Entertainment

Why Peter Wolf Finally Got Around to Writing His Memoir (And Canceled on the Kennedy Center)

Published

7 months ago

March 12, 2025

Vicky

Peter Wolf has been thinking about writing a book “for a long time.” But making a new solo album is what really prompted the former J. Geils Band frontman to get serious about it.

Wolf is “about 80 percent” finished with the album, which will be his first since 2016’s A Cure For Loneliness. “It occurred to me that my solo recordings, a lot of them went unnoticed, and I realized that if I put this out with the way things are these days, it can turn to vapor quite easily and be another lost solo effort,” Wolf — who’s just published Waiting on the Moon: Artists, Poets, Drifters, Grifters, and Goddesses (Little, Brown) — tells Billboard. “So I thought, ‘Well, maybe now is the time to write that book I’ve been talking about for decades.’ I think if the book connects with people it would even put the wind beneath my wings to finish the record and put it out.”

Wolf also received a meaningful push from writer Peter Guralnick, best known for his acclaimed biographies of Elvis Presley, Sam Cooke and Sun Records founder Sam Phillips. “He read some of the things I was writing,” Wolf recalls, “and he said, ‘Y’know, Pete, you better finally do this book ’cause a lot of the people you’re gonna want to have read it might not be with us at the pace you’re going.’ That was a profound statement for me.”

While it tracks from Wolf’s childhood to the relatively present day, Waiting on the Moon is not a standard, linear memoir. Rather, it’s a collection of stories — and a fascinating, good-humored one at that — as the New York-born Wolf regales readers with his Forrest Gump-like life of encounters with the famous, starting with a chapter titled “I Slept With Marilyn Monroe,” in which Monroe literally fell asleep on a 10-year-old Wolf while both attended a screening of the Jules Dassin film He Who Must Die at a local movie theater. (Not to worry; Monroe was with then-husband Arthur Miller and Wolf’s parents were on his other side.)

From there it’s off to the races as Wolf recounts his interactions and relationships with blues heroes such as Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf and John Lee Hooker (sometimes in his Boston apartment) as well as Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, the Rolling Stones, John Lennon and Harry Nilsson, Sly Stone, Aretha Franklin and more. He crosses paths with music biz luminaries such as Ahmet Ertegun, Bhaskar Menon, Jon Landau and Dee Anthony, gets on the wrong side of Alfred Hitchcock by declining an offer of an alcoholic drink and finds himself being courted for a part in Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ.

Eleanor Roosevelt, Louis Armstrong, Andy Warhol, onetime roommate David Lynch, Julia Child and Tennessee Williams are also among Wolf’s encounters in the pages.

“My goal was to make a book of short stories, treat each chapter like its own short story,” explains Wolf, who was an art student and radio DJ in Boston as well as a musician — first with the Hallucinations, then with the J. Geils Band starting in 1967. He fronted the latter to multi-platinum worldwide fame with Freeze-Frame in 1981, which topped the Billboard 200 in 1982 and produced the six-week Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 “Centerfold” that same year. After being asked to leave the group in 1983, Wolf kicked off a solo career with 1984’s Lights Out (its title track hit No. 12 on the Hot 100). “There was no timeline. I wasn’t concerned, in a way, about the beginning, middle and end; each story has its own beginning, middle and end. And I didn’t want this to be a kiss-and-tell book; I just wanted to write about these incredible people that I had the privilege to meet and to get to know to certain degrees and capture that.”

Wolf adds that “the two subjects I didn’t want to write about was my marriage to Faye Dunaway and the J. Geils Band,” but both are there — particularly the former, whom Wolf has been loath to discuss in this kind of detail during and after their marriage from 1974-79. “Faye was this very determined, talented person and we loved each other,” Wolf says. “I was just trying to bring her, and our relationship, somewhat to life and all the adventures we shared in it. I didn’t talk about it (before) because I would talk about my music, talk about the records, and all the other stuff was kind of private. But I was writing about the adventures in my life, and certainly she and I shared many of them. I was very surprised how quickly the stories came out.

“Of course there’s regrets; one has regrets and wishes they could do things differently, and I think I’ve expressed that in all the chapters. Some were silly, stupidities that I’ve made, and I don’t try to disguise those. It all flowed through naturally once I got into the crux of it.”

