Bob Spitz

Elena Seibert

Bob Spitz is the author of the award-winning biopic, "The Rolling Stone," the legndary rock band that has been filling arenas and stadiums since the 1980s.. In earlier bestselling works, he profiled Led Zeppelin, the Beatles and Julia Child.

Spitz helped manage Bruce Springsteen and Elton John at crucial points in their careers, and as a writer has featured entertainment figures ranging from Keith Richards to Jane Fonda, Paul McCartney to Paul Bowles.

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Books:

The Rolling Stones

The Biography
History / Biography
Penguin Group
April 2026
ISBN 9780593489093
Hardcover, 737 pages

Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2026 by The New York TimesFrom the award-winning, bestselling author of classic histories of the Beatles and Led Zeppelin, a groundbreaking reckoning with the world’s greatest rock 'n' roll bandAll great music is a threat. What left is there to say about The Rolling Stones? A hell of a lot, it turns out.Bob Spitz has brought his indefatigable energy and five decades of experiences in the fields and hollows of rock 'n’ roll to bear on his five-year journey to reexamine one of popular music’s greatest stories. There are myriad revisions to the conventional narrative which underscore just how in control of that narrative the band has been up to now—small example: no, Muddy Waters was not mopping the floors at Chess Records when the Stones showed up. But in a larger sense, as with the Beatles and Led Zeppelin, Spitz’s greatest gift is for the big picture. He knows where the magic is, and why it is. He is as clear-eyed a connoisseur of the show business, the spectacle and the collateral damage of this whirlwind as anyone alive, and that lucid gaze pierces a lot of incrusted bullshit, but the ultimate goal is to connect with a creative force whose power shows no signs of fading, over sixty years on.At its heart the story is about two boys, Mick and Keith, and their unique, fraught, alchemical bond, often tested, never sundered. The Glimmer Twins. The bandmates, like Charlie Watts, who found their groove in relation to this double star made the trip intact, while those who struggled, like Brian Jones and Mick Taylor, were chewed up and spit out. This is a story with many dark corners, including a surprising number of deaths. But whether Jagger and Richards sold their souls to the devil is at the crossroads for blues greatness or just squeezed their heroes for every drop of inspiration, in the end their connection to their music and to each other put them in a category of one, where they very much remain. More/less

Led Zeppelin

The Biography
History / Biography
Penguin
March 2024
ISBN 9780399562440
Paperback, 721 pages

“In this authoritative, unsparing history of the biggest rock group of the 1970s, Spitz delivers inside details and analysis with his well-known gift for storytelling. ” —PEOPLEFrom the author of the iconic, bestselling history of The Beatles, the definitive account of arguably the greatest rock band of all time.Rock star. Whatever that term means to you, chances are it owes a debt to Led Zeppelin. No one before or since has lived the dream quite like Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones, and John Bonham. In Led Zeppelin, Bob Spitz takes their full measure, separating myth from reality with his trademark connoisseurship and storytelling flair.From the opening notes of their first album, the band announced itself as something different, a collision of grand artistic ambition and brute primal force, of English folk music and African American blues. Spitz’s account of their artistic journey, amid the fascinating ecosystem of popular music, is irresistible. But the music is only part of the legend: Led Zeppelin is also the story of how the sixties became the seventies, of how innocence became decadence, of how rock took over. Led Zeppelin wasn’t the first band to let loose on the road, but as with everything else, they took it to an entirely new level. Not all the legends are true, but in Spitz’s careful accounting, what is true is astonishing and sometimes disturbing.Led Zeppelin gave no quarter, and neither has Bob Spitz. Led Zeppelin is the long-awaited full reckoning the band richly deserves. More/less