Roddy Bottum — The Royal We - with Rich Morel

<p><em><strong>A founder of the iconic band Faith No More shares his coming-of-age and out-of-the-closet story in pre–tech boom San Francisco</strong></em></p><p><a href="https://politics-prose.com/book/9781636142692"><strong>The Royal We</strong></a> 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 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.</p><p>The book is an elevated wallop of tongue and insight, much more than a tell-all. There are personal encounters with public figures like Kurt and Courtney and 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.</p><p><strong>Roddy Bottum</strong> is a musician, writer, creator, and actor based in New York City. He started the band Faith No More in San Francisco in the early 1980s and toured the world, selling millions of records. In 1992, he came out of the closet and blew open the spectrum of what being gay in the world of rock music meant. That same year he also formed the critically acclaimed band Imperial Teen, cited as the original pioneers of alternative queer rock. Bottum moved to New York City in 2010 and has performed and created records with Crickets, Nastie Band, and Man on Man, a band with his partner, Joey Holman. He is developing his <em>Sasquatch</em> opera project into a musical in New York City, where he continues to live.</p><p>Bottum will be in conversation with <strong>Rich Morel</strong>, s a singer, songwriter, producer, and remixer with a knack for turning knobs and turning heads. Alongside his own genre-blurring releases, he’s collaborated with a wildly eclectic lineup that includes Cyndi Lauper, Pet Shop Boys, New Order, Depeche Mode, Yoko Ono, and Lily Allen. But Morel doesn’t just make music — he builds worlds. From the glam-soul theatrics of Too Much with Ian Svenonius, to the post-punk pulse of Deathfix with Fugazi’s Brendan Canty, to the burly boy’s favorite Blowoff with Bob Mould, his projects are as bold as they are boundary-breaking. In 2020, he dropped his first musical album, Struck, on Broadway Records — a theatrical pop fever dream featuring a cast that included the incomparable Alan<br />Cumming. Now based on the windswept coast of Delaware, Morel paints, composes, and conjures new magic with his husband, Handsome Doug, in their art-pop duo Who Killed Teddy Bear. The curtain’s never really down — it just shifts to the next act</p><p>PURCHASE: </p><p>https://politics-prose.com/book/9781636142692?ic_referral=tujJAoqzKH_4Yuk0tGufXmxb83YNtmGw2ex6OECvkAgwMy-aOQx7ZOXR2G_Gn109wBTycfkG5Ud6q5K6wr1EfHAMXnGv8UacDOmpfVyM3lFZZP8GMS_Op2YOjXDGqbgdd41QHBY</p>