any psychiatric medication?"
Here are a few of the more interesting questions he asked.
To Bruce Springsteen: "I hadn't planned to ask this, but have you ever been in therapy?"
To Ike Turner: "So you think your reputation comes from the way your face looks onstage?"
To Dave Pirner: "Did someone teach you how to say 'off the record' since our last interview?"
To Hugh Hefner: "How would you feel if [estranged wife] Kimberley started dating twin brothers?"
To Tom Cruise: "I don't know if you are allowed to say, but what OT [Operating Thetan] number are you?"
To Brian Richardson: "But they're just going to work you until you die if you let them. Don't you feel like taking time off and just not being a Backstreet Boy?"
To Stephen Colbert: "Did you ever go through a period where you lost your faith?"
To Ozzy Osbourne: "Do you ever feel responsible when people do stupid things because of your music?"
To Daron Malakian: "Have you ever been on any psychiatric medication?"
November 7, 2011
Really interesting collection of interviews. Strauss has nicely compiled some of the most revealing and bizarre interviews from musicians, celebrities, and entertainers. Some of the most interesting moments of the book are also some of the most unexpected; like when he interviews David Koresh's former girlfriend (before Waco) and when he accompanies an Icelandic country band called the Funerals on a bleak winter tour of the country.
The book will only be really interesting if you are reading about someone you are generally interested in. As I started, I read all the interviews, but grew so irritated with the self-absorbed words of many of these entertainers that I started skipping interviews more and more until the end.
As a final note, to appreciate the book, you really have to have a morbid fascination with celebrities, like myself. The book reveals that some of them are articulate and (apparently) intelligent. However, this sometimes makes you scratch your head because if they are indeed so articulate (ie, Trent Reznor, Marilyn Manson, Lady Gaga) then why are they so utterly irritating and stupid in their actions, art (debatable), and portrayals of themselves in the public realm? I guess one could read this book as a cautionary tale of what can happen to someone when he or she becomes famous.
The book will only be really interesting if you are reading about someone you are generally interested in. As I started, I read all the interviews, but grew so irritated with the self-absorbed words of many of these entertainers that I started skipping interviews more and more until the end.
As a final note, to appreciate the book, you really have to have a morbid fascination with celebrities, like myself. The book reveals that some of them are articulate and (apparently) intelligent. However, this sometimes makes you scratch your head because if they are indeed so articulate (ie, Trent Reznor, Marilyn Manson, Lady Gaga) then why are they so utterly irritating and stupid in their actions, art (debatable), and portrayals of themselves in the public realm? I guess one could read this book as a cautionary tale of what can happen to someone when he or she becomes famous.
March 20, 2011
It's a good thing Neil Strauss had to research all of those survival skills he wrote about in his last book, "Emergency", because some of the things he gets celebrities to reveal about themselves in ELYWYD might force him into hiding for a while. There's more good shit in the first 5 pages of this book than Snoop Dogg has rolled into a fistful of blunts. In ELYWYD, Strauss has basically busted through the veneer of every reconstructed tooth, punctured a hole in every famous breast implant and broken through the steel doors guarding the psyche of some of the most revered celebrity personalities in the world of music and entertainment, allowing us peer to into the deepest crevices of their well guarded worlds at their most vulnerable moments.
This is made possible through Neil's unique interviewing "style" (pun intended), employing techniques he has written about in his previous book, The Game. It combines elements of pick-up artistry, NLP, basic psychology and natural resourcefulness, which, when combined and applied by Neil Strauss results in a collection of brilliant nuggets from from past interviews, carefully chosen by Neil after he painstakingly and meticulously combed through years worth of archives and notes. A GREAT read!
This is made possible through Neil's unique interviewing "style" (pun intended), employing techniques he has written about in his previous book, The Game. It combines elements of pick-up artistry, NLP, basic psychology and natural resourcefulness, which, when combined and applied by Neil Strauss results in a collection of brilliant nuggets from from past interviews, carefully chosen by Neil after he painstakingly and meticulously combed through years worth of archives and notes. A GREAT read!
May 19, 2021
Strauss is a really good writer and packages his work well but this is pretty much magazine filler. Random transcripts of trivial convos with some incredibly vacuous/damaged people. Didn't like the art bits in between either. From the 500 pgs of tedious q's and a's, probably only found 15 interesting. Mostly goes along the lines of:
So what did you do?
