The Greatest Rock Memoirs: Five Books You Need To Read

Rock 'n' Roll memoirs have a way of falling into mainstream cliches and self-centered babbles, but not all of them are like that. The reading of autobiographies is a wild journey. You are in direct communication with a person’s soul, and you are, in fact, interacting with the world of music through their eyes.

Some will change your perspective on music as their music too changed the world. Some will shed light on the art and subculture they helped shape, while others offered you a front-row seat as they lived and breathed, in witnessing a crucial time in music history.

Here, we handpicked five, all written by rock legends, and each of them has something unique to share.

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Robbie Robertson - Testimony

Talking about a book that gives you goosebumps. Testimony by the late Robbie Robertson feels like a song from the heart. The memoir draws similarities to Miles Davis’s autobiography since both were legends who lived and breathed in the middle of their respective music cultures. Testimony offers a fantastic dive into the rock n roll history of the 60s and 70s.

The book has a hell of a tracklist embedded in it. And if you listen as you read, the whole process will taste like an awakening journey that’ll make you feel and see music differently when you come out the other side. Robertson, as a musician, doesn’t hold back from sharing (tuning) techniques and guitar hacks. For fellow musicians, there are countless fascinating discoveries to be made from this book.

In the end there was only one thing to do: I had to sell my prized 1985 Fender Stratocaster with the original classic sunburst body. She was a real beauty I’d worked so hard to get her, saving up for months. But now I had to do whatever it took to get to Arkansas.

Get book: Testimony on Amazon

John Lydon - Rotten: No Irish, No Black, No Dogs

Published in 2008, Rotten by the Sex Pistols’ lead singer John Lydon transports you straight back to the 70s’ Punk, or rather the Sex Pistols to be exact. Chaotic, ruthless, and utterly fascinating. Told by someone from the inside, Rotten is a fascinating recall of the rise of punk and the band that changed the world.

The Sex Pistols weren’t a long-lived band. Their destructive nature might have sealed the band’s fate from the beginning, but there was the world before the Sex Pistols, and the world after it. From post-WWII London into the 70s to the dissolution of the Sex Pistols, Rotten has everything (even sections of interviews from other people who were in the scene). At some point, the definition of music disappeared and was rather reborn as new. Punk is not just a music. Punk is in every word.

The Sex Pistols ended the way they began — in utter disaster. Everything in between was equally disastrous.

We made our own scandal just by being ourselves.

Chaos was my philosophy. Oh, yeah. Have no rules.

Get book: Rotten on Thriftbook

Chuck Berry - The Autobiography

From the man who created rock n roll, Chuck Berry’s The Autobiography is literally the must-read for every rocker. His story returns to the origins of music — the expression of intense feelings, joy, community, and storytelling. He tells no less than where rock n roll is born, but where all music comes from. Berry in fact spent more than eight years contemplating writing this book. With passionate and soulful words, The Autobiography reveals every secret and question fans may have about the great man and his music, and the revelation always leads back to something simple and close to the heart.

From the origin of “duck walk” to prison life to getting back on his feet to the beginning of his music career, The Autobiography tells the story of a hard-working man and the legend he leaves behind.

If there ever was a woman to whom my very soul I gave

It was she, for I loved her and would soon have been her slave.

I would have stolen a thousand dollars and paid counsel at a glance

To keep me free in reach of her to beg another chance.

If I’d gone blind and lost my sight, I’d use my hands to feel

My way until I’d found her, then before her would I kneel.

Get book: The Autobiography on Thriftbook

Flea - Acid for the Children

While you may hear his crazy bassline swelling up and down underneath each Red Hot Chili Pepper song, Flea in his memoir remains a child-like curiosity toward everything in life. Unlike other music-heavy, awfully-worded autobiographies that revolve around girls, sex, drugs, and music, then repeat, Acid For The Children is refreshing and connects music lovers on a human level. And yes, a huge portion of his life is about the band, but there’s also so much more.

Flea lives through the hippie movements as a child, and there’s historical value in his recount of the 70s. His perspective as an Australian-born American in search of multicultural truths and roots offers a unique voice in the memoir landscape.

All my life has been a search for my highest self and a journey to the depth of spirit. Too often distracted by the competitive world, and tripping over my own foolish ego feet, but driven by the beauty, I keep trying, and I stay the course, trying to let go and feel the truth of the moment.

Get book: Acid For the Children on Thriftbook

Marilyn Manson - The Long Hard Road Out of Hell

Even as a kid, Marilyn Manson (Brian Warner) was a rock n roll enthusiast and a rebel, disillusioned and unwilling to fit in. He worked as a music journalist before getting into the making of music. His memoir, The Long Hard Road Out of Hell, published in 1998, makes one hell of a read for all musicians and music lovers. There are aspects of him that are hard-hitting and relatable, but the book itself is just addictive and hard to put down once you pick it up. Warner detailed how he came to be the icon the world knows him to be and all the spicy rock-related funs he had on the way. The Long Hard Road Out of Hell is a page-turner and a great piece of literature.

There are as many versions of Marilyn Manson as many people are alive, but controversy aside, there’s only one Brian Warner. Though his 1998 memoir only covers his life up to that point, it offers great insights into the aesthetics and cultural resonance behind Marilyn Manson.

Hell to me was my grandfather’s cellar. It stank like a public toilet, and was just as filthy. The dank concrete floor was littered with empty beer cans and everything was coated with a film of grease that probably hadn’t been wiped since my father was a boy.

Get book: The Long Hard Road Out of Hell on Thriftbook