When the Band Played On

""Michael Lee has gifted us with the definitive biography of the courageous, controversial, and groundbreaking gay journalist--self-proclaimed as the Randy Shilts. A spellbinding read and monumental achievement."" --Evelyn C. White, author of Alice Walker: A Life ""Randy Shilts's life story is so thoroughly enmeshed in the post-Stonewall decades. His indefatigable reporting was so important in breaking through to the outside world, with all the controversy that came with it--what we did (and reported) then made space for a very different role for the queer communities. When the Band Played On left me wishing he were still here to help us make sense of the history in motion we are living through right now."" --Carol Queen, PhD, cofounder and director, Center for Sex & Culture, San Francisco ""Randy Shilts was bigger than life as a journalist and author of some of the most important books about gay history. Michael Lee has captured Randy's voice through his meticulous research and interviews with those who knew him. . . . I am so appreciative to Lee for writing When the Band Played On so we could learn more about this quite extraordinary and kind man."" --Colonel Margarethe Cammermeyer (Retired), author of Serving in Silence ""Randy Shilts was one of the most significant and controversial journalists of the late twentieth century, especially for his coverage of the AIDS pandemic in America. Michael Lee has done a stupendous job of navigating Shilts's triumphs, and his flaws and mistakes. This book is an essential supplement to the historical record on gay liberation, HIV/AIDS, and LGBTQ combatants in the US military."" --Laurie Garrett, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of The Coming Plague ""As one of the first openly gay TV reporters in the country, I had few role models. Randy Shilts became one for me, and then he became my friend. Author Michael Lee does a candid job capturing the Randy we knew--and the Randy we didn't know."" --Hank Plante, Emmy and Peabody Award-winning TV reporter ""Randy Shilts was perhaps the most important chronicler of gay life, politics, and disaster at the end of the last century, and the story of his life is also the story of a man shaped by, and shaping, history. It's hard to believe this book didn't already exist, but here it is at last: an intimate but fittingly incisive and tough-minded portrait of a complex, heroic, flawed, and important human."" --Rebecca Makkai, author of The Great Believers ""Michael Lee has skillfully captured the consuming ambition, loosey-goosey relationship with facts, humor, and tender humanity of Randy Shilts in this engaging, hard-to-put-down biography."" --John-Manuel Andriote, author of Stonewall Strong