Rock legend Ray Davies was already facing transitions in his personal and professional life in 2004, when, one week after being named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth, he was shot in the leg during a mugging in New Orleans. Davies had come to New Orleans in a search for musical authenticity and a compass for his personal life. Instead, he found himself a violent crime victim and anchored to a bed for weeks.
Davies recovery was arduous, but he survived the ordeal, which sparked a new run of creativity for the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, composer, songwriter, actor, director and writer.
Davies’ meditations on his relationship with the U.S. — the country that banned his band, the Kinks, for four years in the 1960s before celebrating it in the decades to follow — make up the bulk of his new memoir, Americana: The Kinks, The Riff, The Road, The Story, out now from Sterling.
