A behind-the-scenes look at the meteoric rise and stunning crash and burn of a nightclub empire, by the man who held the reins.

The Palladium, the Tunnel, Club USA, and Limelight—the cutting-edge, insanely successful, and notoriously decadent clubs that dominated nightlife in New York City and around the world. Across five decades, a single mysterious man was behind them: Peter Gatien, the leading impresario of global nightlife. His clubs didn’t follow the trends—they created movements. They brought grunge, hip-hop, industrial, and techno to the freaks, punks, queers, straights, and superstars, and the beautiful ones showed up night after night to tear the roof off every party. As Peter and his innovative team ramped up the hedonistic highs, it was inevitable that the crash would be just as spectacular.

In this frank and gritty memoir, Peter Gatien charts the seismic changes in his personal and professional life, his outrageous swings of fortune, and the implosion of an empire. From Peter’s childhood in a Canadian mill town to the freedom of the 1970s, through the excesses of the 1980s and the conservative crackdown in the 1990s, The Club King chronicles the birth and death of a cultural movement—and of a man who, for a time, was in control of every beat.