This is Fresh Air, I'm Terry Gross.

Michael Imperiali is starring in the second season of the HBO series The White Lotus,

which is created by Mike White.

Imperiali spoke with our producer, Sam Brigger. Here's Sam.

Michael Imperiali is a very busy person.

This year, so far, he's appearing on the HBO series The White Lotus.

His first novel is being reprinted,

and he's releasing new music with his band Zopa.

Imperiali made his name as an actor in the influential TV series The Sopranos,

playing Christopher Maltesanti, the violent gangster with impulse control issues,

who's got a father figure in Tony Soprano, not a great role model.

Imperiali's been thinking a lot about The Sopranos in the last few years.

In 2021, he published a book called Woke Up This Morning,

the definitive oral history of The Sopranos,

co-written with Steve Sharipa, who plays gangster Bobby Bakala on the show.

The book came out of the podcast they started during COVID called Talking Soprano's,

where they went back and watched the whole series all over again.

Michael Imperiali published his first novel, The Perfume Burnt His Eyes in 2017,

and it's being re-released this December.

It's a coming-of-age novel set in 1976 New York,

and one of the characters is another perhaps flawed father figure, Lou Reed.

But let's start with The White Lotus, the Emmy-winning HBO series created by Mike White.

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