Alan Light
Alan Light has been one of America’s leading music journalists and authors for more than twenty-five years. A frequent contributor to the New York Times and numerous other publications, he is the co-host of the daily music talk show "Debatable" and the monthly interview series "In the Light" on SiriusXM.
Alan’s books include THE HOLY OR THE BROKEN: LEONARD COHEN, JEFF BUCKLEY AND THE UNLIKELY ASCENT OF 'HALLELUJAH', which Kirkus Reviews named one of the best books of 2012, and LET'S GO CRAZY: PRINCE AND THE MAKING OF PURPLE RAIN. He also wrote WHAT HAPPENED, MISS SIMONE? — a companion to the Academy Award-nominated documentary of the same title — and his most recent book is the illustrated biography JOHNNY CASH: THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF THE MAN IN BLACK.
Alan is the co-author of Gregg Allman’s best-selling memoir, MY CROSS TO BEAR, which Rolling Stone and Billboard named one of the best rock & roll memoirs of all time, and he was the writer of THE SEARCHER, an acclaimed two-part documentary about the life and music of Elvis Presley, which premiered on HBO in April 2018.
Alan was the founding music editor and editor-in-chief of the urban culture monthly Vibe. In that time, Vibe’s circulation climbed from 200,000 to 600,000 and the magazine was nominated for four National Magazine Awards. Alan then served as the editor-in-chief of Spin magazine. Before helping launch Vibe, Alan was a Senior Writer at Rolling Stone, where he began working in 1989.
Alan’s writing has appeared in such publications as the New Yorker, the Wall Street Journal, Pitchfork.com, Mother Jones, New York magazine, and MOJO, and he is a two-time winner of the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award for excellence in music journalism. He has written liner notes for numerous albums and DVDs by such artists as the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Whitney Houston, and Chuck Berry, and his essays on subjects from Bruce Springsteen to the roots of hip-hop have appeared in many other books.
Pic: Mary Ellen Matthews
70 articles
List of articles in the library
Boogie Down Productions, KRS-One: KRS-One: Wisdom From The Street
Profile and Interview by Alan Light, Rolling Stone, 30 May 1991
Kris Parker once lived in the subways and shelters of New York. Now the rapper known as KRS-One is hip-hop's righteous voice — and one ...
Profile and Interview by Alan Light, Vibe, August 1994
The man who won't be Prince speaks at last about his new name, his new attitude and a new body of work we may never ...
Interview by Alan Light, Tracks, September 2004
The hit Musicology album and torrid live shows have made him a star again. Faith and marriage have made him happy. Yes, Prince has come ...
Ringo Starr: The Hot Seat: Ringo Starr
Interview by Alan Light, New York Post, 19 June 2005
RINGO STARR handed his Mercedes over to the valet and bounded up the steps of West Hollywood's Argyle Hotel. He may be the most famous ...
Interview by Alan Light, Mother Jones, July 2005
Ry Cooder's new album tunes into L.A.'s Chavez Ravine and the dawn of Chicano consciousness. ...
Interview by Alan Light, Spin, November 2005
From Beastie Boys to Run-D.M.C. to Red Hot Chili Peppers to Johnny Cash, he's produced them all ...
The Red Hot Chili Peppers: Red Hot Chili Peppers: Out Of Their Tree
Profile and Interview by Alan Light, Spin, May 2006
TWO YEARS AGO, RHCP went to Europe to play in front of the largest crowds of their 20-plus-year-career. After surviving numerous personnel changes, drug problems, ...
Carrie Underwood: An Interview
Interview by Alan Light, MSN.com, July 2006
"AT FIRST I felt like maybe I cheated a bit, getting in the way I did," said Carrie Underwood. "But I paid my dues my ...
The Dixie Chicks: The Playboy Interview
Interview by Alan Light, Playboy, December 2006
IT IS MARCH 10, 2003. The Dixie Chicks – Natalie Maines, Emily Robison and Martie Maguire – are playing an SRO show in London at ...
Interview by Alan Light, MSN.com, January 2007
"AT THE END of the day," says Tori Amos, "if I'm not inflammatory, I wouldn't be Tori." ...
Interview by Alan Light, Mother Jones, 17 May 2007
Wilco, beautiful not stoned ...
