Once A King, Now A Prince:

“There is no new thing under the sun….” King Solomon, Ecclesiastes 1:9 Songwriting is a craft, and crafting a hit song means understanding what makes a listener stop, listen, remember, and want to hear it again. If you want to be a rock star, sooner or later you need the song. The clothes, the stage show, the attitude, the manager, the agent, the record company and the hype may help, but none of them can rescue a record nobody wants to hear twice. That is one of the lessons I learned inside the music business and one of the reasons this rock n roll book and my supporting blog posts go beyond the people I represented. This post is also about what I learned from being around songs, songwriters, musicians, producers and records for most of my working life. My music industry memoir contains the stories. This is about some…

These dysfunctional family stories are not written from the distance of therapy language or hindsight alone. They come from growing up inside a home where confusion, conflict, fear, and survival shaped the way I saw the world long before music entered my life. The experiences in Once A King, Now A Prince show how family damage can follow someone into adulthood, ambition, relationships, and even success itself. The Enduring Fascination With Family Struggles Dysfunctional family stories have always captivated readers, whether they appear in classic novels, bestselling memoirs, or binge-worthy television dramas. In Once A King, Now A Prince, Ira Blacker brings that subject out of theory and into lived experience, showing how family damage can follow a person long before success ever enters the picture. At their heart, these narratives explore the messy, complicated realities of family life—the rivalries, unspoken resentments, betrayals, and strained bonds that often lurk beneath…

I have lived enough rock and roll to know the usual menu served up in rock & roll books. You get the lights, the girls, the drugs, the limousines, the ruined hotel rooms, the backstage passes, the fights, the managers, the lawyers, and the big famous names served up like cold cuts on a platter. Some of that is fun, and I would be a liar if I said I did not enjoy some of it myself. I lived close enough to that world to know the fantasy was not entirely fantasy. A lot of it happened, and some of it happened with more madness than any polite publisher would know what to do with. But that is not the whole story. The best rock & roll books are not only about who was famous, who got high, who got rich, who got cheated, or who wound up in somebody’s…

My Personal Journey Through Jewish Food and Tradition As I reflect on my life in New York, I often think about the Great New York Delis in NYC from the 1950’s to 1970’s, and how they shaped my early years—a story I’ve been slowly piecing together in my rock and roll memoir, entitled “Once A King, Now A Prince.” Growing up in New York during that golden era meant that Jewish food wasn’t just nourishment—it was a cultural anchor, a way of life, and a connection to tradition that stretched across generations. Those delis were more than restaurants; they were meeting places where the smell of freshly baked rye bread, the tang of half-sour pickles, and the richness of corned beef piled high on a sandwich became part of the rhythm of daily life. Writing about these experiences feels almost like writing a memoir, where each sandwich, each barrel of…

Few literary forms feel as immediate or as revealing as an autobiography by famous people. From the opening pages, these books promise access. Not the polished press-tour version, but the private rooms behind it. An autobiography by famous people isn’t about fame itself. It’s about consequence. How success is earned, squandered, misunderstood, and survived. Readers don’t pick up an autobiography by famous people to admire trophies. They read to understand the machinery behind the curtain. The best of these books offer confession without apology, clarity without publicists, and memory sharpened by time. WHY AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY BY FAMOUS PEOPLE FEELS DIFFERENT What separates an autobiography by famous people from other nonfiction is narrative authority. The voice belongs to the person who lived it, not a journalist reconstructing events. When done well, the result reads less like history and more like a reckoning. A strong autobiography by famous people often mirrors my…

Please enjoy the official book trailers for my memoir, Once A King, Now A Prince. These videos explore the story behind the book, from the pain and chaos of my childhood to the rock and roll years, the music business, and the personal journey that shaped my life. Some book trailers focus on the emotional side of the memoir, while others capture the world of music, fame, survival, and the unforgettable people who crossed my path along the way. Future trailers will continue to be added to this page, as well as throughout the blogs on this website. AVAILABLE ON AMAZON:https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GNB67YSP More information and blog updates:https://onceakingnowaprince.com Official Book Trailer For Once A King, Now A Prince This first trailer introduces Once A King, Now A Prince, Ira Blacker’s memoir about family trauma, survival, rock and roll, and life inside the music business. AI Brings The Story To Life This trailer…

