Danny Goldberg

Step inside the rock ‘n’ roll world with this all-access pass from the music biz legend who collaborated with Led Zeppelin, Nirvana, Stevie Nicks, Bruce Springsteen, and more. In Bumping into Geniuses, Danny Goldberg chronicles his decades in the rock and roll biz—not only launching legendary acts to greater heights, but becoming friends with many of them. He tells mesmerizing stories of superstars like Kurt Cobain, Courtney Love, Bruce Springsteen, Warren Zevon, KISS, Led Zeppelin, and others. There may be no other music genre that has evolved like rock and roll. One man behind the scenes who has been hugely influential in defining it is Danny Goldberg, who started as a journalist in the ’60s but soon pivoted to become the American publicist for Led Zeppelin. He then became the personal manager for artists such as Bonnie Raitt, Stevie Nicks, Sonic Youth, the Allman Brothers Band, and Nirvana. More than a series of brilliantly painted rock-star portraits, this updated edition unpacks the last half century of the industry itself: an everchanging business that was complex and chaotic, a mixture of art and commerce, idealism and selfishness. And in the telling, Goldberg reveals how rock’s most gifted and influential musicians were able to release music which endures decades later. Originally published in 2008, the 2026 edition includes a new afterword by Goldberg with updated observations on the music business in the digital era, and rock culture in general as well as new anecdotes about several of the “geniuses” he worked with.

LIBERALS WITH ATTITUDE DOCUMENTS THE SIXTEEN MONTHS IN 1991-92 between the brutal beating of Rodney King by four police officers that was captured on a home video camera and the resignation of LAPD chief Daryl Gates. Gates was reviled by the local Black and civil liberties communities because of the pattern of racism and brutality in the department, and he was uniquely powerful because of the structure of the Los Angeles City Charter and the secret files he kept on local politicians. The effort to get Gates to step down after thirteen years as chief and to amend the City Charter to prevent another unaccountable chief from amassing that much power was led by Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley, a former LAPD officer and the first Black mayor of the city. To overcome Gates''s entrenched power, Bradley assembled a team that included future US secretary of state Warren Christopher, the local ACLU, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, and activists who saw the struggle against Gates as an important chapter in the civil rights movement. Much of the local media, especially the Los Angeles Times, was supportive of Bradley''s agenda, as was the burgeoning ''gangsta rap'' culture of LA, much of which emerged in reaction to the LAPD. Author Danny Goldberg was the chair of the ACLU Foundation of Southern California during those years and was personally acquainted with the leaders of the fight against Gates. He interviewed several dozen people who are still alive and got access to thousands of pages of documents among the papers of Stanley Sheinbaum, who was married to the heiress of the Warner Bros. film fortune. Sheinbaum was chosen by Mayor Bradley to be the president of the Los Angeles Police Commission, with the specific mission of getting Gates out of office. Goldberg''s insider saga demonstrates that cooperation between the political left and center is required to overcome white grievance and unaccountable power.

In early 1991, top music manager Danny Goldberg agreed to take on Nirvana, a critically acclaimed new band from the underground music scene in Seattle. He had no idea that the band's leader, Kurt Cobain, would become a pop-culture icon with a legacy arguably at the level of John Lennon, Michael Jackson, or Elvis Presley. Danny worked with Kurt from 1990 to 1994, the most impactful period of Kurt's life. This key time saw the stratospheric success of Nevermind turn Nirvana into the most successful rock band in the world and make punk and grunge household names; Kurt met and married the brilliant but mercurial Courtney Love and their relationship became a lightning rod for critics; their daughter Frances Bean was born; and, finally, Kurt's public struggles with addiction ended in a devastating suicide that would alter the course of rock history. Throughout, Danny stood by Kurt's side as manager, and close friend. Drawing on Danny's own memories of Kurt, files which previously have not been made public, and interviews with, among others, Kurt's close family, friends and former bandmates, Serving the Servant sheds an entirely new light on these critical years. Casting aside the common obsession with the angst and depression that seemingly drove Kurt, Serving the Servant is an exploration of his brilliance in every aspect of rock and roll, his compassion, his ambition, and the legacy he wrought - one that has lasted decades longer than his career did. Danny Goldberg explores what it is about Kurt Cobain that still resonates today, even with a generation who wasn't alive until after Kurt's death. In the process, he provides a portrait of an icon unlike any that have come before.