Rare is it that any author will have one of his books described as the definitive work on a particular subject, but such a distinction has been bestowed by critics on no less than four books written by James Riordan.  The N.Y. Times Bestseller Break on Through, Riordan’s biography of Doors lead singer Jim Morrison, was called “the most objective, thorough and professional Morrison biography” by the Times Book Review and named as one of the Ten All Time Best Rock Biographies by Amazon.com.  Riordan’s The Platinum Rainbow (written with Bob Monaco) was called “One of the best how-to books ever written” by the Los Angeles Daily News. Critics described Riordan’s The Bishop of Rwanda as “one of the most important books you’ll ever read” and The Coming of the Walrus, Riordan’s novel about the 60s has been called “the definitive book on the era” and “a hilarious tale of a harrowing search for the greatest truth of all.”

   The author of 52 books, James Riordan’s career began in the music industry where as a songwriter, manager, producer and concert promoter he worked with several well known artists.  Riordan’s song, One Morning Down (written with Mike Leppert) was actually on the short list of songs Elvis Presley was considering record­­­ing when he passed away. His collaborations with Leppert and Rich Denhart led to the forming of the band Hope which also included D.C. Rapier, Gary Rey­nolds and Mick Kilgos. Hope recorded an album at Woodland Sound Studios and released a single, Cellophane Man, on Mecca Records in Nash­ville. Riordan had 46 songs published by seven leading publishers in Nashville. He lived with David Alan Coe for a while and worked with Buzz Cason, Jimmy Buffett and Chris Gantry. Return­ing to Illinois, Riordan wrote the rock opera Moonchild with Dave Moore which was performed by the Kankakee Municipal Band featuring G-Force. He went on to produce G-Force, writing ’76 Dreams, Star and All the Years with George Lord and recording these and Lord’s And You Pay at Pumpkin Studios in Chicago. The band included Gary Reynolds from Hope, the Grzelak brothers Gerry (Sax) and Fran (Guitar) and featured Deborah Riordan on vocals. Riordan also collaborated with Dave Cook (Rufus, Baby Huey), Rick Saucedo, Jim & Karen Youell and Randy Thaden on songs at this time.

  In 1974 Riordan became part of the Illinois Drama Studio and acted in several productions including A Hatful of Rain, All My Sons and Zoo Story. Later he continued acting at Santa Monica Jr. College appearing with his wife Deborah in Moliére’s The Jealous Husband.

  Also in 1976, Riordan began writing the syndicated newspaper column, Rock-Pop.  Riordan soon became one of America’s premier rock journal­ists with articles reaching millions of readers including those of Rolling Stone, Crawdaddy, Circus, Musician, The Chicago Daily News, The Kansas City Star, and many others. His reputation for relating on a one-to-one level soon led to interviews with George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Fleetwood Mac, Frank Zappa, Monty Python, The Doobie Brothers, Supertramp, Barbra Mandrell, CS&N, Queen, and countless others. In 1978 he began writing his column from Malibu where he connected with many big names in music and film including neighbors Ali MacGraw and Gary Busey and Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul & Mary with whom he began teaching a songwriting class. During this period he wrote several songs with Vicki Silver including Take A Ride, Fashionbull Beauty and Evil in the Night which became the featured song at the California Consortium for the Prevention of Child Abuse. During this time Riordan also wrote songs with Fin Johnston, Mike Lee, Wendy Whitaker, and L.A. Marzulli

  His first book, The Platinum Rainbow (written with Bob Monaco in 1980) became the largest selling book ever written about the music business and was praised by Variety, The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times, The Las Vegas Sun, The Minneapolis Tribune, Billboard and many more.  The Platinum Rain­bow became an industry wide phenomenon and interviews with James Riordan were aired on over 1200 radio stations and numerous television talk shows. Riordan then collaborated with Pulitzer Prize winner Jason Miller on a mini-series (The Irish) and a movie of the week for CBS (Bless Me Father).  In June 1991, William Morrow published Break on Through to outstanding sales and reviews. The New York Times called the book “The most objective, thorough, and professional Morrison biography ever written”.

   Riordan was a consultant on Oliver Stone’s The Doors, which led to his writing Stone’s biography.  Published by Hyperion in 1995, Entertain­ment Weekly called STONE : The Controversies, Excesses and Exploits of a Radical Filmmaker “unflinching… enough spectacle to fill a month of daytime-TV talk shows.” Riordan interviewed Tom Cruise, Kevin Costner, Val Kilmer, Meg Ryan, Joan Chen, Tom Berenger, Eric Bogosian, Woody Harrelson, Juliette Lewis, Robert Downey, Jr., Willem DaFoe, Tommy Lee Jones, and Michael Douglas who also wrote the book’s introduction.  Riordan himself was interviewed by Inside Edition, People Magazine, Tom Snyder and many others.

