Anthony Bozza

Anthony Bozza is living the life many only dream about. As the bestselling author of seven books, including the autobiographies of Slash, Tommy Lee, Artie Lange and Tracy Morgan, Bozza has both the ear and the trust of rock and pop culture royalty. He is currently co-writing Wyclef Jean’s autobiography as well as publishing up-and-coming authors and cutting edge non-fiction via his Igniter Literary Group, an imprint of Harper Collins’ It Books. Bozza co-founded Igniter with fellow bestselling author Neil Strauss.Bozza’s writing career began with an internship at Rolling Stone, where he did the usual fact-checking and assistant work that comes with the job. But his knowledge and love of music quickly let to his big break after a friend turned him on to a then-unknown white rapper called Eminem. Bozza championed Eminem, singing his praises to his editors a year before he was even signed to a record deal. In 1999, when Rolling Stone decided to do a cover story on Slim Shady’s debut release, they assigned Bozza, who made the most of the opportunity. That defining portrait of Eminem led to six other cover stories, numerous features and countless articles over Bozza’s seven year tenure at the iconic magazine. During that time he also wrote and edited the “Random Notes” section, following in the footsteps of legendary culture critics like writer-director Cameron Crowe as well as MTV’s Kurt Loder. By 2002, Bozza had done it all, so he left Rolling Stone to focus on writing books, but by no means has he lost his love for the music scene and how it speaks to and reflects the state of our society.His cover stories and multiple features on Eminem evolved into Bozza’s first book, Whatever You Say I Am: The Life and Times of Eminem. It was deemed a “compelling” investigation of the “Shadyification of America” by New York Times’ critic Janet Maslin and became an international bestseller. The book wisely focused not only on Eminem himself, but on how his success as a white rapper spoke to the state of race and culture in America. From there, Bozza has never looked back. He collaborated with Mötley Crüe drummer, Tommy Lee, then Guns n’ Roses guitarist, Slash, on their respective autobiographies, Tommyland and Slash - both bestsellers. He went on to work with comedian Artie Lange, whose autobiography Too Fat to Fish debuted at #1 on The New York Times bestseller list and remained on the list for 22 weeks. Bozza’s next two books were Why AC/DC Matters and I Am the New Black, the autobiography of 30 Rock and SNL star Tracy Morgan. Bozza has written for magazines and newspapers worldwide, including Spin, Maxim, The New York Times, The Guardian/Observer (U.K.), Q, Mojo, Paper, Nylon, Blender and Radar, and continues to do so as often as possible.Never one to rest on his past success, Bozza is in the midst of his next collaboration, this time with Wyclef Jean of the Fugees, a story that will be both uplifting and heartbreaking in light of the recent tragedy in Jean’s home country of Haiti. Bozza has also sought out new and exciting challenges as co-publisher of Igniter Literary Group, which will be distributed by Harper Collins’ It Books. The imprint’s first release, The Last Living Slut: Born in Iran, Bred Backstage, will redefine the rock groupie memoir upon its release in June 2010. Igniter’s next title, The Man Behind the Nose, is the autobiography of Larry “Bozo the Clown” Harmon and will be released in August 2010. And as if all that weren’t enough, Bozza is shopping a TV show that will feature him in the field, chasing down interviews with pop culture’s most notoriously elusive and difficult subjects.Bozza lives in New York City.