Tori Amos has never been short on imagery. The enigmatic songstress loads her songs with references to faeries, mythological Gods and Goddesses, and intricate, cryptic and certainly colorful stories about love, loss, life, death and even, well, shoes. This, of course, is to generalize. There's also her physical self to note: Amos' diminutive 5-foot-and-change frame is decorated with a signature fiery mane, dishy blue-gray eyes and protruding ears, all of which are cartoonishly exaggerated, if not striking. In fact, it's these characteristics that inspired celebrated graphic novelist Neil Gaiman -- also Amos' friend, whom she commonly name-checks in her songs -- to create the character Delirium in his 'Sandman' series.

A book then, consisting entirely of stories and art inspired by her music, was certainly inevitable. To that end, Amos will release the 480-page collection 'Comic Book Tattoo,' featuring contributions from more than 80 graphic artists and writers. Amos, along with the project mastermind, artist and editor Rantz Hoseley, hand-picked each of the book's 50-plus entries. Spinner spoke with Amos about the project, including her reactions to the stories (a lesbian love affair and murder, among them) and how this collection has inspired her to begin writing new material.

Describe the evolution of 'Comic Book Tattoo.'

Well, I've known [artist and editor] Rantz Hoseley for years. He was a student at Parsons, and I had a younger friend who kind of dated him for a few weeks. I got to know him and we became friends. He started to turn me on to comics. This was in the early days, like, around 1989. He needed a place to crash and I had a studio apartment behind a church on Highland and Franklin in Hollywood. I would go to sleep at my boyfriend's place and Rantz would crash at the little place behind the Methodist church. So, I would run into Rantz every day, and I was writing 'Little Earthquakes.' He would leave all these comic books laying around, and that was the beginning of our relationship. Over the years, I guess in a way, he's sort of become like a little brother to me. He took my music to Comic-Con in 1990, maybe, and gave it to Neil Gaiman. Gaiman got in touch with me, and said, "Hi, I'm Neil. I write 'The Sandman,' and I just wanted to encourage you that maybe you could have a future in music." It was a tape with a phone number on it. I don't think he realized it was going to be released. It happened to be released, although you and I both know a lot of releases come out that nobody ever hears. So, Gaiman called me. He was gonna be in London, and we met up. I've had relationships with Neil and Rantz for over 20 years.

Project Editor, Writer: Rantz Hoseley
Contributions: 'The Waitress,' 'Mr. Zebra'

Describe your relationship with Tori.

Tori and I have been friends for over 20 years now, since the days of her playing piano at the Holiday Inn at LAX, through the "adventure" of Y Kant Tori Read, to her finding the strength to unleash her true musical voice on 'Little Earthquakes.' Before that album was released, I took an early mix on a cassette tape down to the San Diego Comicon and gave it to 'Sandman' writer Neil Gaiman. I've designed tour programs, T-shirts and contributed a painting to one of the RAINN calendars for her. Now, many tours, albums and various projects later, I still consider her to be one of my dearest and best friends.

How did you become involved in this project?

About a year ago, Image [Comics] put out an anthology based on the music of Belle & Sebastian. The book was good, but I'll fully admit I kept thinking, "This is a great idea, but it would be really killer if it was done with Tori's music and songs as the jumping off point for the creators." So, last year at the San Diego Comicon, proving everything comes full circle, I asked Image if they'd be interested in doing something like this. They thought it was a great idea, so Tori, her managers and I starting talking about it. Looking at all of the angles to decide if we wanted to go ahead and commit to it, because we all agreed that if we were going to spend the time on this, it couldn't be "just another comic book," or anything less than a full scale "Tori Project." Once we had all agreed, I started going through lists of creators, and showing them to Tori, getting her yea or nay on them. After getting a solid list of about 150, I started contacting people, and was pleasantly surprised at how many of them immediately and enthusiastically signed on, and really threw themselves into it, individually and collectively producing some of the best comics I've seen.

Why did you choose to interpret 'The Waitress' and 'Mr. Zebra'?