I don't remember.
X 500 pgs
Besides the format, the conversations were mostly frivolous opinions. It might be useful for a journalist to see how he asks questions on the go to keep convos going. Personally, wasn't really interested in listening to someone who is a psychological mess (marilyn manson or courtney love for eg). Even with some personalities whom do like (Jackie chan) was quite plain and nothing out of ordinary. Skippable.
So what did you do?
I don't remember.
X 500 pgs
Besides the format, the conversations were mostly frivolous opinions. It might be useful for a journalist to see how he asks questions on the go to keep convos going. Personally, wasn't really interested in listening to someone who is a psychological mess (marilyn manson or courtney love for eg). Even with some personalities whom do like (Jackie chan) was quite plain and nothing out of ordinary. Skippable.
March 6, 2011
Neil Strauss has spent the bulk of his life interviewing musicians and performers for newspapers and magazines like The New York Times and Rolling Stone. He's also written a number of bestselling books, most notably The Dirt, which is about the willfully destructive mayhem machine that is Motley Crue. At first, I thought Everybody Loves You When You're Dead was an anthology of Strauss' best interviews, but its something far more complex than that. It isn't a book of interviews so much as a collection of moments--some hilarious, some poignant--organized to illustrate different themes. Most of the "interviews" run for a page or two and the longer ones are chopped up into shorter sections spread throughout a chapter.
At first, I found this to be extremely off-putting. I thought, who wants to read 500 pages of sound bites, even if some of them are funny or outrageous or thought-provoking? Is this the direction in which pop culture writing is headed? Reality Hunger-esque takes chopped up into easily digestible segments for the Maxim crowd? I was particularly perturbed by the longer interviews chopped up into shorter segments. Did Strauss have so little faith in his readers?
It's easy to see why Strauss has enjoyed so much success. He has a knack for getting his subjects to open up. His questions go a lot deeper than “What are your influences?” and “How long have you been singing/rapping/writing music.” Strauss does his homework and often knows details the artists themselves aren’t aware of (or don’t want to be reminded of) like how many years it’s been since they performed in New York or released a new record.
But this is misleading. The most important thing for a music journalist is access. The larger or more prestigious the publication, the easier it is to get access to your subject. I have some experience with this. As someone who has interviewed at least as many bands for punk rock zines and alternative weeklies as are featured in ELYWYD, I’ve been turned away, screwed over, and lied to by publicists who have never heard of zines like Flipside or Razorcake--problems I never had when I was a freelance radio correspondent for National Public Radio. I’ve done 700-word profiles based on a ten-minute phone conversation and long 15,000-word interviews that lasted all weekend.
It’s easy to say that interviews are a pure form: artists in their own words talking about their own experiences. But this, too, is misleading. The writer asks the question that prompts a response. The writer then gets to cherry pick which responses to use, a little from over here, a little from over there. And then they get to stage manage those responses to express the idea the writer wants to convey. These are all things that good interviewer do. (If you’re ever giving an interview a word of advice: ignore the questions. Say what you want to say, and don’t be baited into talking about things you don’t want to talk about it.) The bad interviewers also mislead, misrepresent, and intentionally make their subject look bad and sound like an idiot.
So considering Strauss’ access the shortness of these interviews seemed very suspicious to me. If you follow anyone around for a day, a week, an entire tour, you’ll capture moments when they sound like a moron and seem like a jerk. In the time Strauss allows, anyone can be made to look like anything. It’s not the least bit fair and why so many musicians and artists have a cantankerous relationship with the press or stop giving interviews altogether.
In spite of all these trepidations, I came to really love ELYWYD. Strauss is not a participatory journalist. He prefers to stay out of the story and let his subjects take center stage. He is particularly adept at getting artists to acknowledge the struggle it took to get where they are, a struggle that often overlaps the present moment. Perhaps, I’m naïve, but I was surprised by the extent to which so many of Strauss’ subjects were willing to elaborate on the nature of their struggle. If that sounds a bit twelve-step-ish, so be it, but I found it inspiring to hear the stories of how these artists and performed overcame their worst instincts in order to become (or sustain) the success they enjoy today. Indeed, Strauss concludes his epic series of interviews with eleven guidelines for living a happy life that he has gleaned from interviewing countless famous people, most of whom were miserable.
