Peter Wolf grew up in the Bronx, a child of “fellow travelers” whose artistic inclinations influenced both his love of music and his initial desire to become a painter. Stories of his loving and sometimes eccentric parents complement scenes depicting a very young Bob Dylan as he arrived on the Greenwich Village folk scene. Reflections on Wolf’s studies in Boston—where he shared an apartment with David Lynch—are braided with accounts of first love, an untraditional literary education, and early musical influences such as Muddy Waters.

After Wolf joined the J. Geils Band as their frontman and his musical fame grew, he rubbed shoulders with other notables, including members of the Rolling Stones, Sly Stone, Tennessee Williams, Alfred Hitchcock, and Van Morrison. Wolf’s marriage to Faye Dunaway is presented in a clear yet balanced and nuanced light.

Told with gentle humor and often heart-rending poignancy, the word portraits in Waiting on the Moon provide a revealing glimpse of artists, writers, actors, and musicians as they work—the creative forces that drive them to achievement; the demons they battle; the patterns of their human relationships. They are meant to inspire not only empathy but also admiration. Like Christopher Isherwood, Wolf remains “a camera with its shutter open.”

Peter Wolf was born in the Bronx, moved to Boston to study painting at the Museum School of Fine Arts, and then left to pursue a life in music with the J.Geils Band. In 1984, he began his career as a solo artist. Wolf continues to paint, record, and tour from his home base in Boston.

Please Note: This is not a musical performance, this event will be a conversation with Peter Wolf about his book.

Reviews for Waiting on the Moon

“This is the book I’ve been hoping Peter Wolf would write since we walked the streets of Paris together, back in the twentieth century. A true account of his life, love, and music told with unique humor and rare humility.”—Elvis Costello

“Arriving home from my 114th tour date, I find that Wolf’s book has kept me wonderful company. As the eastern sun rises through my airplane window, the warmth of its rays reminds me of the love of life and living so beautifully expressed in his writing.”—Bruce Springsteen

“Wolf has written the kind of memoir you wish everyone who was ever tempted to write one would—keeping only the great stories and leaving out all the dull stuff in between.”—Lloyd Schwartz, poet and Pulitzer Prize-winning critic