Drinking with Strangers

November 15, 2011
He may not be a household name, but musician, songwriter, and producer Walker sure knows a lot of people in the music industry. In this entertaining autobiography, the affable Walker offers not only music lessons but also hard-earned life lessons from an insider's perspective. He recalls the time, when as a naive, KISS-obsessed teenager from Georgia, he arrived in Los Angeles in the 1980s, which for an aspiring hard-rock star, particularly along Sunset Strip, was the heavy-metal capital of the world. Walker found L.A. both beautiful and terrifying as he began what became a long, up-and-down musical journey. With coauthor Diehl, Walker employs a conversational writing style that pulls the reader into his anecdotes about life on the road, working with Avril Lavigne, Pink, Taylor Swift, and even Lindsay Lohan (the latter meeting was not only disastrous but also provides one of the most surreal and hilarious stories in the book). But there are also poignant moments, such as when Walker's Malibu house burned to the ground. An enjoyable inside look at the machinations of the music industry.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)