A&R Executive Who Signed METALLICA To Release 'I Am Michael Alago' Book

November 19, 2019

Backbeat Books has set a March 2020 publication date for "I Am Michael Alago: Breathing Music. Signing Metallica. Beating Death." by record label executive, photographer and author Michael Alago. Recently featured in a Netflix documentary, Alago delves into a deeper scope of his life and passion for music, sharing how he consistently beat the odds, survived the AIDS crisis, overcame addiction, and continues to live out one of the music industry’s most celebrated stories to success.

Alago grew up in Brooklyn, New York, in a large, spirited, and devoted Puerto Rican family. Through his early passion for music, art, theater, and photography, he soon found himself rubbing elbows with many downtown New York City scene makers, from Stiv Bators to Jean Michel Basquiat, Cherry Vanilla and Wayne County to Deborah Harry and Robert Mapplethorpe. As an underage teenager going to Max's Kansas City, CBGB, and various art galleries, Alago also began running THE DEAD BOYS' fan club. A few years later, he became the assistant music director for legendary nightclubs the Ritz and the Red Parrot. At age twenty-four, he began a storied career as an A&R executive at Elektra Records that started with signing METALLICA in the summer of 1984, changing the entire landscape of rock 'n' roll and heavy metal. Alago continued to work in A&R for both Palm Pictures and Geffen Records. He was thrilled to executive-produce albums by Cyndi Lauper, PUBLIC IMAGE LTD, WHITE ZOMBIE and Nina Simone.

In the late 1980s, he was diagnosed with HIV, which manifested into full-blown AIDS ten years later. He survived to continue his music career, but in 2005, he left music to pursue his other love: photography. Alago went on to publish three bestselling books: "Rough Gods", "Brutal Truth" and "Beautiful Imperfections" with German-based publisher Bruno Gmünder. He has since overcome his longtime addiction to drugs and alcohol.

In his clean and sober life, he has reconnected with his family, continues to be a working photographer as well as record producer, and only through the grace of his 12-step program is he able to live this big, beautiful life. In 2017, a documentary directed by Drew Stone and produced by Michael Alex on Alago's wildly successful career in music was released in theaters and on Netflix, titled "Who the Fuck Is That Guy? The Fabulous Journey of Michael Alago".

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