You've seen Peter Richmond around these parts a time or two. He is the author of some of our favorite magazine stories, and for his most recent book he found a subject worthy of his sensitive and searching style: Phil Jackson. The book is called Lord of the Rings, and it's available now. We spoke with him recently about everything from Jackson to Peggy Lee to spirituality to "softcore" journalism.

Alex Belth: This is your sixth book and second biographythe first was on Peggy Lee. What was it like writing another biography?

Peter Richmond: It was terrific because the first one taught me that to be a biographer, you've got to be a very different kind of writer.

AB: Different from being a newspaper or magazine writer?

PR: To write a biography, you have to become something of a different animal. You have to become a PhD in your subject. When Peggy Lee died, and I was asked to write her bio, I said to the editor "Thank you, it's flattering but maybe you should get someone who knows the music of the '30s, '40s, and '50s." But he said, "No, we want you to come in from the outside. We think you're a good enough writer to come in and surround the subject." And that's the only good book I'd ever written. When I was approached to write a Phil Jackson biography, and figured I wasn't going to get him to cooperatehe was writing his own bookit freed me to surround his life objectively.

AB: He's got a library of books he's written himself.

PR: If you go into Barnes and Nobles to the sports section there's seven categoriesbaseball, football, basketball, hockey, golf, boxing and Phil Jackson. Maverick and Sacred Hoops are worth reading. Mine might be

AB: What have you learned as a writer since the Peggy Lee book that allowed you to do the Phil Jackson story in a way you might not have previously?

PR: That you should never judge anyone, or their actions, or their legacy, before doing everything you can to try and see the events of their life through their own eyes, from their own perspectivebut then use that perspective as only one of your lenses. Phil had left behind his books, and gave his approval for friends to talk to me. I'd interviewed him several times in the past and we were cool. I had every lens available to see the guy's life objectively and thoroughly.

AB: What was the difference between writing a bio of a dead singer, whose career arc had already ended, and someone who's still got a few chapters left to go in his career?

See the original post here:

The Secret Of Phil Jackson's Success: He Never Stopped Questioning