By: Jackie Lo

The Royal We is a coming-of-age story that drops you headfirst into a life of climbing the Hollywood sign while underage drinking, rummaging through bushes for hookups, starting bands with friends, and coming of age in a San Francisco where punk collided with hippies and HIV and heroin were everywhere.

Roddy Bottum, a founding member of Faith No More, Imperial Teen, and Man on Man, looks back on his life with complete unapologetic honesty. His bravado is infectious and refreshing. From the very first pages, it feels like a conversation with an old friend, as you’re given a front-row seat to the evolution from Faith. No. Man. to Faith No More, with singers Courtney Love, Chuck, and eventually Mike. You experience what it’s like to be a gay boy in a deeply heteronormative rock culture, to get famous, land record deals, grace magazine covers, and go on tour with “The Guns and the Roses,” as he calls them. You come out in The Advocate in 1993. Your band says nothing.

You have glorious dreadlocks and a deep friendship with Courtney Love, bonded by a shared love of grandeur and over-the-top personalities. Drugs become more central, until before you know it you’re dope sick from heroin. Tours turn into puzzles of how much to bring and where to score next. You lie in bed with your partner, waiting for the girl on the motorcycle to arrive with more. Friends are lost to AIDS and heroin. You overdose and die, only to miraculously wake up. You make plans to go to rehab with Kurt and Courtney, but they back out and you go alone.

It’s an insane ride through music, addiction, and friendship, and I enjoyed every moment of it. The writing is impeccable, and if you’re an audiobook listener, I highly recommend it—Roddy narrates the book himself, making it even more intimate. But, make sure you pick up a copy from Thank You Books, and have it signed and hear him read at “An Author Event With Roddy Bottum” on February 17th at Saturn, upstairs in the green room.

I also loved the closing line, because how do you really end a book about your life when you’re still living it?

“I’ll never know the ending until I close my eyes.”