Mikal Gilmore Books in Order

Gilmore gathers essays, interviews and criticism tracing rock music’s relationship with American cultural change. From Elvis and Dylan to punk and later performers, he considers how individual artists express political unrest, spiritual longing and struggles over identity.

Through profiles of major musicians of the 1960s and 1970s, Gilmore revisits the cultural hopes and conflicts surrounding their work. Accounts of figures including Lennon, Dylan and Marley connect individual lives with the events that shaped rock history.

Following Gilmore’s diagnosis with tongue and throat cancer, he and his wife Elaine Schock publicly document the experience. Their collected posts reveal treatment’s everyday emotional demands, their disagreements about privacy and the support they find through shared vulnerability.

Mikal Gilmore examines the family history behind his brother Gary's murders and execution. Memories of their parents and childhood expose generations of abuse, alcoholism, secrecy, and violence, connecting a public crime with private suffering.