‘Waiting on the Moon’

The J. Geils Band, meanwhile, is treated as a through-line in the book until a later chapter in which Wolf writes about explicitly about how it came apart at the peak of its career.

“It was a great shock to me, and it was a sea change for me,” says Wolf, who was part of Geils reunion tours from 1999-2015. The book also includes a vivid retelling of him being beaten up in a London pub while on his way to the band’s performance at the 1989 Pinkpop Festival in the Netherlands. “I tried to write honestly about it, my experience of it all and how I felt. I was committed to the band; it was my life, and even with my marriage to Faye our careers always came first. In other chapters you can see how hard I tried working to keep the band relevant and moving ahead, so of course when things did fall apart it was a very painful thing for me. What I didn’t add in the book that I was asked to leave the band in 1968 because they felt my vocal abilities were holding back the band.”

Wolf has recorded an audio version of Waiting On the Moon and has a handful of author appearances planned this month, starting Tuesday (March 11) at the Harvard Bookstore in Cambridge, Mass., and including stops in New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Philadelphia and Connecticut. He did, however, cancel a planned March 21 stop at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. “due to the egregious firing of staff by the new administration.”

Wolf is also planning to get to work on the album, working with “the same cast of characters” who helped with his last few albums. “I think it’s got some really memorable songs, and I took a long time in putting it together,” he says, adding that he foresees a return to performing as well. “Yeah, that’s what I do. But the book really required a sabbatical. It’s like making a really good record that you’ve got to hunker down and commit to.” A reissue of the J. Geils Band’s 1972 concert album “Live” Full House is also slated for this year, according to Wolf.

Also on the future docket may be an induction in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, which has eluded the J. Geils Band over the course of five nominations between 2005-2018. Wolf has inducted Jackie Wilson and the Paul Butterfield Blues Band at previous ceremonies, and while he notes that “it’s a situation I have no control over” he makes it clear that it’s something he’d like to see happen, eventually.

“Yes, it would be a nice honor,” Wolf says. “I do feel the Geils Band contributed a lot in the AOR period of rock n’ roll. Not unlike the Stones we introduced a lot of people to (artists) like the Contours and Otis Rush and Muddy Waters and doo-wop… yet the Geils band has been looked over. I think we worked very hard for 17 and a half years, and I think we made some kind of contribution. But, to quote a Johnny Mathis song, ‘it’s not for me to say.’”

Wolf’s author appearance schedule for Waiting On the Moon includes:

Tuesday, March 11th: Harvard Bookstore at the First Parrish Church, Cambridge, MA

Wednesday, March 12th: The Strand, New York, NY

Thursday, March 13th: Bookends Bookstore, Ridgewood, NJ

Tuesday, March 18th: Writers on a New England Stage at The Music Hall, Portsmouth, NH

Thursday, March 27th: Free Library of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA

Tuesday, April 8th: RJ Julia Booksellers, Madison, CT

Vicky

Entertainment

Tim Dillon Fired From Riyadh Comedy Festival for Saudi Slavery Remarks: ‘They Didn’t Like That’

Published

23 hours ago

September 24, 2025

Vicky

Tim Dillon will not be traveling to the Riyadh Comedy Festival next month. The California comedian and host of The Tim Dillon Show podcast says he was fired from the Oct. 8 Saudi Arabia festival for comments he made about the country on Joe Rogan‘s podcast.

Besides losing a $375,000 payday (an amount Dillon confirmed to Rogan), he also lost a nearby warm-up gig in Dubai two nights before his Riyadh appearance after mixing up the Arab emirate with Abu Dhabi (the rival cities are both part of the United Arab Emirates).

“I mixed them up — apparently this is a big deal over there. This is a real problem,” he said on a recent episode of his podcast. “This is not a malicious slander. It’s a mistake.”

The Riyadh Comedy Festival — which mostly takes place at the Bakr Al-Sheddi Theatre and ANB Arena from Sept. 25 to Oct. 9, features a number of top tier comedians including Dave Chappelle, Bill Burr, Gabriel Iglesias, Aziz Ansari, Kevin Hart, Jeff Ross, Chris Distefano, Tom Segura, Jo Koy, Sam Morril, Hannibal Buress, Andrew Schultz, Sebastian Maniscalco, Whitney Cummings, Jimmy Carr, Louis CK, Pete Davidson, Russell Peters and Chris Tucker.

