Celebrated concert promoter Peter Shapiro will take the spotlight for a change with a forthcoming book, The Music Never Stops: What Putting on 10,000 Shows Has Taught Me About Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Magic. The book is due out on August 2nd via Hachette Books.

Written with Relix editor-in-chief Dean Budnick, The Music Never Stops examines Shapiro’s prolific career in live events through the lens of 50 concerts. The chosen concerts highlight Shapiro’s range of interests both in music and business, from U2 to The Roots to the Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Ms. Lauryn Hill, Al Green, Jason Isbell, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Robert Plant, and many more.

The Music Never Stops will take readers through Shapiro’s path to some of live music’s biggest stages, from his early days as a filmmaker creating Grateful Dead and Phish fan documentaries to organizing the Dead’s 50th-anniversary Fare Thee Well shows in 2015. Along the way, Shapiro took ownership of landmark NYC jam venue Wetlands before restoring The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, and eventually expanding his Brooklyn Bowl flagship to Las Vegas, Nashville, and Philadelphia.

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Beyond telling how Shapiro became a dedicated fan with the best seat in the house, his book will dig into the realities of the concert production business. Readers can learn how a concept becomes a concert, with Shapiro laying out a guide for anyone who aims to break into event production. Along the way, he also opens his vast archives of photographs and anecdotes for a guided backstage tour of some of the biggest concerts of the past four decades.

Many of the musical icons who Shapiro has worked with over the years also contributed quotes to the book’s back cover. Check out a selection of blurbs about the book below and click here to pre-order the Peter Shapiro biography The Music Never Stops: What Putting on 10,000 Shows Has Taught Me About Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Magic.

“Peter Shapiro is a unicorn. He has a magical / mythical quality to him. We met back in the days of Wetlands, which you’ll read about in this book. You never knew who you were going to see there — some nights it could be Dave Matthews Band, the next night Toots and the Maytals, another night it’s Pearl Jam. I don’t know any venue that existed that could pull that off. I remember wondering who was behind this, who could make these nights happen — and that was Shapiro.” — Jimmy Fallon

“Pete is the rarest of personalities in the music industry. He explodes into the room, swinging for the fences, full of unbridled enthusiasm, and joy, with huge energy and huge ideas. For Pete, the dream is still alive — the power of live music — and I love him for that.” — Trey Anastasio

“Peter thinks like a musician. He understands the spirit of the music I’m trying to make because he wants to create situations for that music that enhance the experience on many levels.” ― Phil Lesh

“I’ve given Peter 11th-hour surprises, like, ‘How about a practice Usher show?’ or ‘Can we organize a quickie Elvis Costello performance?’ Anyone else would have riddled me with bullets for taking such a grand idea and tossing it to him with seconds left to spare.  But, with him it’s always, ‘Oh man, I can’t wait to get to it.’ And it’s always magic.” — Questlove

“The Music Never Stops, like everything Peter Shapiro, inspires and ignites all of our senses— even those we didn’t know we had.  Peter is a brilliant architect of communities, cultures, and dreams.  This book is where you come to grow and for your deal to go down—and if you look at it right—you’ll find the next rainbow, at just the right time.” — Bill Walton

“Pete Shapiro has borne witness to the inner workings of the most important cultural events of the last quarter century. Impresario, Innovator and Beloved Instigator… the stories in his book will blow your mind!” — Don Was

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[H/T Variety]