Al Green is one of the most intricate and elusive figures in popular music, and considered by many to be the greatest soul singer of the twentieth century. Yet he has never been scrutinized in print successfully.
Jimmy McDonough's Soul Survivor: A Biography of Al Green is three years in the making and comprised of research that encompasses all known interviews, articles, books, and court records, as well as many sources who've never spoken on record before. It adds up to a warts-and-all portrait that all but obliterates his surface-only autobiography (which Green admits he hasn't read).
The dichotomy between Green's public, God-fearing persona and the troubled, often-violent man in private is immense. He once said, "I'm a mystery. The people in my own church don't even know who I am. I'm not really sure if I know who I am half the time." Soul Survivor reconciles the two into one talented and complex individual.
From hits like "Take Me to the River" and "Let's Stay Together" to Green's tortured road to gospel and how he demolished a million-dollar career along the way, this is the full treatment of the man whose life is the living embodiment of the collision between the sacred and the profane.
Jimmy McDonough is a journalist and biographer best known for the bestselling Shakey: Neil Young's Biography and his biographies of Russ Meyer, Andy Milligan and Tammy Wynette. He has written for a number of publications including The Village Voice, Film Comment, and Variety. McDonough lives in Portland, Oregon.