“Supposedly, MBS is a fan of mine,” Dillon said two weeks ago on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, referring to Saudi head of state Mohammed Bin Salman.

Dillon was reportedly fired from the festival for claiming that Saudi Arabia relies on slave labor — a controversial take on the country’s foreign laborers laws that some groups, including Human Rights Watch, have criticized as “slavery-like.” Legally, slavery was abolished in the Kingdom in the 1960s.

Dillon said the slavery jokes were a misunderstanding with his Saudi hosts, saying on his podcast, “I was defending them for having slaves. I literally said, ‘Slaves are hard workers and for the most part agreeable.’ But they didn’t like that.”

“You can literally support somebody too much,” he added. “In life, this happens. Too many compliments; too much support — and then they turn on you.”

He clarified his comments further, noting, “If i was a slave — not that I want to be one, but if I was and I built this really nice thing, I might say to my slave children, ‘Daddy built that,'” concluding, “Apparently this got to the people in Saudi Arabia and they were unhappy about it.”

The Riyadh Comedy Festival opens Sept. 25 with performances by Burr, Maz Jobrani and Andrew Santino and Bobby Lee from the Bad Friends podcast. More here.

Vicky

Entertainment

Wilson Phillips, Kenny Loggins & More to Perform at Charity Concert Honoring Brian Wilson & The Beach Boys

Published

23 hours ago

September 24, 2025

Vicky

Wilson Phillips, Kenny Loggins, David Pack of Ambrosia and more are set to perform at a charity concert celebrating the music of Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys on Saturday, Sept. 27 at the Granada Theatre in Santa Barbara.

Wilson Phillips features two of Wilson’s daughters, Carnie and Wendy Wilson, as well as Chynna Phillips, the daughter of John and Michelle Phillips. The concert will also feature Brian Wilson’s grandchildren, so it will spotlight three generations of the Wilson family.

The concert, dubbed An All-Star Tribute to the Music of Brian Wilson & Songs of The Beach Boys, will feature the Folk Orchestra of Santa Barbara. Other guest performers are expected to include The Honeys; former members of The Beach Boys and the Brian Wilson Band; and keyboardist Don Randi (The Wrecking Crew); with appearances by Rosemary Butler (Jackson Browne), Ken Stacey (Elton John), Hunter Hawkins (Kenny Loggins), Carly Smithson (American Idol), Alisan Porter (The Voice) and poet Stephen J. Kalinich. These acts will be backed by The Tribe Band, who will perform an array of Beach Boys favorites.

The show begins at 7:30 p.m. Here’s a link for tickets. VIP packages are also available.

Proceeds will be donated to Adam’s Angels, a local group of volunteers, and the Surfrider Foundation of Santa Barbara, dedicated to the protection and enjoyment of the world’s oceans and beaches.

Brian Wilson died on June 11 at age 82. He was the third member of the fabled group to pass, following brothers Dennis in 1983 at age 39 and Carl in 1998 at age 51.

Vicky

Entertainment

AI Artist Xania Monet, Diddy Sentencing Looms, Ticketmaster Lawsuit & More Music Law News

Published

24 hours ago

September 24, 2025

Vicky

THE BIG STORY: If you needed another clear sign that artificial intelligence is seeping into every aspect of American cultural life, here’s one: An AI artist just signed a record deal, the hallowed milestone of success for any emerging musician.

As first reported by Billboard last week, Xania Monet — the avatar of a woman named Telisha Jones who writes her own lyrics but uses Suno to create the music — inked a record contract worth millions. The deal has quickly become the talk of the industry, including from stars who have spoken out, including Kehlani, who said: “I don’t respect it.”

But…what exactly is a label buying here? It remains unclear the extent to which you can secure intellectual property rights to AI-generated songs, raising hurdles for monetizing them. And platforms like Suno are still facing trillion-dollar infringement lawsuits that essentially claim the technology itself is illegal. For more, go read our full story.

