A life of crime It was early 1960 when Barry White spiralled totally out of control.

By his own admission he was a “very bad boy”.

Still only 16, he was already a veteran of a life of petty crime, for which there seemed no end. Stealing, everything from a chocolate bar to a Cadillac, had become a way of life for him. He was, as he admitted, “addicted to badness”. He used to steal cars just for fun, and often after a joyride round Los Angeles he would return the vehicle to the exact spot that he had picked it up. He admitted many years later that he had been involved in the theft of more than 200 cars: “For a year I couldn’t go to sleep without having stolen a car. I must have stolen between 150 and 300 cars.”

A small extracted from Chapter Seven of White Music, the Barry White story, available at all good books shops across America including Barnes & Noble from 12th April.

• His legacy