b'Whatsthe Last Song Youd Like to Hear Before You Die?South Orange author Mike Ayersasks musicians this curious question BY DONNY LEVITto Ayers in surprising, poignantand yespecu- picked up writing stints at New York Magazine and liarly amusing ways. Youll hear from the likes of JeffVanity Fair. I was just kind of hustling everywhere, W hile David Bowie is considered toTweedy(Wilco,UncleTupelo),PhoebeBridgers,he says.Andr 3000 (Outkast), Wayne Coyne (The FlamingNowadays, Ayers serves as the executive editor of Lips), and Rosanne Cash. And you may be surprisedMoney.com. However, his years as an entertainment be one of the most influential andby which songs theyve chosen to soundtrack the endjournalist afforded him strong connections with pub-beloved musicians of all time, hisof their lives.albums never made it to numberI was in the city one night seeing a show and oneintheUnitedStates.ThatI was waiting for the train in Hoboken to bring would change only days after hisme back to Maplewood, recalls Ayers. I was just death in 2016. Blackstar, Bowiessitting there listening to Terrapin Station by the final studio album, would top the Billboard Top 200Grateful Dead, and I thought, man, I am just never chart the week after the cultural icon succumbed togetting tired of this song and this would easily be liver cancer, which he had been battling privately forthe last song Id ever want to hear.many months. With that idea in mind, Ayers reached out to his Music and death have always had somewhat of afuture editor with the following email: Whats the mysterious and integral relationship. South Orangelast song youd like to hear before you died?author and journalist Mike Ayers recently publishedAyersbeganhisself-taughtjournalismcareer an engaging new book that features the words andcovering music for Billboard and the Village Voice. thoughts of a diverse selection of 32 musicians toHedlaterhaveabriefstintatRollingStoneand whom he posed a very simple but intriguing ques- branch out to work at the Wall Street Journal as an tion: What is the last song youd like to hear beforeeditor and reporter hybrid. I never went to journal-you die? One Last Song: Conversations on Life, Death,ism school, says Ayers, who would quickly expand and Music hit the shelves in October 2020. And ifhis writing to cover film and television. I realized you liked that nugget about David Bowie, theres aI just couldnt pigeonhole myself into one beat be-whole lot more to dig into. cause, as a freelancer, its not as lucrative. I started Mike Ayers turns a seemingly morbid question into a While the inquiry may sound somewhat morbid,doing lifestyle stories as well as food and culture forbook full of poignant, even amusing, answers. Photo: the assemblage of musicians in the book opened upanybody that would hear an idea. By 2010, AyersBenjamin Meaker.12/ matters magazine / winter 2021'