It's a bit funny, because when we started this project, I was sure that I'd end up doing a story for 'Flying Dutchman,' or 'Sugar,' or 'Honey' or 'Here in My Head.' Those are some of my favorite songs of hers and the one that really speak to me on a constant, continuous basis. But it was a funny thing -- I was driving around, doing the daily commute, and I was playing Tori's full discography, getting the songs vivid in my mind, really trying to see them fresh and new, so that I'd be able to do a good job as an editor for the various songs/stories. And then 'Waitress' came on, and it hadn't made it to the first chorus before the whole story just ... appeared. Start, middle, end. All the complex cross-time/location panel cuts, the double meaning on the last page. It honestly freaked me out a little bit, because no story comes that easily or that quickly. Moreover, I was really dead-set on doing one of the other songs, so I fought it. But it kept sneaking in, poking at me saying "You need to do this, you know you do." Tori has always said to me that her girls -- the songs -- always tell her which ones to play on any given night, and I'd always kind of chuckled and thought "Yeah, sure Tor. OK, whatever you say." But here I am, having this song tell me, "You know I the one, stop being stubborn and let's go!" So, I gave in, and did it.

'Mr. Zebra' was very similar. When James Stokoe became available at the 11th hour, I thought "What story should we do?" and it was obvious, the format, the humor, the surrealist bent. It was just ... there. I'm very happy with both of them, and glad I stopped being a stubborn ass about it.

What is it about Tori's music that inspired your visuals and storyline?

'Waitress,' the song, is all about betrayal, and the emotion that comes through makes that pain so clear -- the regret, the anger, the hurt and the frustration of other people seeing the other person's side, and not yours. Treating your reaction like it's irrational or worse yet, crazy. So, by drawing a page by page parallel between these two women's relationship from start to tragic end and the minute by minute buildup to their final confrontation, hopefully the reader can see what's pushed the main character to the point of taking the actions that she does.

With 'Mr. Zebra,' it was just going to that Duchamp-esque state of mind -- being open to the seemingly unrelated series of words and scenarios tell their story. Not shutting any part of the mind off from it for fear that it was "too far out there," and just letting the song tell its own story through the filter of my perceptions. It's probably just a bit different that what someone else might think of, but that's kind of the point of the whole project -- to show how art in any form, be it music, visual, or written word, begets and inspires more art. Sometimes in obvious ways, sometimes in forms that are completely unexpected.

In what way to graphic novels evoke the same reactions -- both emotional and physical -- as that of music?

I think music and comics, more than any other art forms, are so closely related in terms of how they draw a reaction, or emotional response from their audience. Both have a controlled cadence and beat to them, both can use staccato rhythms (a series of small, tight panels in the case of comics) to build a frenetic feeling, or hold a long, intense note to draw the audience deeper in, and add emphasis on the emotions that have been building (in comics, using a splash page, for example).

Comics and music also, especially in this day and age of being able to release work digitally, have the capability of being some of the least "committee"-driven forms of art. With music, it can be one person or a small group of people in a band, writing songs the way they want to write them. Recording with protocols, releasing them onto the net and getting it out the way they want to. The same holds true for comics. Sure, you can have large, multi-title crossover events from companies like Marvel and DC, but you can also have someone making a comic by themselves, or with a small number of friends, putting it up on the web or self-publishing, and getting out the stories that they feel compelled to tell. I think that's why so many people connect with both comics and music. At its best, there's less between the creators and the audience.

Many comic creators I know use music as an inspiration in their comics, and draw direct parallels between musical timings and signatures and panel, page and story construction. It's nothing new really -- comic creators have been riffing off of music for years. It's just that now comics has gained the level of public acceptance to where the audience, for both music and comics, is becoming more aware of it.

Artist/Writer: David Mack
Contribution: 'Flying Dutchman'

Describe your relationship with Tori.

I've done paintings of Tori for all of her RAINN charity calendars for the last five years.

How did you become involved in this project?

