More than a rock star, more than a celebrity, Paul McCartney is a cultural touchstone who helped transform popular music as one half of the legendary Lennon-McCartney songwriting duo. In this definitive biography, Peter Ames Carlin examines McCartney’s entire life, casting new light not just on the Beatles era but also on his years with Wings and his thirty-year relationship with his first wife, Linda McCartney. He takes us on a journey through a tumultuous couple of decades in which Paul struck out on his own as a solo artist, reached the top of the charts with a new band, and once again drew hundreds of thousands of screaming fans to his concerts. Carlin presents McCartney as a musical visionary but also as a layered and conflicted figure as haunted by his own legacy—and particularly his relationship with John Lennon—as he was inspired by it. Built on years of research and fresh, revealing interviews with friends, bandmates, and collaborators spanning McCartney’s entire life, Carlin’s lively biography captures the many faces of the living legend.
Peter Ames Carlin is a journalist, critic and author. Previously a free-lance writer, senior writer at People magazine and a TV critic for The Oregonian newspaper, his work has been published in the New York Times Magazine, the Los Angeles Times Magazine, the Times (UK), Men's Journal and the British music magazine, The Word.
He is also the author of BRUCE (Touchstone, November 2012), PAUL McCARTNEY: A LIFE (Touchstone, November, 2009) and CATCH A WAVE: THE RISE, FALL AND REDEMPTION OF THE BEACH BOYS' BRIAN WILSON (Rodale, 2006).
A professional writer since 1985, Carlin has written about a wide variety of subjects. His 2009 investigation of financial and identity fraud conducted by TV news executive Jeff Alan spurred a year-long federal investigation that sent Alan to federal prison. Still, Carlin's work has focused mostly on popular culture and music.
Carlin lives in Portland, Ore. with his wife and three children.