Interview by Alan Light, MSN.com, June 2007
There were many who vied for the title, but in the recording studio, there was really only one Fifth Beatle. ...
Interview by Alan Light, eMusic.com, July 2007
IT WAS PERHAPS the most shocking crash and burn in pop music history. With her 1987 debut, The Lion and the Cobra, 20-year-old Sinead O'Connor ...
Interview by Alan Light, MSN.com, August 2007
"FOR ME," says Emmylou Harris, "it's always about finding a song, one at a time, that I love and that I can make my own." ...
Mark Ronson, Amy Winehouse: Mark Ronson: Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before
Interview by Alan Light, Guilt & Pleasure, September 2007
Shedding the mantle of socialite DJ to become a critically successful producer, Mark Ronson is Jewtastic. ...
Interview by Alan Light, MSN.com, September 2007
"I THINK YOU just learn as you go along," says Mick Jagger, "whether you're playing with the Rolling Stones or playing with other musicians." If ...
The Bee Gees, Robin Gibb: Robin Gibb remembers Saturday Night Fever
Retrospective and Interview by Alan Light, MSN.com, September 2007
FOR BABY BOOMERS, this year marked the 40th anniversary of the Summer of Love. For hipsters worldwide, 2007 means that it's been three decades since ...
Led Zeppelin: Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones
Interview by Alan Light, MSN.com, October 2007
IT IS A ROCK and roll fantasy that most people had abandoned. On November 26 at London's O2 Arena, the three surviving members of Led ...
Steve Winwood: The Lives of Steve Winwood
Interview by Alan Light, MSN.com, March 2008
THE TITLE OF Steve Winwood's new album is Nine Lives – which refers to the number of songs the disc contains, but could just as ...
Interview by Alan Light, MSN.com, May 2008
THE WORSE THINGS get, the better Steely Dan sounds. The songs of Walter Becker and Donald Fagen stand as the definitive account of urban decadence ...
Interview by Alan Light, MSN.com, July 2008
IN 1977, BILLY Joel was struggling to catch a break. The Long Island native was approaching 30, and had released four albums to no great ...
Interview by Alan Light, MSN.com, August 2008
IN NEW YORK CITY this summer, David Byrne is everywhere. His installation titled Playing the Building transformed the Battery Maritime Building into a giant musical ...
Review by Alan Light, MSN.com, September 2008
"THIS IS OUR twenty-third Farm Aid," said John Mellencamp, "and when we started this thing, we were naïve enough that we thought we'd have this ...
The Four Tops, The Supremes, The Temptations: Motown at 50
Retrospective and Interview by Alan Light, MSN.com, January 2009
FIFTY YEARS AGO this month in Detroit, a 29-year-old African-American songwriter named Berry Gordy, Jr – a former boxer, autoworker, and Army veteran – borrowed ...
Fleetwood Mac Unleashed: Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham speak
Interview by Alan Light, MSN.com, February 2009
A FEW WEEKS ago in Los Angeles, the members of Fleetwood Mac – Lindsey Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, and Stevie Nicks – gathered together ...
Live Review by Alan Light, MSN.com, May 2009
IN THE NEW biography The Protest Singer, folk music paragon Pete Seeger tells writer Alec Wilkinson that the single word he believes in above all ...
Creedence Clearwater Revival, Grateful Dead, Richie Havens, Santana: Woodstock's 40th anniversary
Retrospective and Interview by Alan Light, MSN.com, August 2009
Woodstock was a beginning, and it was an end. ...
The Black Keys: Blackroc: Cold Fusion
Profile and Interview by Alan Light, Relix, January 2010
NEVER BEFORE HAVE THE PURE ELEMENTS OF HIP-HOP AND ROCK BEEN SUCCESSFULLY CATALYZED TO CREATE SOMETHING ENTIRELY NEW – UNTIL NOW. BLAKROC, THE CREATION OF ...
Gil Scott-Heron: Back on Message: Gil Scott-Heron retools for a new generation
Interview by Alan Light, Mother Jones, March 2010
The revolution will not go better with Coke The revolution will not fight the germs that cause bad breath The revolution will put you in ...