Rantz Hoseley invited me to be a part of this book.

Why did you choose to interpret 'Flying Dutchman'?

It came about by talking with Rantz Hoseley. Rantz is organizing the project and he presented me with a few different songs to choose from, but he specifically recommended that he'd like to see me adapt 'Flying Dutchman.' Tori had written the song about Rantz in a way -- about a specific time in the life of Tori and Rantz in their early formative years while both of them were in the process of making their dreams come true in their creative endeavors as artists.

After learning the back story of the song from Rantz and he suggesting that I do that song, I felt like I had an extra layer of information about the intentions and ideas of the song directly from the source moments that it was created that I could integrate into my visual adaptation of it.

What is it about Tori's music that inspired your visuals and storyline?

I tried to go right into the internal story of the song and make it personal and universal at the same time. I began with the lyrics and the backstory of the circumstances of the creation of the song that Rantz had discussed with me. I wanted it to be inclusive of that and my personal identification and experience with those ideas.

Some of the song is about the rich life of imagination of a creative person, and people's more mundane external views of them, so I wanted to reflect that in the composition of the layout. I discussed with Rantz the idea of splitting the page composition in two, and making the top half the part that suggests the untethered imagination of creative internal life, and the bottom half displays the an external version and charts in panels the artist at different stages of their life. This double composition gave the opportunity to have moments where the two narratives intersect ... thereby affording an opportunity to show a transformation at those points of overlap between action and imagination, and to blur the edges between the external and the internal.

In what way to graphic novels evoke the same reactions -- both emotional and physical -- as that of music?

Well, there are some interesting comparisons between them. Writing the story and creating the art for it, is probably parallel to the songwriter who writes music and lyrics and then performs it themselves. They both have a rhythm, and a narrative, and they both can communicate metaphorically and speak in iconography that can be very personal and universal and be open to individual interpretation.

In using images and melodies in addition to words, there seems to be inherent properties in those images and melodies that bypass a certain cerebral gateway and go straight to the core of a person. Perhaps because images and sound are more primal and early communication technologies than the written word. They tend to speak to a very direct part of us. And when you combine them with very carefully crafted wording, you have communication that engages both the right and left hemispheres of the brain making the experience a very "whole brained" approach -- something that engages our intellect and our intuitive and emotional responses, as well as something that engages the more recently developed parts of our brains and the more primal parts in concert. I imagine they have similarities in reactions from the readers, but also in the creative process and choices of the artist.

I write a full script for the story. And then I try to consider what will be the best visual way to communicate that story -- how to download it into the readers head in a way that bypasses their usual checkpoints and filtering process. This lets me use the art as another tool of the writing and gives me the liberty to develop a new look for each project. I can use the best choice of media, storytelling layout, panel rhythm or cultivate a new style and atmosphere to best communicate that particular story.

Often I may think of some visual choices while I am writing the script and I will include notes of those options in the script. But for each step of the way there is margin for improvement and spontaneity and epiphany.

The best example of my work like this is my most recent Kabuki story from Marvel called 'The Alchemy.'
In fact, much of the story is about characters that are cultivating the creative process in themselves and have developed specific principles and practical applications for doing this.

Artist/Writer: Ted McKeever
Contribution: 'Past the Mission'

Describe your relationship with Tori.

I am an admirer of her ability to create depths and emotions beyond the simplicity of notes.

How did you become involved in this project?

Rantz Hoseley contacted me, and when he said it was for a visual interpretation for Tori's songs, I was in.

Why did you choose to interpret 'Past the Mission'?

I felt it had the tone and atmosphere of where my head was at the time. I liked the melancholy it caused in me, and in turn it caused me to visualize images that eventually became part of the story.

What is it about Tori's music that inspired your visuals and storyline?

She speaks without clarification of exactness. She's abstract, and yet direct. She tells a story with her words, and sets the tone with the range of her voice. She's a very visual musician and that is rare.

In what way to graphic novels evoke the same reactions -- both emotional and physical -- as that of music?

