In the Midnight Hour: The Life and Soul of Wilson Pickett - Softcover

Fletcher's account [...] is enthralling and rigorously researched ... [A] captivating book. (Mark Ellen, The Sunday Times)

enthralling and rigorously researched ... Pickett's talent, charisma and epic records are immaculately expressed and explained in this captivating book, but so, too, are the flaws that destroyed him. (Mark Ellen, Sunday Times)

Fletcher's vibrant book brings Pickett and his music to glorious life. (Publishers Weekly)

Throughout the book, Fletcher ably explores [the] dichotomy in Pickett's character... [In the Midnight Hour is] a layered portrait of the legendary singer. (Kirkus)

This biography of soul singer Wilson Pickett is distinctive for its voluminous and nonjudgmental accounting of his life, from early childhood on, and of the complex early days of rhythm and-blues recording... In a book remarkable for its copious family research, Fletcher, a true devotee of the music, gives us the complete Pickett, more so than Mark Ribowsky did for Otis Redding, or James McBride has done for James Brown. (Booklist)

[In the Midnight Hour] is biography at its best: anecdotal, comprehensive, captivating and concise. (Shelf Awareness)

Fletcher's brilliant little book shines a light on the good, bad, and ugly of Pickett's life, as it illustrates just how vital his music is to the history of soul and rock and roll. (No Depression)

Tony Fletcher has written the first full biography of Pickett, presenting his story with engaging prose rooted in solid research. (Shepherd Express)

Journalists who write about sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll often find it easier to focus on the sensational aspects of the industry than on the music itself, but Mr. Fletcher... gets it right. (Wall Street Journal)

[A] richly detailed new biography of the singer. This book is a reminder of just how powerful a presence Pickett was, especially throughout the 1960s, as African-American music migrated from churches and black radio stations into the mainstream, and as America itself underwent dramatic social changes. (Seattle Times)

He was the Wicked Wilson Pickett, the legendary soul man whose forty-plus hits included "In the Midnight Hour," "634-5789," "Land of 1000 Dances," "Mustang Sally," and "Don't Let the Green Grass Fool You." Remarkably handsome and with the charisma to match, Wilson Pickett was considered by many to be the greatest, the most visceral and sensual of the classic 1960s soul singers, and as a man who turned screaming into an art form, the most forceful of them all. He was the living embodiment of soul.

More than that, Wilson Pickett's journey reads like a guide to popular black American music in the late 20th century. From the gospel-rich cotton fields of Alabama to the pre-Motown metropolis of Detroit, and throughout his career at Atlantic Records―he was the first artist on that label to record at Stax in Memphis, Fame in Muscle Shoals, and Sigma in Philadelphia, and rehabilitated an exiled Bobby Womack and introduced Duane Allman along the way―Wilson Pickett led the shifts in Rhythm and Blues and soul music.

Pickett's downfall, precipitated by the move towards softer soul and then disco in the 1970s, proved equally dramatic, leading to a heavy alcohol and drug addiction, a reputation for violence and gun use, a no-show for his induction into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in 1991, and two jail terms later in the decade. Nonetheless, the "Wicked" Pickett climbed out of these depths to end his career with a Grammy-nominated album before his death in 2006.

For this first-ever accounting of Wilson Pickett's life, bestselling biographer Tony Fletcher interviewed members of the singer's family, friends and partners, along with dozens of his studio and touring musicians. Offering equal attention to Pickett's personal and professional life, with detailed insight into his legendary studio sessions and his combative road style, In the Midnight Hour: The Life and Soul of Wilson Pickett is the essential telling of an epic life.