Many a book about a historic rock band is tackled as an interview project these days.
The author would interview the musicians as well as their producers, roadies, friends, family etc., then arrange their stories along various topics or the chronology of the band’s history. The book about legendary singer Daisy Jones and her band written by Taylor Jenkins Reid embraces the same strategy. Jones was an up-and-coming singer-songwriter while the Six were a relatively successful rock band – until one producer came up with the idea of merging the two acts together to have them storm their way to the top of the charts. Those involved have a lot of things – trivial and tragic alike – to tell about these exciting days in the seventies: of cooperation, competition and jealousy, of drug problems and family issues.
There’s just one thing though: Daisy Jones never existed. The book is a novel in the form of fictional interview snippets. The author pulls off this fiction (complete with song lyrics) so well and with such an authentic tone that the reader constantly feels the urge to put on a Daisy Jones LP.
Actress Reese Witherspoon was so taken by this read that she went ahead and initiated a screen adaptation – as a miniseries on Amazon Prime. The inspiration for the book was, by the way, the story of Stevie Nicks with Fleetwood Mac and their hit album Rumours (1977).
Daisy Jones and the Six at Penguin Random House