If given the right amount of freedom and page count, a good graphic story can evoke a mood that creates a soundtrack all its own. It's like what they say about good comedy. The timing is everything. Same goes for graphic novels. The pacing and timing is what makes it work, or not.

Artist: Colleen Doran
Contribution: 'Pretty Good Year'

How would you describe your relationship with Tori?

Well, my relationship with Tori is limited to adoring her music. I bought her first album when it came out, after I heard selections on a local alternative music station. I rushed out and got the album right away. I later added videos and limited edition albums to my stack of Tori adoration and I venerate often.

How did you become involved in this project?

I heard a rumor through the grapevine that this project was in the works, and sulked a bit, wondering if anyone was going to contact me about it. then I got the call and stopped sulking.

Why did you choose to interpret 'Pretty Good Year'?

I worked with a writer on this piece named Derek McCulloch, and he actually chose the song. Fortunately, it was one of my favorites, and he took a different approach to it that I think distinguishes it in the collection. I had very strong visual ideas when listening to the music and integrating that imagery with the story which I did not write was in interesting experience. I think I came up with a way of visualizing the story that honored the content as well as gave a visual impression of the sound of the music.

What is it about Tori's music that inspired your visuals and storyline?

Tori has a very gentle, liquid voice that becomes very powerful and angry during the course of the song. Also, she sounds hurt. The sound of the piano gives me an impression of blocks of color. So, I like the way that the story transpires in blocks of time, both within the context of the individual moments of life's passage, but also in the blocks of sound that the piano staccato creates. And I see different colors when she creates different sounds and used them as visual cues for both the sense of the sound and the sense of the characters in the story.

In what way to graphic novels evoke the same reactions -- both emotional and physical -- as that of music?

Both comics and music are multi-sensory and require a certain amount of participation on the part of the audience to enjoy them fully. Music, like Tori's music anyway, requires that we pay attention to the feelings evoked by the sound of the music, but also to the lyrics which also have a narrative sense, and, in the case of Tori Amos, can often be challenging. there are different levels of meaning and experience in her music. She can sing in this gentle, ethereal way about the most difficult of life's experiences, and if you aren't paying attention to the lyrics, you miss half the story.

Comics have a similar ability to create a multi-layered experience. the pictures and the narrative may even be at odds with one another. Music has the ability to suggest color through the mood conveyed by sound, and comics have the ability to convey mood with color. The narrative may be in concert with the message of the pictures, or may be in counterpoint.

Nick Cave has written a new book based on his song 'Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!' Set for release on July 8, the 40 page, four-inch hardback book chronicles the story behind the notorious Bad Seeds song.

"It is a curiosity that deals with the preparation and final glorious outcome of a project that began on the back of an envelope, a literal 'scrap' of an idea and ended up evolving into a genuine cultural icon and classic rock 'n' roll song," the eccentric Cave reveals.

Featuring notes, handwritten lyrics, photographs and a short story about the evolution of the song, the project is part of a collaborative project with British artists Sue Webster and Tim Noble.

According to Cave, the collaboration "is accompanied by an eight-foot-square light sculpture, employing over 750 light bulbs, built by Webster and Noble. This little book documents the journey of this mammoth collaboration."

'Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!' is a reworking of the Lazarus myth. Lazarus is a character in the New Testament whom Jesus raises from the dead. Cave heard the story in church as a youngster and was apparently so traumatized by it that he rewrote the myth to deal with it. 'Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!' places its character in 1970s New York City with another narrative featuring the late magician/escape artist Harry Houdini.

In 1988, Cave published his first book, 'King Ink,' which was a collection of lyrics and plays. A year later, he released his first novel, 'And the Ass Saw the Angel.'

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five are without question the forefathers of hip-hop music. Best known for songs such as 'The Message' and 'Freedom' from the early '80s, the group brought hip hop music from the New York clubs to a wider stage. In 2007, they were the first hip-hop act to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. On his own, Flash became a pioneer in creating music and sounds from his turntables particularly on the track 'The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel.'

