During every performance, Grammy Award-winning singer Rita Coolidge invariably spins a captivating tale that her band has never heard before. For many years, her drummer has been urging her to share these recollections with a wider audience. Finally, she has taken that request.

In DELTA LADY: A Memoir (Harper; $25.99; Hardcover; On Sale: April 5, 2016), a collaboration with bestselling author Michael Walker, Coolidge looks back on her life with wisdom, humor, and clarity. Connecting with readers and speaking from her heart just as she does onstage and in her lyrics, she chronicles a career that has spanned decades and is still going strong—including her worldwide hits “Higher and Higher” and “We’re All Alone”—as well as her epic love story with Kris Kristofferson.

Retracing her path from small-town Tennessee girl to chart-topping singer and songwriter Coolidge traces with winning candor the path from her early days as a backup singer in Memphis to her massive success as a solo artist. Part of a glorious moment in musical history in the 1970s, she provides an eyewitness account of the gifted individuals who converged in Los Angeles—at the Whisky, the Troubadour, and in recording studios —to create a transcendent sound.

Far from a “sex, drugs, and rock and roll” tell-all, in DELTA LADY Coolidge reflects on her remarkable family and heritage, her showbiz triumphs, her volatile marriage to Kristofferson, her darkest moments, her spiritual and emotional growth, her struggle to balance motherhood with superstardom, her gratitude, faith, and much more.

In an interview, Rita Coolidge can discuss:
Her professional and personal relationships with Stephen Stills, Graham Nash, Joe Cocker, and Leon Russell, as well as her memories of working, playing, and performing with George Harrison, Eric Clapton, Delaney & Bonnie, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Tina Turner, Cher, Quincy Jones, and many others.
Her marriage to Kristofferson, their eight years together, and their beautiful music that lives on.
Her role as muse to several big names and the songs, including “Delta Lady,” she inspired.
Her uncredited but essential contribution to Derek and the Dominoes’ landmark hit, “Layla,” revealed in full the first time.

DELTA LADY delivers an unprecedented, intimate portrait of an iconic era told from the perspective of a woman who was at the center of it all.