Heart Full of Soul

Version: Unabridged (Abridged version available here)
Author: Gary Zukav , Linda Francis
Narrator: Gary Zukav , Linda Francis
Genres: Relationships, Philosophy
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Date: December 2006
Length: 7 hours, 16 minutes
Ratings:
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Overview

For the longest time, during some rough boyhood years in Alabama and the grind of performing on the road, the odds against me were discouraging. But there was always a voice inside telling me it was going to get better.

Mom and Dad certainly started out with good intentions, but early on, as their marriage went south and I went in whatever direction was necessary to avoid the fallout, I realized my life was going to be up to me.

Thinking back, my first step toward singing for a living was stealing an Otis Redding album when I was nine. What I heard on that platter was life-changing, and pretty soon I was learning to play the harmonica, which, I can assure you, didn’t attract many female fans—in fact, any fans at all.

I eventually decided that not being taken seriously can be a good thing. It stokes the fires. Maybe the reason I like soul music so much is that it inspires with its pain. The best artists, like Ray Charles, reach out and say, “You’re not alone, brother.”

In all my years on the road—trying to make it in Nashville and those Southern honky-tonks known as the “Chitlin Circuit”—I never thought it would take an act of God to push my destiny into the right groove. But as you’ll hear, it was nearly getting washed away by Hurricane Katrina that led to my Idol tryout. And what happened next was a little bit like when Alice dropped down that rabbit hole—just substitute Simon Cowell for the Mad Hatter.

In Heart Full of Soul, I share some life stories that will hopefully inspire you—give you a sense of my philosophy and how it drove me. For example, I talk about my good friend who died in a tragic accident and the prediction he made that tugged at my thoughts throughout Idol’s qualifying rounds. I also discuss what it was like when I realized Eminem has it right: when you only have one shot, you’d better lose yourself in the music.

A lot of great fans lined up behind me the night of the Idol finale. This book is about the strange path that led me to that pop-culture moment, and the sharp directional changes that occurred after that phenomenal night, including touring America, producing an album, and experiencing that two-sided gig known as American celebrity.

I hope that some of the lessons I’ve learned along the way will help you, especially if the shot you’ve been yearning for is just around the corner.

Author Details

Author Details

Zukav, Gary

"Gary Zukav is the author of The Dancing Wu Li Masters: An Overview of the New Physics, winner of The American Book Award for Science in 1979, and The Seat of the Soul, a New York Times, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, and Publishers Weekly number-one bestseller. His books have sold millions of copies and are published in sixteen languages. He is a graduate of Harvard and a former U.S. Army Special Forces (Green Beret) officer with Vietnam service.

Gary's gentle humor, sensitivity, and deep insights have endeared him to millions of readers and listeners. His spiritual partner is Linda Francis. They lecture internationally, and through Genesis: The Foundation for the Universal Human, they offer retreats, programs, and other events supporting the experience of spiritual partnership. They live in northern California. "

Francis, Linda

Francis is a cofounder of Genesis: The Foundation for the Universal Human.

Binchy, Maeve

"Maeve Binchy was born in a small village outside Dublin. She spent her childhood in Dalkey, an experience she draws on today when creating the rural villages usually at the heart of her novels. After receiving her B.A. from University College in Dublin, she began working as a teacher. The experiences she had while teaching at a Jewish school and on vacation in Israel compelled her to find work on a kibbutz. While abroad in Israel, she wrote weekly letters to her father describing life in a country constantly on the brink of war. When Binchy's father sent one of her letters to The Irish Times where it was published and earned her œ18, Binchy, who had been making œ16 working at the school, thought that she had truly ""arrived.""

Since these humble beginnings, Binchy's success has been astounding. She has written four volumes of short stories titled This Year It Will Be Different, The Return Journey, The Lilac Bus, and London Transports, two plays and a teleplay that won three awards at the Prague Film Festival, but she is perhaps most famous for her bestselling novels Evening Class, The Glass Lake, The Copper Beech, Circle of Friends, Silver Wedding, Firefly Summer, Echoes, and Light a Penny Candle, which have been celebrated on many continents. Movie audiences everywhere adored the film version of Circle of Friends, produced by Savoy Pictures and which starred Minnie Driver and Chris O'Donnell."