Hope I Get Old Before I Die, David Hepworth
Hope I Get Old Before I Die, David Hepworth
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Hope I Get Old Before I Die
Why Rock Stars Never Retire

Author: David Hepworth

Narrator: Paul Fox

Unabridged: 9 hr 49 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 07/15/2025

Synopsis

From the author of Abbey Road and Never a Dull Moment, the basis for AppleTV's 1971 documentary, come the stories of how rock icons like Pink Floyd, Bruce Springsteen, Mick Jagger, and more have survived, thrived, and remained the most powerful forces in music.

When Paul McCartney closed Live Aid in July of 1985, we thought he was rock's Grand Old Man. He was forty-three years old. As the forty years since have shown, he—and many others of his generation—were just getting started.

This was the time when live performance took over from records. The big names of the '60s and '70s exploited the Age of Spectacle that Live Aid had ushered in to enjoy the longest lap of honor in the history of humanity, continuing to go strong long after everyone else in the business had retired.

This is a story without precedent, a story in which Elton John plays a royal funeral, Mick Jagger gets a knighthood, Bob Dylan picks up a Nobel Prize, The Beatles become, if anything, bigger than The Beatles, and it's beginning to look as though all of the above will, thanks in a large part to technology, be playing in Las Vegas forever.

About David Hepworth

David Hepworth is a music journalist, writer, and publishing industry analyst who has launched several successful British magazines. He presented the definitive BBC rock music program Whistle Test and anchored the coverage of Live Aid in '85. He has won Editor and Writer of the Year awards from the Professional Publishers Association and the Mark Boxer Award from the British Society of Magazine Editors. He is the radio columnist for the Guardian and a media correspondent for the newspaper, and the author of Never a Dull Moment.

Reviews

Goodreads review by *TUDOR^QUEEN* on December 01, 2024

I previously enjoyed this author's works, so decided to take the plunge- especially with the lure of Paul McCartney on the cover. Hepworth writes essays on legendary musicians such as Elton John, Billy Joel, John Fogerty, Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and others who decades later are......more

Goodreads review by Derrick on March 30, 2025

Not as interesting as I'd hoped This didn't turn out to be anywhere near as good as I wanted it to be! I found most of it to be rather dull and boring. I wasn't at all familiar with many of the groups/artists that were mentioned. Even some of the the ones I'd at least heard of, I still didn't really......more

Goodreads review by Jim on December 07, 2024

I doubt there is a better and more amusing chronicler of the music of the baby boomer generation than veteran UK music journalist David Hepworth. Born in 1950 and so now in his mid-70s, Hepworth’s youth coincided with rock music’s golden period from the arrival of The Beatles through to the 1970s pom......more

Goodreads review by Jill Elizabeth on July 17, 2025

This was very interesting! I never really thought about the aging of rockstars before, frankly, beyond the occasional comment that a particular artist was *STILL* touring... I found the individual stories both surprising and not, when I stopped to think about them, and very enjoyable to listen to. T......more

Goodreads review by Ron on January 16, 2025

This is another read suggested by a Goodreads friend (thanks again Jim.) I thoroughly enjoyed this account of rock music. It starts in July 1985 with Bob Geldoff and Midge Ure organising the Live Aid concerts in the UK and US. It had been preceded by the release of the song, “Do They Know It's Chris......more

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