But for the DJ, whose real name is Joseph Saddler, those successes were marred by conflict involving money, record company dealings, drugs and family problems. "For a long period of time I was pretty angry," he tells Spinner. "I characterize myself as being torn apart and being in lots of pain."

In his new book 'The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash: My Life, My Beats,' co-written with David Ritz, Flash traces his life from his rough childhood in the Bronx to key aspects of his career: witnessing DJ Kool Herc spinning records in 1974; developing DJ-ing techniques such mixing and cutting; and, with the Furious Five -- Melle Mel, Scorpio, Rahiem, Kid Creole and Cowboy -- playing to 3,000 people at the Audubon Ballroom in 1976.

Despite the group's popularity and hits, Flash spent time battling Sylvia Robinson, the head of Sugar Hill Records, over money he felt was owed to them. Flash's role in the group was challenged after Robinson pushed him to record 'The Message.' As he writes in the book, he and the Furious Five were at first not interested in recording the track because the lyrics were so bleak in describing urban decay. "We as a group were like, 'What is this?'" he recalls.

If you've ever wondered what your favorite artists listen to when smoking out or how they score in foreign cities, you can now read all about it. 'Pot Culture: The A-Z Guide to Stoner Language & Life' features several musical contributors, from Melissa Etheridge on medicinal marijuana to Redman's 'How to Roll a Blunt,' as well as stoner tours of music by the Beatles, jam bands, Bob Marley (of course) and, arguably the stoner holy grail, the synchronization between 'The Wizard of Oz' and 'Dark Side of the Moon.'

Shirley Halperin, co-author of the book with Steve Bloom, tells Spinner that Rob Thomas, who educates readers on 'The Art of Scoring,' was the first artist to sign on. "He was the first person I actually talked to about this idea. And he came up with that idea of how to bring up weed in a casual conversation without being completely obvious about it," Halperin says. "He had this in his mind already, this little tap dance of what happens if you don't have any weed, you're in a foreign country or a city that you're not from and you really want to get stoned -- how do you bring it up?"

Among the other musicians offering toking tips are the Doors' Ray Manzarek, who recalls his first time getting stoned, Fall Out Boy's Joe Trohman, who talks about 'Pot on Tour,' and 'Music to Smoke To' by both Maroon 5's Adam Levine, whose list ranges from Phish to Notorious B.I.G., and Guided by Voices' frontman Bob Pollard, who goes a little more avant-garde with albums by the likes of prog-rock bands Hawkwind and Cromagnon.

R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe lends an introduction and handwritten captions to a new book on the band by Seattle-based photographer David Belisle. The project, 'R.E.M.: Hello', hits shelves on June 11 and finds Stipe's observations accompanying 175 previously unpublished, intimate color and black-and-white photos of the band at home, in rehearsals and on tour.

But Stipe's involvement in the project doesn't end there. Stipe will join Belisle -- who traveled with the band for the past seven years and is the singer's former personal assistant -- for two book signings.

Stipe, who hits the road with R.E.M. starting May 23 in Vancouver, will be on hand to sign copies on May 28 at Los Angeles' Book Soup and June 15 at New York City's McNally Robinson.

In addition to his work with R.E.M., Belisle has photographed the likes of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Mudhoney and the Tiny Vipers.

As an indie rock legend, Dean Wareham fronted Galaxie 500 -- the group he formed at Harvard in the 1980s -- and the much loved but now defunct Luna. While he still makes music with his former Luna bandmate-turned-spouse Britta Phillips, Wareham now adds the distinction of being a published author, with the advent of 'Black Postcards: A Rock & Roll Romance.'

"Writing a memoir is just a bit scary," Wareham tells Spinner of the book, which drops March 13. "When you're just a singer in a band, you are somewhat mysterious and people have their own idea about what you are like, based on lyrics or interviews. But lyrics, while confessional on one level, are also cryptic. You can hide behind them."

