Two anniversaries on May 12
My book is less than one month away
On May 12, 1976, my father released his album Everybody Loves the Sunshine.
Three years later, on May 12, 1979, I saw my father perform at the UMass Amherst spring concert opening for the Grateful Dead and Patti Smith. I was seven, and my mother and I weren’t in contact with Roy, but when she told the backstage security guard that I was Roy’s son, he let us in (this was the first of many times my mother easily talked our way through a backstage door). I don’t remember meeting my father that day, but I remember the concert.
We owned a few of Roy’s records, and I knew that he was my father. My mother and I had run into him a few times in New York when I was too young to remember. But this was the first time I’d seen him perform, and as much as I was taken by his music, I was drawn to his personality. I could tell that he was a star through the way he smiled, the way he pointed or nodded to acknowledge individual people in the crowd and the enthusiastic way they responded, and the way in which he interacted with his band. When he was onstage, the entire stadium belonged to him. This internet photo of the concert looks exactly like I remember it.
My memoir My Life in the Sunshine will be published in less than one month, on June 7.
My book tour begins on June 7 in Brooklyn. I’ve wrangled some great conversation partners, including Wyatt Cenac, Hrishikesh Hirway, Joe Wong, Cheryl Waters, Liz Lambson, Justin Barney, Angel Bat Dawid, and Gilles Peterson, and I’m honored to have several local independent bookstores involved. If you’re unable to attend an in-person event, the June 10 Seattle event will be live streamed.
More details and updates can be found HERE. More dates in July and August will be announced soon.
I hope to see you in June.
Nabil Ayers / Brooklyn
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