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Zusatztext “Very entertaining. . . . Tremendous fun. . . . It will delight [readers] looking for persuasive evidence that making music for a living is every bit as cool as it seems.” — The New York Times Book Review “A true show-business dignitary.” — Vanity Fair “I love this book. Paul tells great stories about the great people of music! stage! television! and film. . . . This book is like a leisurely dinner spent listening to stories from the hippest guy at the table. We’ll Be Here for the Rest of Our Lives is endlessly entertaining.” —David Letterman “John had Paul! Mick had Keith! I have Richie. And Dave? Well! he has Paul too. No! not Paul McCartney. He has Paul Shaffer! The man has seen it all! not as some fly on the wall but at the center of the storm. We’ll Be Here for the Rest of Our Lives is a swinging read. The anecdotes will make you wish you were here.” —Jon Bon Jovi “What a guy.” —Julia Roberts “An hysterical ride with the hippest musicians of the last thirty years and with the coolest tour guide imaginable. If grammar and spelling aren’t your thing! this book’s for you.” —Martin Short Informationen zum Autor PAUL SHAFFER has been David Letterman's musical director for the past twenty-seven years. He also co-composed “It's Raining Men.” DAVID RITZ has cowritten memoirs with, among others, Ray Charles and Don Rickles. He also co-wrote Sexual Healing . Klappentext In this candid memoir--in which he dishes on everyone from John Belushi and Jerry Lewis to Mel Gibson and Britney Spears--Paul Shaffer gives readers the full behind-the-scenes story of his life! from banging out pop tunes on the piano at the age of twelve to leading the band every night at the Sullivan Theater. Chapter 1 Dylan and Me Bob Dylan was standing two feet away from me. It was the late seventies, and I was the piano player on Saturday Night Live . I was talking with his current producer, the legendary Jerry Wexler, as we watched Dylan rehearse his band. I was right where I belonged. Surely God had blessed me by putting me in this favored position. Only one problem: Dylan was wearing a huge cross. So what was the problem? A little background information: I grew up in an Orthodox synagogue. I also grew up at the end of Highway 61. My hometown of Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, is at the northern extreme of that storied road. Thunder Bay is where my close friend Wayne Tanner, one of the original Dylanologists, turned me on to the great singer/songwriter. His album Highway 61 Revisited was the Talmud to the Torah of my life. I learned Al Kooper's high organ line and Paul Griffin's piano part on "Like a Rolling Stone" note for note, sound for sound. The keyboard combination helped define Dylan's new sound. And the sound made me absolutely crazy. Then there was the certain knowledge that Dylan, the most important poet of our generation, was also a landsman . Bobby Zimmerman was a fellow Jew. In the seventies, I had heard that Bob had returned to his Orthodox roots. Supposedly he was studying with a Hasidic rabbi in Brooklyn. Then came the rumors that our man Zimmy had ventured beyond the Old Testament into the New. I didn't want to believe it. I clung to the notion that once they cut the tip, you're always hip. Yet there he was, onstage in Studio 8H at 30 Rock in themiddle of New York City, singing "You Got to Serve Somebody." And I knew damn well that "somebody" sure wasn't Moses. I was bothered and bewildered. Dylan was bewitched. "Can we lose the cross, Jerry?" I whispered in Wexler's hairy ear. "Oh, I wouldn't say anything," he said in a panic. "Bob takes this shit seriously." "I'm kidding," I said. But I wasn't. The rolling stone rolled on. The planet took several spins, and several worlds later I was amazed to fi...
