Meet the Gay Record Executive who signed Metallica, Beat AIDS and Took a Bubble Bath with Nina Simone

With Bruce Springsteen, 1976 (Photo courtesy of Michael Alago)

With John Lydon at The Ritz, New York City, May, 1981. (Photo courtesy of Pat Kepic)

Kissing Debbie Harry backstage at Max’s Kansas City, New York City, 1977. (Photo courtesy of Michael Alago)

With Nina Simone, 1993. (© Carol Friedman)

With Liza Minnelli at the opening of “Minnelli on Minnelli,” at the Palace Theater, New York City, 1999. (Photo courtesy of Michael Alago)

With Cyndi Lauper on the set of “Who the F**k is That Guy?,” New York City, 2014. (Photo by helenabxl)

Meet the Gay Record Executive who signed Metallica,
Beat AIDS and Took a Bubble Bath with Nina Simone

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact Andy Reynolds at andy@popularpublicity.com

August 6, 2020 (New York, NY) – In his recently published autobiography, “I Am Michael Alago: Breathing Music, Signing Metallica, Beating Death,” Alago recounts his fearless entry into the punk rock scene as a gay Puerto Rican teen from Brooklyn, the intense music biz career that followed, surviving AIDS in the 90s, his recovery from drug and alcohol addiction, and photographing some of the hottest roughnecks on the planet.

Passionate about music, art and literature, the much beloved music executive and published photographer is known for his extraordinary work with Metallica, White Zombie, John Lydon (Public Image Limited), the Misfits, Cyndi Lauper and Nina Simone.

The book, enhanced by nearly 90 photos—from snapshots with music legends Bruce Springsteen, Debbie Harry, Liza Minneli and Alan Vega (Suicide), to Alago’s own portraits of ex-con boyfriends and shirtless musclemen–is a brutally honest, fascinating and frank look into Alago’s “only in New York” story of a life that continues to be driven by creativity, instinct, humor and guts.

Not one to namedrop and leave ‘em hanging, for every name dropped on the pages of “I Am Michael Alago,” there’s an often hilarious, at times touching, anecdote: Dishing entering guests with Madonna at Liza’s apartment. Introducing his Chuck Berry fan Dad to the man himself. Snorting coke with Robert Mapplethorpe at a restaurant table. Sneaking to an orchestra seat during “A Chorus Line” to find, when the house lights went up, he was sitting next to Divine in full drag. Sniffing Henry Rollins sweaty chair start. And yes, taking a bubble bath with Nina Simone, “Oh, my dear, we should take a bubble bath!”

“I am Michael Alago” was co-written with Laura Davis-Chanin. It is available via Backbeat Books at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, IndieBound and Rowman & Littlefield.

Also available on Netflix and Amazon Prime Video is “Who the Fuck Is That Guy? The Fabulous Journey of Michael Alago,” a 2017 documentary directed by Drew Stone and produced by Michael Alex. •

For more great photos and details about “I Am Michael Alago” visit the book’s project page here.