Jeff Beck, Stevie Wonder: Jeff Beck
Interview by Alan Light, MSN.com, April 2010
"EVERY TIME I hear a really attractive chord sequence, I'm on my way again," says Jeff Beck. "I think, what can I do with this?" ...
The Rolling Stones Rock Jimmy Fallon
Report and Interview by Alan Light, TV Guide, May 2010
Late Night shines a light on Exile on Main Street's reissue with a week-long tribute. ...
Arcade Fire's Band Aid for Haiti
Report and Interview by Alan Light, Mother Jones, January 2011
The dynamic duo behind Arcade Fire on charity, indie cred, and staying sane. ...
Profile and Interview by Alan Light, MSN.com, May 2011
LEVON HELM is standing in his kitchen, grinning. At the head of the table, singer-songwriter Garland Jeffreys is showing guitarist Larry Campbell, best known for ...
Interview by Alan Light, Relix, May 2011
ATHENS, GEORGIA IT'S 1995, maybe 1996. Brian Burton is a freshman at the University of Georgia, an aspiring moviemaker, taking an "Introduction to Film" course. Burton ...
Interview by Alan Light, W, June 2011
WHAT'S THE first thing you think of when you think back ten years to the days of Songs in A Minor? The first thing I think ...
Interview by Alan Light, MSN.com, October 2011
"NOBODY'S EVER known what to call me," says Harry Belafonte. "Was I a folk singer, jazz, pop? Or was I even a singer at all? ...
Interview by Alan Light, MSN.com, October 2011
"CAN YOU IMAGINE us years from today?" wrote Paul Simon in 'Old Friends', from Simon and Garfunkel's 1968 album Bookends. "Sharing a park bench quietly/How ...
The Rolling Stones: Mick Jagger and Keith Richards on Some Girls
Retrospective and Interview by Alan Light, MSN.com, November 2011
"THE IDEA WAS ten songs, very direct, not a lot of backing vocals or horns, no duets or guests, very straightforward," says Mick Jagger. "We ...
Live Review by Alan Light, MSN.com, January 2012
"WELCOME TO Occupy Van Halen!," said a grinning David Lee Roth, as the band took to the stage of New York's tiny basement club Café ...
Interview by Alan Light, MSN.com, May 2012
LISA MARIE Presley had to go to England to come home. The only child of Elvis and Priscilla Presley, she had released two albums – ...
Buddy Guy on his autobiography
Interview by Alan Light, MSN.com, June 2012
"A LOT OF people have the blues and don't even know they got it," says Buddy Guy. "But just keep living and you'll figure out ...
Interview by Alan Light, MSN.com, June 2012
"I JUST DIDN'T want any new songs," says Neil Young. "I was not anxious to go down that road – to have people analyzing them ...
Jay-Z: Carnegie Hall, New York City
Live Review by Alan Light, MSN.com, July 2012
LIKE ANY REAL MC, Jay-Z loves a challenge. He just takes things to a higher level than, well, anyone. So it wasn't enough that on ...
Interview by Alan Light, MSN.com, July 2012
THERE IS exactly one reggae singer in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame whose name is not Bob Marley. The truth, though, is that ...
Interview by Alan Light, Relix, July 2012
"WITH THE FACES, you never know what's going to happen." It's a theme that comes up again and again in conversation with Ronnie Wood and ...
The Band, Levon Helm: Love for Levon: Izod Center, New Jersey
Live Review by Alan Light, MSN.com, October 2012
LEVON HELM wasn't exactly a household name. But when the former drummer and vocalist for The Band died in April after a long battle with ...
Live Review by Alan Light, MSN.com, December 2012
IT MIGHT HAVE been the single greatest gathering of talent for a rock show – or it might just have been, as Mick Jagger put ...
Interview by Alan Light, MSN.com, December 2012
"THERE’S A day of reckoning coming," says Neil Young. "These superstorms and disasters—they're not a surprise, they were predicted, and they're only going to increase ...
Interview by Alan Light, MSN.com, December 2012
"THERE'S A day of reckoning coming," says Neil Young. "These superstorms and disasters — they're not a surprise, they were predicted, and they're only going ...
The Beatles, Ringo Starr: Ringo Starr
Interview by Alan Light, Newsweek, Spring 2012
IN. 1962, RINGO Starr was the scruffy-looking drummer in a Liverpool band called Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. The group was one of the bigger ...