Boasting many revelations, 'Black Postcards' is an insightful look at the peaks and valleys of Wareham's musical career and personal life, courtesy of old journals, tour diaries and old tour itineraries. And despite his uncanny skill for storytelling, Warehem -- who spent about eighteen months on the tome -- downplays his wares as a writer. "Writing is not easy or natural -- it is hard work," he says. "But perhaps the goal is to make it seem easy."

"There were days I had fun, and other days I felt like I was re-living some of the worst moments of my life. For a year or so the book was a shapeless mess, but then one day I looked at it and could see a clear beginning, middle and end."

Prolific record producer Phil Ramone has touched upon genius for more than five decades. A musical prodigy, Ramone established A&R Recording, an independent recording studio, in 1959, launching what would become a 14-time Grammy-winning career, known as much for his work with legends like Ray Charles, Billy Joel, Paul McCartney, Elton John and Paul Simon, just to name a few, as his innovative technology. His journey is chronicled in the new book, 'Making Records: The Scenes Behind the Music,' co-written with Charles L. Granata. In the excerpt below, Ramone recalls his sessions with Bob Dylan on the rock 'n' roll icon's 1975 masterpiece, 'Blood on the Tracks.'


Chapter 13

I was delighted to receive "the call" from John Hammond in September 1974 asking me to engineer some sessions with Bob Dylan.

"Phil? John Hammond. Listen, Dylan's in town and he's ready to record for us again. He wants to come back to 799 Seventh Avenue, and we need to capture the magic."

Although he'd made his name at Columbia Records, Bob had briefly left the label to record two albums for Elektra. Hammond, who'd recognized Bob's talent and signed him to Columbia twelve years earlier, wanted to bring him back to the CBS "family."

I'd toured with and recorded Bob Dylan and the Band in 1974, but 'Blood on the Tracks' was the first and only Dylan studio album I ever recorded. Like many fans, I was in awe of Bob's talent and respected his polite, distant attitude. I'm private too, and I'm tenacious about protecting the privacy of artists. Traveling with Dylan gave me a glimpse of his idiosyncrasies, and I'd developed a real affection for him and his music.

Since many of Dylan's early recordings had been made in studio A1 at 799 Seventh Avenue when it belonged to Columbia, his return to A&R brought everything full circle.

It was clear that this album was going to be personal. Bob was going through a separation; he was emotionally fragile and at a creative crossroads. I was elated that he'd chosen A&R, and felt privileged to be the engineer who'd preserve this watershed moment.

England-born, L.A.-raised guitar god Slash realized his fate in a single moment: holding his grandmother's discarded single-string guitar for the first time. It launched what would become a life ripe with heroin, coke, women and booze in one of the greatest rock 'n' roll bands of all time, Guns N' Roses. Slash, born Saul Hudson, along with Axl Rose, Izzy Stradlin, Steven Adler and Duff McKagan, sold more than 90 million albums worldwide, with their 1987 debut, 'Appetite for Destruction,' going 16x platinum, ushering in a new musical era of heavy metal and hard rock. But with success came excess.

In his autobiography, simply titled 'Slash,' the axe-wielding rocker recounts his trials in triumphs, including his relationship with porn star Traci Lords, being chased by a 'Predator'-like creature during a drug-induced hallucination and of course, the ever-complicated Rose. In the excerpt below, Slash recounts one of the first gigs following the inception of Guns N' Roses -- one that included a 1,000-mile roadtrip replete with a vehicular breakdown and hitchhiking adventure.

CHAPTER 6

We rehearsed every day, working up songs that we knew and liked from one another's bands, like 'Move to the City' and 'Reckless Life,' which ­were written by some version or another of Hollywood ­Rose. We had a piece of s--- PA, so we composed most of the music without Axl actually singing with us. He'd sing under his breath and listen and provide feedback on what we ­were talking about in the arrangements.