   In 1994, James Riordan (lead vocals) returned to music forming Hypnoises with David Spargur (guitar, vocals), Gary Reynolds (drums) and John Garrett (bass). Riordan and Spargur wrote songs including I Hate the World (video on YouTube), Vanity on the Rio Grande, Phantom Girl and So You Don’t Believe in the Devil for the band’s first album The 20 Year Scream. The band recorded a follow up album, but it was never released.  From1997-2000, Riordan created and co-starred in a local TV program, Kankakee Valley Prime Time with co-host Jaymie Simmon which featured stories about the community and comedy skits. The musical theme was Phantom Girl by Hypnoises which became a well-known song in the commun­ity. The program was watched by a whopping 45% of households and won six Crystal Communicators and three Telly Awards and Riordan received a Chicago/ Midwest Emmy Nomi­nation for Writing.  In the summer of 1999, James Riordan wrote, directed, and starred in Maddance which won Crystal Communicators for Drama, Writing, Acting and Directing.  He has written several screenplays since including John Horse (Winner of Best Screenplay American Film Festival, the San Antonio Film Festival, The Chicago Script Awards and a finalist at the Las Vegas Black Film Festival and the Lucky Strike Film Festival.

     Riordan married his wife Deborah on Valentine’s Day in 1974 and they had three children – Chris, Elicia, and Jeremiah. On April 9, 2000, 16-year-old Jere­miah, was killed as a passenger in an accident that involved three drunk drivers. Shortly after this, James and Deborah founded Make it Stick which worked to warn teens of the dangers of substance abuse and published a magazine distributed to high school students. In 2001, he founded Jeremiah’s – A Place to be Yourself to give teens a place to hang out away from the dangers of drugs and alcohol.  Forced to close by its incredible growth, Jeremiah’s was recognized as one of the fastest growing and most successful teen centers in the United States.  In 2004, Toast­masters International named Riordan Communicator of the Year for Central Illinois, the YMCA gave him their Service to Youth Award and the United Way named him the Outstanding Volunteer of Kankakee County.

   Returning to writing, Riordan went to New York to meet with David Berkowitz in prison to develop a book on the Son of Sam serial killer’s conversion to Christia­nity, but agents and publishers wanted no part of it.  “The Christian publishers didn’t want the story of a serial killer and the secular publishers didn’t want to hear about Jesus,” Riordan said. He then went to Africa to write The Bishop of Rwanda, (with an intro by Purpose Driven Life author Rick Warren). In November of 2006, Harper Collins released a new edition of Break on Through followed by The Coming of the Walrus in December and The Bishop of Rwanda (Thomas Nelson).

   In 2009 Riordan’s poetry/lyric books A Well Thought Out Scream and Mad­­­man in the Gate were released which included hundreds of stunning images from artists and photogra­phers all over the world.  In 2010 he collaborated with Donna Rice on her autobiography, Detours to Destiny, which told her side of the famous incident with Senator Gary Hart. During this period Riordan wrote Legend in My Own Time with J.D. King. Then he and Andy Battrell wrote Blood and Sand, an epic statement on the Middle East, which became a popular music video. Riordan also wrote an entire album of songs with Irish folk singer and Chicago legend Brendan Loughery, Something Unusual during this time.

     In 2011, James Riordan won the Pledge for Life Harold Award for his work with area youth.  In 2012, Lee and Shane Stanley (Gridiron Gang) optioned Maddance and Apothecary Films optioned The Kill Switch for movie rights.  Longtime friend Creed Bratton (The Office), formerly of the Grass Roots, included a song (Pablo) that he and Riordan had written together when they shared an apartment in Malibu, on his 2013 album Tell Me About It. Riordan joined the Mancow Syndicated Television and Radio show in 2014 and was seen and heard across America on a weekly basis.

    In 2016 Riordan founded Kankakee County Renewed Opportunity with Sheriff Tim Bukowski, Circuit Court Judge Clark Erickson, Jaymie Simmon and others to reduce the area’s high recidivism rate by helping ex-offenders obtain decent jobs and better housing. For the past several years he has worked with KCRO Director Jasper Jones in devel­oping the mentoring aspect of the program.

   In 2018-2019 he developed three new books, two screenplays and a cable series.

   In 2020 he formed Grand Bergen with noted producer/arranger Mark Hébert (Montreux Jazz Festival) and the two released nine songs on You Never See Them Coming.  In 2024 they released I Bet it All on You.

   In 2023 Amazon Books released Ready to Pop: The Rise of Mass Murder in American and a new edition of The Kill Switch. Riordan has also written seven private biographies and is included in Who’s Who in Entertainment, Who’s Who in Poetry and Contemporary Authors of America and in 2019 he was selected for the Who’s Who Lifetime Achieve­ment Award along with Colin Powell and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.