Greg Lake’s poignant autobiography Lucky Man gets spring release date

A number of years in the making, Lucky Man was completed shortly before Greg’s untimely death last month and will hit the shelves via the Little, Brown Book Group imprint Constable this spring.

Adding to its poignancy, as well as reflecting on his life and multi-million selling music career with King Crimson, Emerson, Lake & Palmer and as a solo artist, Greg writes openly about the death of his bandmate and kindred spirit Keith Emerson and his own impending death from terminal cancer.

The book’s title, of course, shares its name with Greg’s first musical composition that he penned when he was just 12-years-old, and which went on to become an anthem for Emerson, Lake & Palmer in 1970.  

Andreas Campomar, publishing director at Constable, says: “Greg finished writing his poignant memoir, Lucky Man, just before he died last month, and I’m very sorry he won’t be here to see it published.

“Probably the voice of his generation, Greg fronted the greatest rock supergroup of the 1970s but never held with the ‘progressive’ tag that attached itself to both the music and the excess. The memoir not only charts the highs and lows of a career in rock music but also reflects on the death of Keith Emerson last year and living with terminal cancer and the end of life.

“I think Greg can best be summed up by his now-famous line: ‘Material wealth is a very fleeting pleasure … when you can buy anything you want and do anything you want, you soon discover that you actually don’t want any of it.’”

Greg’s manager Stewart Young adds: “I have been Greg’s manager and close friend since 1972. In 2014 Greg was diagnosed with terminal cancer. He told me he was going to write his autobiography and it had to be in his own words. He had no regrets.

“In his wildest dreams he could never imagine having such a wonderful life; how extraordinary to have such a career in music – to do what you want, simply to expand, experiment! To love a woman, be married to her for 43 years, have a daughter he would be so proud of and then to cap it all a grandson who is now four years old and became the centre of his life. He then said, with a twinkle in his eye, ‘I truly am a Lucky Man.’”