Simon Braund (Author) is a British music writer. He has been a contributing editor to Empire, and his work has appeared in The Sunday Times, the Evening Standard, the Financial Times, Time Out, the Observer, Q and Mojo. He is the co-author of The Greatest Movies You'll Never See: Unseen Masterpieces by the World's Greatest Directors, and author of Orson Welles Portfolio: Sketches and drawings from the Welles Estate. He divides his time between Cambridge, England, and Los Angeles.

Joel Selvin (Foreword) has covered pop music for the San Francisco Chronicle since 1970, and has written over 20 books about pop music. His classic, Summer of Love, long considered the definitive account of the 1960s San Francisco rock scene, featured interviews with the surviving members of Big Brother and the Holding Company, among many other Joplin associates. His other books include Red: My Uncensored Life In Rock with Sammy Hagar, Altamont, Here Comes The Night and Hollywood Eden. Stephen King called Selvin 'a rock legend'.