And then there’s the story of Paul Nelson. A cautionary tale for every artist who has ever felt his or her work didn’t measure up. Nelson was a zine writer, a music label exec, and a writer for Rolling Stone. Strauss considers him the father of rock and roll criticism. Even David Bowie cites him as an early influence. One day Nelson left the office of Rolling Stone and disappeared. Fifteen years later his body was found in his apartment. He’d been working in a video store. He’d starved himself to death. There’s more to the story, and I won’t give the details here, but Strauss cites it as the hardest story he ever had to write, and it’s one that will stay with me for a long time.
At first, I found this to be extremely off-putting. I thought, who wants to read 500 pages of sound bites, even if some of them are funny or outrageous or thought-provoking? Is this the direction in which pop culture writing is headed? Reality Hunger-esque takes chopped up into easily digestible segments for the Maxim crowd? I was particularly perturbed by the longer interviews chopped up into shorter segments. Did Strauss have so little faith in his readers?
It's easy to see why Strauss has enjoyed so much success. He has a knack for getting his subjects to open up. His questions go a lot deeper than “What are your influences?” and “How long have you been singing/rapping/writing music.” Strauss does his homework and often knows details the artists themselves aren’t aware of (or don’t want to be reminded of) like how many years it’s been since they performed in New York or released a new record.
But this is misleading. The most important thing for a music journalist is access. The larger or more prestigious the publication, the easier it is to get access to your subject. I have some experience with this. As someone who has interviewed at least as many bands for punk rock zines and alternative weeklies as are featured in ELYWYD, I’ve been turned away, screwed over, and lied to by publicists who have never heard of zines like Flipside or Razorcake--problems I never had when I was a freelance radio correspondent for National Public Radio. I’ve done 700-word profiles based on a ten-minute phone conversation and long 15,000-word interviews that lasted all weekend.
It’s easy to say that interviews are a pure form: artists in their own words talking about their own experiences. But this, too, is misleading. The writer asks the question that prompts a response. The writer then gets to cherry pick which responses to use, a little from over here, a little from over there. And then they get to stage manage those responses to express the idea the writer wants to convey. These are all things that good interviewer do. (If you’re ever giving an interview a word of advice: ignore the questions. Say what you want to say, and don’t be baited into talking about things you don’t want to talk about it.) The bad interviewers also mislead, misrepresent, and intentionally make their subject look bad and sound like an idiot.
So considering Strauss’ access the shortness of these interviews seemed very suspicious to me. If you follow anyone around for a day, a week, an entire tour, you’ll capture moments when they sound like a moron and seem like a jerk. In the time Strauss allows, anyone can be made to look like anything. It’s not the least bit fair and why so many musicians and artists have a cantankerous relationship with the press or stop giving interviews altogether.
In spite of all these trepidations, I came to really love ELYWYD. Strauss is not a participatory journalist. He prefers to stay out of the story and let his subjects take center stage. He is particularly adept at getting artists to acknowledge the struggle it took to get where they are, a struggle that often overlaps the present moment. Perhaps, I’m naïve, but I was surprised by the extent to which so many of Strauss’ subjects were willing to elaborate on the nature of their struggle. If that sounds a bit twelve-step-ish, so be it, but I found it inspiring to hear the stories of how these artists and performed overcame their worst instincts in order to become (or sustain) the success they enjoy today. Indeed, Strauss concludes his epic series of interviews with eleven guidelines for living a happy life that he has gleaned from interviewing countless famous people, most of whom were miserable.
And then there’s the story of Paul Nelson. A cautionary tale for every artist who has ever felt his or her work didn’t measure up. Nelson was a zine writer, a music label exec, and a writer for Rolling Stone. Strauss considers him the father of rock and roll criticism. Even David Bowie cites him as an early influence. One day Nelson left the office of Rolling Stone and disappeared. Fifteen years later his body was found in his apartment. He’d been working in a video store. He’d starved himself to death. There’s more to the story, and I won’t give the details here, but Strauss cites it as the hardest story he ever had to write, and it’s one that will stay with me for a long time.
November 29, 2023
one thing about Neil Strauss is this dude can write a mf book !