In a career that spans more than forty years, Eric Clapton has secured his place in the rock 'n' roll history books as one of the most influential singer-songwriter-guitarists of all time. From his rise to fame with the Yardbirds to his solo career, the rock icon is a 16-time Grammy winner and the only triple-inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of both the Yardbirds and Cream, and as a solo artist.

For the first time, Clapton is retracing the steps of both his personal and professional life, including his struggles with drug addiction and romance, in his poignant new book, 'Clapton: The Autobiography.' In this exclusive book excerpt, Clapton details the downfall of Cream, his dangerous drug habits and how his friendship with Beatles guitarist George Harrison was almost ruined.

When we returned to England in the summer of 1968, commercially speaking we were in very good shape.We could have sold out concert halls wherever we went twice over. 'Disraeli Gears' was a bestselling album in the States, and we had a hit single there with 'Sunshine of Your Love.' As far as I was concerned, all this counted for nothing because we had lost our direction. Musically, I was fed up with the virtuoso thing. Our gigs had become nothing more than an excuse for us to show off as individuals, and any sense of unity we might have had when we started seemed to have gone out the window.

In 1987, Motley Crue bassist Nikki Sixx was briefly pronounced dead after a heroin overdose. His longstanding and spiraling addiction had reached its apex. Throughout the year, Sixx scribed his destruction in manic journal entries, now made public in the just-released memoir, aptly titled, 'The Heroin Diaries: A Year in the Life of a Shattered Rock Star.' These days, Sixx, now six years sober, battles the industry that both made and broke him, helping his band sell more than 45 million albums worldwide, while simultaneously feeding -- or, at best, ignoring -- his addiction. It's a world away from his embattlement twenty years ago, but before Sixx can say for certain where he 's going, he revisits where he's been.

Warning: The following excerpt contains explicit language and detailed reference to drug use.

February 1987: When I'm Losing My Mind, the Only Thing That Can Save Me Is Heroin.

February 2, 1987: Van Nuys, 1 a.m.

When I'm losing my mind, the only thing that can save me is heroin.

I love the ritual of heroin. I love the smell, and the way it looks when it goes into the needle. I love the way the needle feels when it goes into my skin. I love watching the blood register and mix in with the beautiful yellowish-brown liquid. I love that moment just before I push ...

Then I'm under that warm blanket once again, and I'm perfectly content to live there for the rest of my life. Thank God for heroin ... it never lets me down.

I'm off the methadone. It didn't work.

In July 1951, Vivian Liberto, a 17-year-old schoolgirl, met her first and future husband, Johnny Cash, at a skating rink in San Antonio. The then-obscure 19-year-old Johnny left for service in the United States Air Force in Landsberg, Germany, shortly thereafter, only to return in 1954 and marry the young Vivian. Their marriage produced four daughters, including singer-songwriter Rosanne Cash, before dissolving in 1966 -- two years before Johnny married June Carter, a romance that would eventually obscure his with Vivian.

Vivian, who died in 2005, long dodged the retelling of her years with Johnny. That is, until she got the blessing from the Man in Black himself. Together with television and radio writer-producer Ann Sharpsteen, Vivian recounts her years as Johnny's First Lady in 'I Walked the Line: My Life With Johnny,' a memoir written mostly with Johnny's words, via letters he wrote to Vivian during the lovers' three-year separation from 1951 to 1954. As Sharpsteen writes, the letters "provide a mountain of evidence contradicting many misconceptions the world has about Johnny, reveal startling mistakes Johnny made along his way to becoming a champion for people of all races and stature, and share Johnny's touching confessions and apologies for behavior he later became deeply ashamed of."

It was September 11, 2003, and although a beautiful day, there was an uneasiness in the air. My daughter Cindy had just arrived in town for a visit along with her husband, Eddie, and she felt it too -- an unmistakable sense of something amiss, something dreadful about to happen. So later that night when the phone rang at one thirty a.m., after we had all gone to bed, my heart froze. Phone calls in the middle of the night never bring good news.

And then a bone-chilling scream came from down the hall. Cindy was the first to hear the news: Johnny was dead.