I didn’t write Once A King, Now A Prince to romanticize the past. I wrote it because the truth has weight, and the best music autobiographies don’t float above reality. They dig into it. They bleed a little. They tell the parts most people skip when the lights come on and the applause starts. When people talk about music autobiographies, they usually expect fame, excess, backstage stories, and celebrity mythology. Those things are part of the landscape, yes. But the best music autobiographies are never just about applause or headlines. What gives these books staying power is the human being underneath the public image. At its core, Once A King, Now A Prince is not simply a memoir about music industry life. It begins long before talent agencies, major bands, or rooms where everyone suddenly turns to look at you. It begins with childhood abuse, fear, and survival. It begins…

From left to right in the photo above, taken in the 70’s at the Capitol Records signing party for Kraftwerk, are Florian Schneider of Kraftwerk, my sister Tina, myself, Ralf Hutter of Kraftwerk, Al Coury and Rupert Perry of Capitol Records. My choice of Kraftwerk as the main photo here was “tongue-in-cheek.” As to sex, well, I was not aware of them being chased by the groupies. ——————————————————————————————————————– There are phrases that feel less like words, and more like a backstage pass, and sex, drugs, rock and roll is one of them. It hums with distortion, sweat, neon lights, and the low thud of a bass line felt in the chest before it’s heard. For decades, this phrase has framed the public imagination of rock culture, shaping how fans understand the lives lived just beyond the stage lights. What makes sex, drugs, rock and roll endure isn’t shock value. It’s…

When it comes to books about crazy families, there is often an unspoken competition over who had it worse. Whose father raged louder. Whose mother vanished longer. Whose childhood felt less like childhood and more like a long-running endurance test. I do not claim victory lightly, but my family makes a serious showing, particularly my father, who ruled our home with volatility, volume, and a sense of entitlement that made daily life feel like a hostage negotiation. What still surprises me is not the dysfunction itself, but that I lived through it at all. SURVIVAL WAS NEVER NOBLE IN BOOKS ABOUT CRAZY FAMILIES Survival is a recurring theme in books about crazy families, yet it is rarely portrayed honestly. Survival is not noble in the moment. It is clumsy. Improvised. Often unhealthy. The tools I used were not chosen from a shelf of good options. They were scavenged from whatever…

Stories from my life are not polished fairy tales or borrowed legends. They are real moments shaped by family chaos, hard lessons, unexpected victories, and the kind of truth most people keep buried. If you have ever wondered how a life gets built through equal parts grit and nerve, these pages open the door. This is the story of my life told without perfume or padding. From painful family memories to wild chapters tied to music, ambition, and survival, these stories from my life reveal what it means to keep moving forward when the road keeps trying to break you. A Childhood Defined by Shadows and Survival One of the earliest stories from my life involves my father and the brutal environment in which I was raised. My upbringing was a crucible of conflict, emotional damage, and identity struggle — so much so that, as a child, I convinced myself…

Where A celebrity memoir Truly Begins When readers open a celebrity memoir, they often expect bright lights, headlines, and applause. What they rarely see are the quiet rooms where careers are shaped long before public recognition arrives. Every meaningful celebrity memoir is built not only on fame, but on instincts, risks, relationships, and decisions that quietly alter the direction of a life. That is why the best celebrity memoirs often begin before the celebrity fully exists. A thoughtful celebrity memoir rarely begins with success. It begins with the unseen groundwork that shapes a career behind the scenes. Those early moments often become the most revealing passages in a lasting music industry memoir because they expose the private architecture beneath public achievement. That is what gives serious celebrity memoirs their lasting weight. My own perspective began in the 1960s when I entered the music business working at Associated Booking Corporation for…

The Story Behind A Life Before The Spotlight In a market crowded with polished confessionals and carefully managed narratives, my story my life means something very different. Too many books in the current wave of new celebrity memoirs are built to protect an image rather than reveal a life. They give the reader a curated version of events, the public highlights, the manageable wounds, and the familiar rise-fall-redemption rhythm that has become almost mechanical. That is why so many memoirs by celebrities feel interchangeable. That is where my story my life parts company from the pack. This is not a performance of honesty. It is an attempt to connect the earliest fractures of a life to everything that came afterward, from fear and family conflict to ambition, survival, and a long career in the music business. The strongest memoirs are not simply timelines of achievement. They are explanations of how…