March 22, 2011
Everybody Loves You When You’re Dead is nothing like Neil Strauss’ previous works. When you take the time to understand the real intention of this book, you realize that celebrities, no matter how famous, all have their foibles. Strauss doesn’t attempt to glamorize any of the people’s lifestyles he interviews, nor does he vilify them. He simply gives the reader a chance to look at each person as they truly are. Whether it’s beautiful or grotesque is left to the reader’s opinion. The interviews are broken up into sections as to not saturate the reader with too much information at once. Rather than reading one interview as you would if reading a magazine, you are reading numerous interviews, which allows you to soak in the information. The book is a fantastic read regardless of whether you care about celebrities or not because it’s not about celebrity, but rather about understanding ourselves and what we believe. It’s about learning to talk to people and learning to listen.
March 21, 2011
I couldn't put it down, and I'll probably read the whole thing again soon. ELYWYD isn't just a compilation of interviews Neil has done over the years, it's bits and pieces (the important bits and pieces) that let you really get inside of the interviewees. The fact that they're all famous almost becomes an afterthought in a lot of cases. It's also cool to see Neil run Game on these people (and a lot of these interviews are from before the Game even existed). It's pretty amazing (this happens often throughout the book) when an interviewee says, "I don't want to talk about that" and two questions later, they're spilling their guts. The dude has a way with people and ELYWYD lets you in on it. Highly recommended.
May 27, 2024
I bought this book more because I am a big fan of Neil Strauss and less because of the premise of the book – although its concept sounded interesting. As well as a novelist, Strauss is a writer and interviewer for Rolling Stone magazine, and this book is composed of some his favorite excerpts from all of the interviews he’s done over the years. Included are celebrities of all types, so there is something for everyone. This book was entertaining and did give some good insights on life, but I don’t think I can see myself picking it back up to read again in the future (hence the lower rating.) With that being said, my favorite part was the “Epilogue” at the end in which Strauss puts together all of the lessons he’s learned about life through interviewing in one place.
June 18, 2011
This fine volume was brought to us by the same champ who brought us The Game, and while I will always find him repugnant for that, he can write, and this book (which I skimmed), like The Game, was highly entertaining and deeply twisted. Oh, celebrities! Oh, culture and human nature that make them possible! Good, frothy fun, with occasional bursts of profundity, and plenty of laugh-out-loud moments, as in the copyeditor section, wherein we learn why "scumbags" and the specifics of the sounds that crack addicts make are not fit to print in the New York Times. A good summer read as, let's face it, you should probably save the Russians for winter.
January 10, 2023
Neil Strauss teve o emprego dos sonhos de muitos jornalistas: foi repórter da Rolling Stone e do New York Times. Ao longo dos anos, entrevistou os ídolos de todo mundo e, obviamente, não publicou tudo que ouviu. Este livro reúne alguns trechos curiosos de entrevistas com super famosos (ou não) que nunca foram para suas matérias. Nas mais de 500 páginas, tem de tudo um pouco. Desde a entrevista que nunca aconteceu, porque Pharell seguia dando perdidos, até a entrevistada que quis conversar deitada na mesma cama que Neil, no rancho da mãe dela.
Foi uma leitura bem divertida e feita aos poucos (passei meses lendo). Minha única crítica vai para a forma como organizaram o livro. A divisão de capítulos segue um tema e as entrevistas foram picadas pra caber dentro disso. Talvez, a experiência fosse melhor se a edição fosse ordenada por artistas, sem tantas quebras. De toda forma, super indico pra quem curte bastidores da cultura pop. Tem muita gente que nunca ouvi falar, mas muita gente legal também.
Foi uma leitura bem divertida e feita aos poucos (passei meses lendo). Minha única crítica vai para a forma como organizaram o livro. A divisão de capítulos segue um tema e as entrevistas foram picadas pra caber dentro disso. Talvez, a experiência fosse melhor se a edição fosse ordenada por artistas, sem tantas quebras. De toda forma, super indico pra quem curte bastidores da cultura pop. Tem muita gente que nunca ouvi falar, mas muita gente legal também.
November 20, 2019
At first I didn’t like how this book was organized, but once I got used to it, it was hard to put down. My only real criticism is that, most of the time, you couldn’t tell what years the interviews took place. I wish Strauss had made that clearer.
Aside from that, if you have a love of rock stars and celebrities, you should definitely check this out.
Aside from that, if you have a love of rock stars and celebrities, you should definitely check this out.
