Everyone Loves You When You're Dead: Journeys into Fame and Madness [Paperback]

Neil Strauss (Author)

Book Description

Release date: March 15, 2011

You can tell a lot about somebody in a minute. If you choose the right minute. Here are 228 of them. Join Neil Strauss, "The Mike Tyson of interviewers," (Dave Pirner, Soul Asylum), as he

• Makes Lady Gaga cry, tries to keep MÖtley CrÜe out of jail & gets kidnapped by Courtney Love
• Shoots guns with Ludacris, takes a ride with Neil Young & goes to church with Tom Cruise and his mother
• Spends the night with Trent Reznor, reads the mind of Britney Spears & finds religion with Stephen Colbert
• Gets picked on by Led Zeppelin, threatened by the mafia & serenaded by Leonard Cohen
• Picks up psychic clues with the CIA, diapers with Snoop Dog & prison survival tips from Rick James
• Goes drinking with Bruce Springsteen, dining with Gwen Stefani & hot tubbing with Marilyn Manson
• Talks glam with David Bowie, drugs with Madonna, death with Johnny Cash & sex with Chuck Berry
• Gets molested by the Strokes, in trouble with Prince & in bed with… you’ll find out who inside

And many, many more awkward moments and accidental adventures with the world’s number one stars in Everyone Love You When You’re Dead.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Journalist Strauss, who has coauthored books with the band members of Mötley Crüe (The Dirt) and porn superstar Jenna Jameson (How to Make Love Like a Porn Star) now offers a terrific look at the dysfunctional livelihoods of stardom, a theme based on his many interviews for various publications. Strauss went back to his original interview tapes and notes in search of moments—mostly unpublished—that reveal "the truth or essence of each person, story, or experience." He liberally and ingeniously cuts back and forth between scenes, such as pairing the youthful, arrogant claims of Oasis that the band could have been the Beatles in the 1960s with the tortured feeling of the Who's aging leader Pete Townshend ("All we can do in the future is look back"). In other instances, he shows the self-doubt shared by Soul Asylum's Dave Pirner and actor Orlando Bloom. But the best moments come when Strauss has earned such trust of his subjects that he becomes part of some very weird scenes, all of which are presented in all their often hilarious detail: shooting guns with Ludacris, getting kidnapped by Courtney Love, making Lady Gaga cry, and shopping for Pampers with Snoop Dogg. (Mar.)
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Review

“We might as well have had sex now.” (Lady Gaga )

“If you were a girl, I’d f*ck you.” (Bo Diddley )

“We could do fifteen minutes in Vegas.” (Chuck Berry )

“One of the longest and greatest interviews I’ve ever had.” (Brian Wilson, The Beach Boys )

“The best interview of my life.” (Britney Spears )

“Well Neil, f*ck you.” (Phil Collins, Angry Letter to Neil Strauss )

“The best and most honest daily newspaper reporter rock has ever seen.” (Dave Marsh, Author )

“This excellent bathroom read is boiled down like little rocks of crack.” (Library Journal )

“Gonzo interviewing at its best.” (Kirkus Reviews (starred review) )

“A terrific look at the dysfunctional livelihoods of stardom.” (Publishers Weekly )

“God bless the demons—and Neil Strauss too.” (Nikki Sixx, Mötley Crüe )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 544 pages
• Publisher: It Books; Original edition (March 15, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061543675
• ISBN-13: 978-0061543678
• Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 1.5 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (86 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #378,034 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Neil Strauss is the author of the New York Times bestsellers The Game, Rules of the Game, and Emergency. He is also the coauthor of three other New York Times 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 ofHell--as well as Dave Navarro's Don't Try This at Home, a Los Angeles Times bestseller. His latest book, Everyone Loves You When You're Dead, collects the 228 best, craziest, and most soul-baring moments from his adventures with musicians, celebrities, and icons while writing cover stories for Rolling Stone and the New York Times. Strauss lives in Los Angeles and can be found at www.neilstrauss.com.

Amazon Author Rankbeta 

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#67 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs

#73 in Books > Self-Help

#89 in Kindle eBooks > Biographies & Memoirs

#91 in Kindle eBooks > Health, Fitness & Dieting

#67 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs

#73 in Books > Self-Help

#89 in Kindle eBooks > Biographies & Memoirs

#91 in Kindle eBooks > Health, Fitness & Dieting

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Bathroom read? Choose your own adventure? April 22, 2011

By NPRjunkie

Format:Paperback

I was looking forward to reading interviews from this journalist. I heard him speak on NPR and had high hopes. I didn't expect it to be chopped up into short pieces of an interview then ended (to be continued) and start with another interview. Then you pick back up with the initial interview several pages in and then switch to another interview before it's completed! It gave me a a headache trying to read through it. I guess it's good for someone who wants some small sections to pick up and read in the bathroom for example. Or maybe for someone with a short attention span. But I couldn't keep each interview straight from the others as I'm trying to recall the situation once the story starts back up again. Maybe it's a choose your own adventure book and you're supposed to jump to the person you want to read about instead of reading it from front to back. Very disjointed, I'm personally not a fan. There's my opinion, for what it's worth.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Truely Enjoyable Read March 15, 2011

