Bottum, Roddy - The Royal We: A Memoir

The Royal We is a poetic survey of a time set in a magical city that once was
and is no more. It is a memoir written by Roddy Bottum, a musician and artist,
that documents through prose his coming of age and out of the closet in
1980s San Francisco, a charged era of bicycle messengers, punk rock, street
witches, wheatgrass, and rebellion. The book follows his travels from Los
Angeles, growing up gay with no role models, to San Francisco, where he
formed Faith No More and went on to tour the world relentlessly, surviving
heroin addiction and the plight of AIDS, to become a queer icon.
The book is an elevated wallop of tongue and insight, much more than a tellall.
There are personal tales of historical pinnacles like Kurt and Courtney,
Guns N’ Roses, and recaps of gold records and arena rock---but it’s the
testimonies of tragedy and addiction and preposterous life-spins that make
this work so unique and intriguing. Bottum writes about his dark and
harrowing past in a clear-eyed voice that is utterly devoid of self-pity, and his
emboldened and confident pronouncements of achievement and unorthodox
heroism flow in an unstoppable train that’s both captivating and inspirational.
A remarkable portrayal of a creative individual in emergence, a gay man
figuring out how to be a gay man, and a detailed look at the nuance of 1980s
pre-tech boom San Francisco, The Royal We will be greatly appreciated by
people who loved Kathleen Hanna’s Rebel Girl, Patti Smith’s Just Kids, Hua
Hsu’s Stay True, and other memoirs about the artist’s life.