May 16, 2016
Who's the real focus of an interview? The subject, who presumably has something interesting to say to the world? The interviewer, with their mission of drawing that out? What about the audience, the true reason for the interview taking place, who's expecting entertainment, connection, and insight? When it's done right, all three get a chance to shine. Neil Strauss, of The Game fame, went through some of his unpublished notes and transcripts for his interviews from his stints as a journalist and here presents some of the unpublished excerpts that "do justice to reality". He's edited 228 of them into a few well-connected streams of discourse, ranging from mildly interesting, to fascinating, to just plain odd, so this is definitely recommended for anyone who's interested in celebrity interviews, Neil Strauss' career, or what fame means to you.
Strauss was able to interview a lot of famous people, as you would expect for a journalist working for prestige publications like The New York Times and Rolling Stone. Most but not all are musicians. In general you only get interviewed if you're a hot commodity, but the subjects are all over the place - some are at pivotal moments in their careers (Snoop Dogg having just quit Death Row, Pink Floyd about to tour their last real studio album), others are are at various ebbs (seemingly every blues musician has just gotten out of prison), some are very cooperative (Lady Gaga, Chuck Berry), others need some kind of help (Brian Wilson with his wife Melinda), and some are just plain weird (Julian Casablancas from The Strokes, Dave Pirner from Soul Asylum, or Jonathan Davis from Korn). I can't imagine a reader who wouldn't be interested in at least some of these interviews, even artists that they normally wouldn't have a high opinion of.
Neil Strauss himself is a good interviewer, in addition to being an interesting guy. Obviously it's The Game that's made him famous, and I'm not sure many people would pick this up if someone else wrote it (this book was released in 2011, 6 years after The Game, and contains material from as far back as the 90s), but he seems to have a real talent for getting his subjects to say interesting things. He's very modest and self-deprecating about his own interviewing skills, and indeed sometimes it does seem like his M.O. is to flail around until the subject takes pity on him and gives him good material, but you can see where the guy who wrote The Game came from, as in the scene when he charms Britney Spears into giving him a decent interview with basic pickup techniques. While it's funny to see the members of Led Zeppelin talk all over him (he points out that interviewing a band all together is a rookie mistake since they'll just banter with each other), in most of the interviews he's able to lean back and get his subjects to open up in interesting ways.
And so as an audience member, I found myself very pleased. Strauss is great at making me feel like I'm the third guy in the room, asking many questions that I would have liked to, and some that I would never have thought of. For example, a few times he asks a stock question like "would you still make music if no one ever heard it?" This seems abstract, but what it translates to is "what is your relationship to your fans?", so it's interesting to hear how differently artists like PJ Harvey and Lady Gaga answer it, and think about what their answers say about their art. Strauss does profile a few genuine outsider artists, but for the most part these are people who are in some way looking for my approval, who are trying to speak to me. I read interviews because I'm always looking for something "more" from artists I like, but the questions of why artists put themselves out there and how they embody something I wish I could myself are endlessly fascinating. Even to hear some like Trent Reznor pour his heart out about his unhappiness and loneliness is revealing, to me.
After dozens and dozens of interviews (annoyingly, the Index is not sorted alphabetically but by cutesy "themes" and caricatures, so good luck flipping back and forth trying to find someone specific), Strauss closes with a very sad memoriam dedicated to Paul Nelson, a legendary critic and editor whose personal issues eventually led to a quiet death alone in his apartment, undiscovered for several days. As a meditation on how a lifetime of achievement and the admiration of your peers relates to dying alone, it will resonate most strongly with those who worry about their own legacy and how their work fits in to What It All Means, and so the book ends with 11 lessons drawn from the interviews. That some of them contradict each other is of course cosmically appropriate for the un-summarizable complexity of life:
- Let go of the past.
- Fame won't make you feel any better about yourself.
- The secret to happiness is balance.
- Fix your issues now, because the older you get the worse they become.
- Derive some self-esteem from within, not from others' opinions.
- Say yes to new things.
- Live in truth.
- Never say never.
- Trust your negativity.
- Be happy with what you have.
- Everyone loves you when you're dead.
Strauss was able to interview a lot of famous people, as you would expect for a journalist working for prestige publications like The New York Times and Rolling Stone. Most but not all are musicians. In general you only get interviewed if you're a hot commodity, but the subjects are all over the place - some are at pivotal moments in their careers (Snoop Dogg having just quit Death Row, Pink Floyd about to tour their last real studio album), others are are at various ebbs (seemingly every blues musician has just gotten out of prison), some are very cooperative (Lady Gaga, Chuck Berry), others need some kind of help (Brian Wilson with his wife Melinda), and some are just plain weird (Julian Casablancas from The Strokes, Dave Pirner from Soul Asylum, or Jonathan Davis from Korn). I can't imagine a reader who wouldn't be interested in at least some of these interviews, even artists that they normally wouldn't have a high opinion of.