By Zorro

Format:Paperback

I've worked with major artists in both the music and film worlds for 20 years -- but this book at 507 pages will take you around the block in far less time. I'm giving it as gifts to all my co-workers and friends this year.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An unrivaled glimpse behind the curtain. March 15, 2011

By R. Sacks

Format:Paperback

Although a big music aficionado, I have never been obsessed with celebrity. I can't remember ever buying a celebrity biography. I bought "Everyone Loves You When You're Dead" because I have enjoyed Strauss's music reviews when he was a music critic for the NY Times and later his articles for Rolling Stone.

That being said, I have never seen a more fascinating study of fame, celebrity and the artistic temperament than I found in this book. Through excerpts from his vast treasure trove of interviews Neil Strauss has captured a remarkably candid view of the most inscrutable and mysterious figures in pop culture. Somehow Strauss as an interviewer, has learned the art of hypnotizing his subjects into revealing themselves in ways they probably never intended. As an author and editor he has woven these moments into a thoroughly riveting book. It is by turns heartbreaking, hilarious and thought-provoking. I will probably never fantasize about being famous again.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Life Lessons From The Great And The Late March 15, 2011

By Nicole

Format:Paperback

Neil Strauss has a talent for honing in on the very essence of who a person is. It's an attribute that has served him well as an interviewer for publications such as The New York Times and Rolling Stone, as a writer penning biographical books with the likes of Mötley Crüe (The Dirt) and Jenna Jameson (How To Make Love Like A Porn Star), and in his other life, as Style, the seduction guru and author of the pick-up bible, The Game.

On the surface, his latest book, Everyone Loves You When You're Dead, is an anthology of interviews culled from Strauss' extensive back catalog, which includes conversations with everyone from Madonna, Lady Gaga, and Britney Spears to Chuck Berry, Leonard Cohen, and Johnny Cash. However, the acknowledgements section at the back of the book, which sums up all that's included, isn't just a laundry list of high profile names. Amongst the interviewees are some surprising and lesser known people (Kenny G, Patrick Miller, members of the Calabrian Mafia, et al.), and it's these inclusions that perhaps give an indication of the collection's greater purpose - that of a self-help book compiled from lessons learnt (or not, as the case may be) from those with problems on a grander scale than our own. Because of this underlying narrative, readers are advised to read the book from start to finish, cover to cover, rather that skipping about to find preferred interview subjects as one might initially be tempted to do.

The result of Strauss' labors is an anthology like no other. It's a hard to put down book that not only gives you an insight into the souls of those Strauss has interviewed, it also offers insights culled from the great and the late that can be universally applied.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars AWESOME! May 14, 2012

By Matt Simons

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is the first book that I've read by Neil Strauss but won't be my last. He's an amazing author and interviewer. Every interview in this book is entertaining. I've learned so much about the celebrities I've admired my whole life by just reading these in depth raw interviews. I really like how each interview is extremely different than the last. It will go from Snoop Dogg to Johnny Cash to Britney Spears to Led Zeppelin to Madonna and so on. All the words from each interview are coming strait from the mouths of each interviewee and not manipulated and twisted by journalists and thrown together for a magazine article. You'll really get to know each and every celebrity on a personal level. I would recommend this book to anyone. I've found a new respect for almost every person in this book based. It's all very entertaining!!!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A different way of understanding people March 15, 2011

By Krista Lauder

Format:Paperback

This isn't your average compilation of celebrity interviews. I know he's a celebrity interviewer by profession, but this clearly isn't just a copy-and-paste book of all his past interviews. It seems he actually went back to the source, including remarks and moments that were edited out of the published interview, or in retrospect add so much more interest to the interview.

I was pleasantly surprised at how addictive the book is--I found myself reading section after section, laughing out loud at parts...the book really offers you a different perspective on people. It's almost like it was written by a pyschiatrist-- Strauss really gets into the heads and psyches of these celebrities, observing them and questioning them in very astute ways. I think the title "Everyone Loves You When You're Dead" really evokes this action of evaluating people: the book has a sense of order, starting with interviews of younger celebrities, followed by those older or deceased (doesn't completely stick to this structure, but for the most part it follows this trajectory). As a result, it's like reading about the lifespan of a celebrity, from the trials and excitement they experience as youths just entering the business, to the disillusion or anger they feel as they become older or outdated. Strauss's writing is very insightful and wise, offering some comic yet smart commentary on the lives of celebrities.

Not something I'd usually pick up, but I found it to be an excellent and out-of-the-ordinary read.