DEAR FELLOW DIAMONDHEADS, I wrote my brand new book He Is. . .I Say: How I Learned To Stop Worrying that comes out today for you. Okay, so maybe I really wrote this book for ME -- but fortunately it works out pretty much the same because I really am one of you. I'm a life-long Neil Diamond fan, and like you, I'm proud to say so any chance that I get. I've also been fortunate enough to have spoken at length with Neil over the years, first for a big Rolling Stone interview twenty years ago when I starting out a rock critic, and since then writing liner notes essays for assorted releases, including the In My Lifetime, still one of the best box sets ever in my semi-humble opinion, and producing Neil's episode of Behind The Music, among other projects. These days I make my living writing TV shows mostly, but earlier this year during the long Writers Guild of America strike, I got a call from Team Diamond about writing some liner notes for the Man. I wrote 6000 words in one week about Neil between Monday and Friday - happily listening to Neil around the clock and getting paid for it -- there is no better gig on earth. Then on that Sunday morning, I woke up and did something I haven't done in twenty years. I wrote something purely pleasure. I woke up early and found myself telling the story about one of the greatest moments in my life - just after my wedding day to my wife Fran and the birth of my two young sons. It was just after my Rolling Stone article appeared. Fortunately, Neil liked it, and I had mentioned to him what a big fan my mom was. Very thoughtfully Neil and Sherrie Levy -- his longtime publicist and media spokesperson -- invited me to bring my mother to one of his concerts in New Jersey where I grew up. Then without telling me, they arranged to have my mother meet Neil. Where I grew up, that was like meeting the Pope, but with even better outfits and tunes. So that's how the book begins, and beyond the other reviews I may get, the good news is that my Mom LOVES the book. A few days after writing what became the open of the book, I was invited to get an early listen to Neil's latest album, Home Before Dark. I was blown away once again. So I decided that the time had come for me to pay tribute to Neil with a book that tried to tell Neil's story from a fan's point of view, as well as my story of how he and his music came to mean so much to me. It's not a biography - it's more a salute. I hope I've done a good job. In any case, like Neil's music, this was written straight from the heart. I may have gone over the top or made a few mistakes or typos, but please know that it was written for the right reason by someone like you - somebody with the good taste and open heart to fully appreciate Neil Diamond, one of the great popular artists of our time. I hope you like the book, and tell your friends. That's the thing about Neil Diamond fans. Like those songs sung blue, everybody knows one! Neil once told me that he had no "average" fans -- that you're all way above average. I know how much Neil's fans mean to him, and I hope I have not let you - or him - down. Sincerely, David Wild PS I am doing two book signings - November 19th at Book Soup in Los Angeles, and November 7th at Davis Kidd in Nashville. I would be honored if any of you would stop by!