Neil Strauss himself is a good interviewer, in addition to being an interesting guy. Obviously it's The Game that's made him famous, and I'm not sure many people would pick this up if someone else wrote it (this book was released in 2011, 6 years after The Game, and contains material from as far back as the 90s), but he seems to have a real talent for getting his subjects to say interesting things. He's very modest and self-deprecating about his own interviewing skills, and indeed sometimes it does seem like his M.O. is to flail around until the subject takes pity on him and gives him good material, but you can see where the guy who wrote The Game came from, as in the scene when he charms Britney Spears into giving him a decent interview with basic pickup techniques. While it's funny to see the members of Led Zeppelin talk all over him (he points out that interviewing a band all together is a rookie mistake since they'll just banter with each other), in most of the interviews he's able to lean back and get his subjects to open up in interesting ways.
And so as an audience member, I found myself very pleased. Strauss is great at making me feel like I'm the third guy in the room, asking many questions that I would have liked to, and some that I would never have thought of. For example, a few times he asks a stock question like "would you still make music if no one ever heard it?" This seems abstract, but what it translates to is "what is your relationship to your fans?", so it's interesting to hear how differently artists like PJ Harvey and Lady Gaga answer it, and think about what their answers say about their art. Strauss does profile a few genuine outsider artists, but for the most part these are people who are in some way looking for my approval, who are trying to speak to me. I read interviews because I'm always looking for something "more" from artists I like, but the questions of why artists put themselves out there and how they embody something I wish I could myself are endlessly fascinating. Even to hear some like Trent Reznor pour his heart out about his unhappiness and loneliness is revealing, to me.
After dozens and dozens of interviews (annoyingly, the Index is not sorted alphabetically but by cutesy "themes" and caricatures, so good luck flipping back and forth trying to find someone specific), Strauss closes with a very sad memoriam dedicated to Paul Nelson, a legendary critic and editor whose personal issues eventually led to a quiet death alone in his apartment, undiscovered for several days. As a meditation on how a lifetime of achievement and the admiration of your peers relates to dying alone, it will resonate most strongly with those who worry about their own legacy and how their work fits in to What It All Means, and so the book ends with 11 lessons drawn from the interviews. That some of them contradict each other is of course cosmically appropriate for the un-summarizable complexity of life:
- Let go of the past.
- Fame won't make you feel any better about yourself.
- The secret to happiness is balance.
- Fix your issues now, because the older you get the worse they become.
- Derive some self-esteem from within, not from others' opinions.
- Say yes to new things.
- Live in truth.
- Never say never.
- Trust your negativity.
- Be happy with what you have.
- Everyone loves you when you're dead.
August 30, 2019
I couldn’t put it down
Engaging, witty, sad, entertaining, and profound. This book of portions of interviews by journalist Neil Strauss is all of those things. Traveling through these interviews through the lives of legends and the lives of people I knew nothing about captivated me. He brings it all together with the lessons he learned from the lives of those he interviewed.
The book is long and worth every moment spent reading it.
Engaging, witty, sad, entertaining, and profound. This book of portions of interviews by journalist Neil Strauss is all of those things. Traveling through these interviews through the lives of legends and the lives of people I knew nothing about captivated me. He brings it all together with the lessons he learned from the lives of those he interviewed.
The book is long and worth every moment spent reading it.
January 3, 2023
MUITO bom. Entrevistas maravilhosas, e não só isso: a forma com que o autor organizou a ordem delas e montou o livro deixou a leitura muito fluida, impossível de parar de ler.
September 16, 2025
This was Rad. Neil is great at what he does. What a dope career holy shit. If you’re into music history, (predominantly) 90s/Y2k pop culture, and examining the psyche of actors, musicians, and celebrities, then I’d definitely recommend. Loved Neil’s takeaways and lessons from his collection of interviews that he discusses in the Epilogue. This was a super cool read and I learned a lot about some of my favorite musicians.
