Biography

Anthony Bozza started his career as an intern at Rolling Stone, fact-checking, coffee-fetching and doing research for other writers before they hired him full-time in the music department. He answered phones, he edited columns and did the odd story, but his big break came after a friend turned him on to an unsigned white rapper from Detroit named Eminem. That tape of a live Eminem freestyle was unlike anything he’d ever heard. He began talking the rapper up to his editors, who told him that if the kid ever got signed they’d let Anthony do a short blurb about him. Fast forward a year to Bozza writing the first national cover story on Eminem, a piece that changed everything for both writer and subject. Bozza wrote six more cover stories, numerous features, and countless other articles during his seven-year tenure at Rolling Stone. He wrote and edited the iconic “Random Notes” section for two years, joining the ranks of “Random Notes” alumnae like Cameron Crowe and MTV’s Kurt Loder. In 2002, the path to his first cover story came full circle when Bozza left the magazine to write his first bestseller.

Whatever You Say I Am: The Life and Times of Eminem, was born of the unparalleled access and countless hours spent with Marshall Mathers while working on his Rolling Stone features and beyond. Janet Maslin, culture critic at the New York Times, wrote that it was a “compelling” investigation of the “Shadyfication of America.” The book is more than a biography, it contextualizes Eminem as a signpost of the race, class and cultural temperature of America. The book was a New York Times bestseller and an international bestseller, topping lists in England, Germany, France and South America.

Bozza followed up this success with a new challenge: co-writing. Unlike his work at Rolling Stone, he got to ask the questions, but he also wrote the answers; he analyzed his subjects, then revealed his findings, through their perspective rather than his own. His first outing was a pop cultural icon as infamous as Eminem, Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee, which yielded the New York Times Bestseller Tommyland. A biography of Australian legends INXS followed, then came what Rolling Stone ranked one of the top 5 rock autobiographies of all time, the New York Times Bestseller Slash, co-written with the notoriously taciturn Guns N' Roses guitarist. Bozza moved into the comedy world next, with the autobiography of stand-up veteran and Howard Stern co-host Artie Lange, Too Fat to Fish. The book debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list and remained there for twenty-two weeks. Bozza returned to music analysis with his next book, the critically acclaimed, Why AC/DC Matters, which inspired a series of Why _ Matters books in AC/DC’s native Australia, Bozza’s tome being Volume 1. Two more co-writes followed, I Am the New Black, the autobiography of 30 Rock and Saturday Night Live star Tracy Morgan, and Purpose, with Wyclef Jean of the Fugees.

Anthony Bozza has also written for magazines and newspapers worldwide, including Spin, Maxim, The New York Times, The Guardian/Observer (UK), Q, Mojo, Paper, Nylon, Blender, and Radar. These days he quite enjoys writing for Playboy. In 2010, along with writer Neil Strauss, he embarked on a three year experiment in publishing and launched Igniter Literary Group, an imprint of Harper Collins’ It Books.

Anthony Bozza shows no signs of slowing down. In October, 2013, Crash and Burn, the eagerly-anticipated sequel to the NYT Bestseller Too Fat To Fish will be published. Together Bozza and Lange recount Lange’s lifelong struggle with drug addiction, depression and his near suicide in the same unflinchingly raw, touching and (often inappropriately) hilarious tone as their first book. Bozza has been working with Courtney Love on her memoir, an epic work which is very near completion - stay tuned. In April 2013, Bozza also began working with legendary drummer Mick Fleetwood on his life story, which will span the entire history of the band that bears his name. Look out for these and more in the months to come.

Bibliography

Non-fiction

• Whatever You Say I Am: The Life and Times of Eminem (2004)
• Why AC/DC Matters (2009)

As co-author

• Tommyland with Tommy Lee (2005)
• INXS: Story to Story with INXS (2005)
• Slash with Slash (2007) - Slash on Amazon
• Too Fat to Fish with Artie Lange (2008) - Too Fat to Fish on Amazon
• I am the New Black with Tracy Morgan (2009)
• Purpose: An Immigrant's Story with Wyclef Jean (2012)
• Crash and Burn with Artie Lange (release date October 29, 2013) - Crash & Burn on Amazon

[ Source: Wikipedia ]