Soundgarden: Beast Kings of NY
Report and Interview by Alan Light, MOJO, February 2013
NOTE: This is Alan's "Director's Cut" version of the piece that ran in MOJO. ...
Live Review by Alan Light, MSN.com, March 2013
PRINCE HAS long been considered a gold standard as a singer, guitarist, stage performer, and producer. He's such a singular force, though, that he hasn't ...
Live Review by Alan Light, MSN.com, April 2013
Two nights. Nine-and-a-half hours. Thirty-three guitar players (more or less). Ninety-one songs. ...
The Band, Robbie Robertson: Robbie Robertson
Interview by Alan Light, MSN.com, September 2013
ROBBIE ROBERTSON isn't exactly known for being prolific. In the almost 37 years since The Last Waltz marked his final show with The Band, he ...
Live Review by Alan Light, MSN.com, February 2014
"THAT ROCK fantasy camp shit?," screamed a shirtless Taylor Hawkins. "This is it right here!" The Foo Fighters drummer – taking a rare turn standing ...
Retrospective and Interview by Alan Light, MOJO, July 2014
IT IS THE winter that never ends in New York City, and on this mid-April evening, the rain outside is gradually turning to snow. The ...
Profile and Interview by Alan Light, Radio.com, September 2014
"THERE'S THIS perception that I only sing about partying and getting drunk," says Kenny Chesney. "If people saw how hard I work, and how much ...
Interview by Alan Light, Radio.com, October 2014
"EVERY RECORD, I've tried to challenge myself to make something different," says Taylor Swift. "Red was really experimental, so I ended up with a sound ...
Robert Plant: The World's Roar
Retrospective and Interview by Alan Light, Relix, December 2014
AT FIRST GLANCE, you don't notice him. It's a little hard to believe – he is, after all, one of the most recognizable, distinctive, and ...
David Johansen, New York Dolls, Buster Poindexter: David Johansen: The MOJO Interview
Interview by Alan Light, MOJO, March 2015
DAVID JOHANSEN sits on the couch in the living room of his wife's long-time, walk-up apartment on a nondescript block of Manhattan's Upper West Side. ...
Pete Townshend, The Who: Pete Townshend: "I Was Wild!"
Interview by Alan Light, MOJO, August 2015
"I DON'T WANT to tour, I don't want to go on TV, I don't want to go on the radio, I don't want to do ...
Interview by Alan Light, Mother Jones, July 2016
We caught up with the hip-hop legend behind Baz Luhrmann's latest creation ...
Sean Lennon: The MOJO Interview: Sean Lennon
Interview by Alan Light, MOJO, July 2016
"IT'S STILL NEW YORK!" says Sean Lennon with a laugh as a voice suddenly starts hollering in Spanish on the sidewalk directly in front of ...
Interview by Alan Light, MOJO, December 2016
"YOU GOTTA stop making hits at a certain point," says Paul Simon, 74. And yet, when his thirteenth solo album, Stranger to Stranger, was released ...
Profile and Interview by Alan Light, MOJO, August 2017
IN JULY 1978, the members of Pink Floyd gathered at Britannia Row, their studio in London. It had been almost exactly a year since the ...
Allman Brothers Band, Gregg Allman: Gregg Allman
Retrospective by Alan Light, MOJO, September 2017
IT WAS the final show the Allman Brothers Band would ever play. On October 28, 2014 the group made its last appearance at the Beacon ...
Chic, Nile Rodgers: Nile Rodgers: The Next, Not the Last
Report and Interview by Alan Light, Savoy Magazine, Fall 2018
Nile Rodgers has long been considered one of the coolest artists on the music scene, and shows no sign of slowing down. Following his victory ...
Brittany Howard: History Repeats
Profile and Interview by Alan Light, Relix, October 2019
"THAT'S SCARY, but don't worry," says the tarot card reader. "The devil is kind of weirdly positive, though it looks crazy." ...
Retrospective by Alan Light, MOJO, February 2020
JOHNNY CASH stood on the makeshift stage at Folsom Prison, set up in the cafeteria, behind death row. Almost a hundred men had been executed ...
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