March 30, 2011
Having been familiar with Strauss' previous works, through many of his music articles for Rolling Stone as well as the books he co-wrote with Marilyn Manson, Dave Navarro, and Mötley Crüe, picking up his latest book was a no brainer.
Everyone Loves You When You're Dead: Journeys into Fame and Madness is a book of life lessons learned through other people. Strauss returns to the notes and recordings of interviews he's been granted through the course of his career and weaves this book together from them. He slides from rock stars to mafia dons, from famous actors to forgotten blues players, and stitches them in a style that, while at first seems disjointed, begins to flow. A casual mention of a name, citing of an influence or even a random topic glues together these stories.
This book doesn't really unearth any "dirt" (as it were) on celebrities in the entertainment field. More it gives glimpses "behind the curtain". Footnotes expand on bits and pieces, giving better perspective.
While this book will not appeal to everyone's tastes, there are some truly great moments captured in the pages.
Everyone Loves You When You're Dead: Journeys into Fame and Madness is a book of life lessons learned through other people. Strauss returns to the notes and recordings of interviews he's been granted through the course of his career and weaves this book together from them. He slides from rock stars to mafia dons, from famous actors to forgotten blues players, and stitches them in a style that, while at first seems disjointed, begins to flow. A casual mention of a name, citing of an influence or even a random topic glues together these stories.
This book doesn't really unearth any "dirt" (as it were) on celebrities in the entertainment field. More it gives glimpses "behind the curtain". Footnotes expand on bits and pieces, giving better perspective.
While this book will not appeal to everyone's tastes, there are some truly great moments captured in the pages.
March 23, 2011
One of my favorite books every by one of my favorite authors of all-time. I don't know how he does it but it seems he can compact a ton of information into small enough doses that you can read it for just a few pages and come back to it with no problems hours later. In addition he presents the celebrities and their own personal dilemmas in a high class fashion which does the book justice compared to what other publications like US Weekly, TMZ, and the other gossip outlets do. Within the book Strauss has it divided into 10 different acts that delve into different aspects of the human personality and what we do to seek rapport. As to what kind of things are inside the book you have to read it to find out but it will regardless be one of the better books you have recently read.
In closing though I recommend it to anyone who has read The Game, Emergency, or the biographies written with Neil for sure. As for others if you like music, pop culture, or anything dealing with Hollywood this book is for you.
In closing though I recommend it to anyone who has read The Game, Emergency, or the biographies written with Neil for sure. As for others if you like music, pop culture, or anything dealing with Hollywood this book is for you.
January 30, 2016
Found this book at a local dollar store and when I opened it up it was signed by Neil. It was well worth what I paid for it.
It's really interesting at what some people of fame really have to say and think. He digs deeper into the psyche of these people and they all let loose for him. If you're really hurt by what artists say about life, then you need to skip ahead. Some of these interviews will make you strongly dislike a person to where you are completely done with their career.
This will shed some light on how you judge a person. I've learned that egos are huger than what I thought, people are crazier, some are down right disgusting and others are surprisingly not how you picture them.
Towards the end of the book, it gets a little dry and I didn't read the last article. It got to its crescendo and then dropped off at a fast pace. It's a decent read for anyone who loves art, someone who enjoys in-depth interviews with some of the worlds most recognizable people.
It's really interesting at what some people of fame really have to say and think. He digs deeper into the psyche of these people and they all let loose for him. If you're really hurt by what artists say about life, then you need to skip ahead. Some of these interviews will make you strongly dislike a person to where you are completely done with their career.
This will shed some light on how you judge a person. I've learned that egos are huger than what I thought, people are crazier, some are down right disgusting and others are surprisingly not how you picture them.
Towards the end of the book, it gets a little dry and I didn't read the last article. It got to its crescendo and then dropped off at a fast pace. It's a decent read for anyone who loves art, someone who enjoys in-depth interviews with some of the worlds most recognizable people.
October 10, 2011
You owe it to yourself to read this if you love music. Strauss is a master of taking you backstage where you can observe celebrities in their natural environment. It's like a pop culture zoo.
This book is effectively a collection of interweaving outtakes from his many years as a music writer. You'll read about musicians you listen to every day, or people you have never heard of and will now go look up. He looks at music from every angle: the people who make it, the people who write about it, the people who set up the stage for a show.
ELYWYD ends up being a collection of interactions with musicians and performers when their guard is at its lowest- or sometimes so high that you can peek under. He lets the interviews speak for themselves, and they say so much.