You’re reading The Legal Beat, a weekly newsletter about music law from Billboard Pro, offering you a one-stop cheat sheet of big new cases, important rulings and all the fun stuff in between. To get the newsletter in your inbox every Tuesday, go subscribe here.

Other top stories this week…

BLIGE CASE TOSSED – A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit against Universal Music Group claiming Mary J. Blige’s enduring 1992 hit “Real Love” infringed the oft-sampled 1973 funk song “Impeach the President” by the Honey Drippers, which has been used by Run-DMC, Dr. Dre, Doja Cat and many others over the years. The judge said the two songs were so different that nobody would hear the earlier song: “The songs do not sound the same.”

DIDDY SENTENCING – Attorneys for Sean “Diddy” Combs urged a federal judge to sentence him to just 14 months in prison on his prostitution convictions, asking him to reject the kind of “draconian” punishment sought by prosecutors. Because the star has already served 13 months in jail since he was arrested, that sentence would see him released almost immediately: “It is time for Mr. Combs to go home.”

LETTERS OF SUPPORT – To help make that argument, Diddy’s lawyers filed dozens of letters from supporters, pleading with the judge to show lenience toward the rapper when he sentences him next month. They came from Diddy’s mother and kids, from ex-girlfriend Yung Miami and from an executive at hip-hop label Quality Control Music — among many others.

SUNO SUIT 2.0 – Separate from the Xania Monet situation, the major record labels filed an amended version of their copyright lawsuit against the AI music firm, adding new allegations that the company illegally “stream-ripped” songs from YouTube to train its models. That’s a hugely important new claim: In a separate such lawsuit against Anthropic, a federal judge ruled this summer that AI training itself is likely a legal “fair use” but that using pirated works to do it could lead to many billions in potential damages.

FTC, YEAH YOU KNOW ME – The Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit against Live Nation and Ticketmaster accusing the concert giants of advertising misleading ticket prices and allowing scalpers to buy up tickets and resell them at inflated prices. The case came months after the agency sued a ticket broker that allegedly used thousands of fake Ticketmaster accounts to buy and resell tickets to Taylor Swift concerts and other events — and two years after Live Nation was hit with a sweeping monopoly lawsuit by the U.S. Department of Justice.

HYPE VID SETTLEMENT – Mike Tyson settled a lawsuit claiming he illegally used the Jay-Z, DMX and Ja Rule song “Murdergram” in an Instagram video promoting his boxing match against Jake Paul. The case was filed by Ty Fyffe, a producer and co-writer of the 1998 track who claimed that Tyson had willfully infringed his copyrights by using the song in a training video ahead of his much-hyped fight with Paul.

LOSE YOUR … CASE? – Meta urged a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit from Eight Mile Style, a music publisher that owns hundreds of Eminem songs, which claims the social media giant made “Lose Yourself” and other iconic tracks available to billions of users. In the motion, Facebook’s lawyers argued the case was “remarkably short on specifics” about actual infringing material: “Fanciful estimates are not a substitute for well-pleaded facts,” the company wrote.

NEVER MEANT TO CAUSE YOU ANY PAIN – The Prince estate asked a judge to dismiss a lawsuit by the late singer’s Purple Rain co-star Apollonia (Patty Kotero) that claims the estate is trying to “steal” her name, arguing it has no intention of forcing her to change her name — and has repeatedly told her as much. The filing did say, however, that Apollonia secured her own trademarks during “the chaotic period following Prince’s death.”

SEX TAPE LEAK CASE – Colombian pop star Beéle was hit with a lawsuit alleging invasion of privacy and sexual cyberharassment from ex-girlfriend Isabella Ladera, claiming he is responsible for leaking their sex tape. Beéle’s reps have denied that he was the source of the leak and said the singer is “also a victim,” but Ladera’s lawsuit placed the blame squarely on him: “Only two people had the videos, and Ladera had already erased them almost a year and a half before.”

MEGAN THEE PLAINTIFF – Lawyers for Megan Thee Stallion argued in court filings that the social media personality DJ Akademiks must reveal whether Tory Lanez sent him a confidential DNA testing report during the singer’s criminal case. The filings came amid discovery in a defamation case against Milagro Gramz, a gossip blogger and ardent online defender of Lanez.

Vicky