You've read his book The Dirt already... haven't you? (except you, Mom, please don't!)
This book is effectively a collection of interweaving outtakes from his many years as a music writer. You'll read about musicians you listen to every day, or people you have never heard of and will now go look up. He looks at music from every angle: the people who make it, the people who write about it, the people who set up the stage for a show.
ELYWYD ends up being a collection of interactions with musicians and performers when their guard is at its lowest- or sometimes so high that you can peek under. He lets the interviews speak for themselves, and they say so much.
You've read his book The Dirt already... haven't you? (except you, Mom, please don't!)
March 29, 2011
I loved this book! It’s not about celebrities. It’s about the humanness behind the mask of the celebrity and the lessons they learn about life right along with us, (non-celebrities).
The author, Neil Straus, examines decades of all the interviews and extracts from them lessons on how we can learn from them to live a happy, true, fulfilling life. Strauss has met a lot of people, over 3,000 up-close and personal interviews of celebrities and persons of interest. This was such an unusual book of interviews, presented in a narrative form in an entertaining and fun way. There are lots of interesting surprises and educational facts about the music world, fame, art and the part I loved best was the peek at the human beings behind the face of stardom.
The author, Neil Straus, examines decades of all the interviews and extracts from them lessons on how we can learn from them to live a happy, true, fulfilling life. Strauss has met a lot of people, over 3,000 up-close and personal interviews of celebrities and persons of interest. This was such an unusual book of interviews, presented in a narrative form in an entertaining and fun way. There are lots of interesting surprises and educational facts about the music world, fame, art and the part I loved best was the peek at the human beings behind the face of stardom.
June 11, 2011
Neil Strauss has interviewed a lot of actors and musicians, and he’s compiled the best, most interesting, most salacious bits of those interviews into this mammoth book-length montage on fame. Every interview leads into the next. He jump cuts from Snoop to Madonna to Johnny Cash in the span of five pages. Julian Casablancas acts like a total fucking psycho then Tom Cruise acts like a total fucking psycho then Prince acts like a total fucking psycho. In the end, Russell Brand steals the show when he talks about interviewing Kylie Minogue while dressed up as Osama Bin Laden the day after 9/11. It’s a huge book, full of celebs you’re bound to love, hate, or love to hate.
March 17, 2011
I love, Love, LOVE this book. Clocking in at just over 500 pages, Everybody Loves You When You're Dead is the most provocative and entertaining anthology you're likely to read this year. Actually, it reimagines what an anthology should be, since instead of simply selecting his best published pieces over the last 20 years, Strauss re-edits and reselects, often choosing never before published interviews and insights. From testing psychic powers with the CIA to shopping for Pampers with Snoop Dogg, this is journalism and both its most absorbing and inspiring.
August 29, 2013
This is one of the most entertaining books I've ever read. Proof that a good journalist can make any subject interesting. I found myself racing through interviews with people I otherwise could care less about, or actively dislike (The Strokes, Russell Brand, Kenny G!!). This is an incredible collection of interviews. Where else are you going to find interviews with Cher, Zac Efron and Britney Spears and just a few pages later Henry Grimes, Charles Gayle and Raymond Scott? Thank you Neil Stauss, this book is awesome.
May 12, 2011
I'd vaguely heard of Neil Strauss but didn't know much of his work. I'd read a couple of his interviews before, but most of this book was new to me. A collection of interviews could so easily come across as slapdash and thrown together, but there was clearly a lot of care taken here. Interviews are linked by subject, theme, previous conversations and interspersed throughout the book. It's a great read, I really recommend you give it a go.
June 25, 2015
This was one of the best books I've ever read. It's not just a book of interviews with the famous, the not-so-famous and the infamous. It's a look at how to get through the very bizarre and ultimately futile maze called life. It also has great illustrations in the vein of The Who Sells Out album photos. It's also full of practical tips like never lend Courtney Love money.
October 10, 2013
Epic, entertaining, and inspiring collection of interviews and snippets of interviews. It took me nearly two years to finish reading this, but I'm glad I didn't give up on it. The format makes it a difficult book to read straight through, but it's worth sticking with!
May 6, 2016
Often poignant, sometimes hilarious, occasionally downright weird. I was compelled to keep reading, even when the interview subjects were people I'd never heard of or cared about.
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