About the Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - "Cameron has written a book that feels like music, an intimate souvenir, like a song you can't stop listening to." --Stevie Nicks - "A delicious tale of a devotee who worships at the altar of rock and roll....It's a love letter to fandom, sealed with Cameron's trademark sincerity and heart." --Maggie Rogers - "Such a joy and so well written...My favorite book in a long, long time." --Anderson Cooper The long-awaited memoir by Cameron Crowe--one of America's most iconic journalists and filmmakers--The Uncool is a joyful dispatch from a lost world, a chronicle of the real-life events that became Almost Famous, and a coming-of-age journey filled with music legends as you've never seen them before.
Cameron Crowe was an unlikely rock and roll insider. Born in 1957 to parents who strictly banned the genre from their house, he dove headfirst into the world of music. By the time he graduated high school at fifteen, Crowe was contributing to Rolling Stone. His parents became believers, uneasily allowing him to interview and tour with legends like Led Zeppelin; Lynyrd Skynyrd; Bob Dylan; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young; and Fleetwood Mac.
The Uncool offers a front-row ticket to the 1970s, a golden era for music and art when rock was young. There's no such thing as a media junket--just the rare chance a young writer might be invited along for an adventure. Crowe spends his teens politely turning down the drugs and turning on his tape recorder. He talks his journalism teacher into giving him class credit for his road trip covering Led Zeppelin's 1975 tour, which lands him--and the band--on the cover of Rolling Stone. He embeds with David Bowie as the sequestered genius transforms himself into a new persona: the Thin White Duke. Why did Bowie give Crowe such unprecedented access? "Because you're young enough to be honest," Bowie tells him.
Youth and humility are Crowe's ticket into the Eagles' dressing room in 1972, where Glenn Frey vows to keep the band together forever; to his first major interview with Kris Kristofferson; to earning the trust of icons like Gregg Allman and Joni Mitchell, who had sworn to never again speak to Rolling Stone. It's a magical odyssey, the journey of a teenage writer waved through the door to find his fellow dreamers, music geeks, and lifelong community. It's a path that leads him to writing and directing some of the most beloved films of the past forty years, from Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Say Anything... to Jerry Maguire and Almost Famous. His movies often resonate with the music of the artists he first met as a journalist, including Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, the Who, and Pearl Jam.
The Uncool is also a surprisingly intimate family drama. If you've seen Almost Famous, you may think you know this story--but you don't. For the first time, Crowe opens up about his formative years in Palm Springs and pays tribute to his father, a decorated Army officer who taught him the irreplaceable value of the human voice. Crowe also offers a full portrait of his mother, whose singular spirit helped shape him into an unconventional visionary.
With its vivid snapshots of a bygone era and a celebration of creativity and connection, this memoir is an essential read for music lovers or anyone chasing their wildest dreams. At the end of that roller-coaster journey, you might just find what you were looking for: your place in the world.
About the Author :
Cameron Crowe became Rolling Stone's youngest-ever contributor as a fifteen-year-old high school graduate, going on to conduct all-time best interviews with the likes of Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Elton John, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Led Zeppelin, the Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, and the Who. Crowe is also an acclaimed filmmaker who has written and directed films including Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Say Anything..., Singles, Jerry Maguire, Vanilla Sky, and Almost Famous (for which he won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay). He wrote the definitive book on the work of writer-director Billy Wilder, Conversations with Wilder. Crowe is currently at work on a film based on the life and music of Joni Mitchell. He has three children and lives in Southern California.
Review :
"Remarkable . . . Such a joy and so well written . . . My favorite book in a long, long time."
--Anderson Cooper "Before writing Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Almost Famous, Crowe was a mostly obedient younger brother growing up in the deserts of Southern California. His book is deeper than the typical Hollywood memoir, as much about the fears and loneliness that defined those early years as the famous people he brushed up against."
--New York magazine
"Splendid . . . Crowe arrived already so fully developed as the world's most precocious teen scribe in the '70s that it was hard to imagine he would ever get much better as a prose stylist. . . . But The Uncool proves that he has. . . . It's the kind of a book where you want to blow a chef's kiss to sentence after well-honed sentence, written in a richly detailed, at times almost passionately epigrammatic fashion. . . . If it's stories about the greatest musicians of all time you want, come for the Allman Brothers and Fleetwood Mac, or a description of Gram Parsons' and Emmylou Harris' first musical encounter, then stay for the just-as-compelling stories of his family life growing up in Indio and San Diego. Both these sides were well-explored in Almost Famous, but The Uncool brings them to a light and life that dramatic rendering could only begin to get at."
--Chris Willman, Variety
"Crowe's charming new memoir is an elegy for a lost time and place, when rock 'n' roll culture was still a secret handshake. . . . As he does so often in this book, Crowe pulls the reader in with his keenly observant eye. . . . Reminds us of what has been lost, the myths and mystique that fueled our rock star fantasies and gave the music an aura of magic."
--Marc Weingarten, Los Angeles Times
"A candid memoir packed with untold revelations about his unconventional career--from riding shotgun with David Bowie to studio battles over Spicoli."
--Mia Galuppo, The Hollywood Reporter
"Lyrical and compulsively readable . . . The Uncool captures an extraordinarily inventive period in which rock music was stretching out in all directions."
--Alex Needham, The Guardian
"A riveting memoir . . . Still fueled by the awe of a fifteen-year-old fan decades later, Crowe delivers a memoir that is both a backstage pass to rock 'n' roll and a master class in storytelling, warm, vivid, and irresistibly uncool in the best way."
--Freda Love Smith, Booklist (starred review)
"An unputdownable ode to family and classic rock . . . Crowe's infectious sense of awe and down-to-earth storytelling will win over readers; a must-have for all collections."
--Library Journal (starred review)
"It's a delight . . . Readers who only know Crowe from his screen credits will savor the behind-the-scenes insights, but the book's real power lies in its portrait of a teenager chasing his heroes."
--Publishers Weekly "A winning blend of family portrait, rock history, and coming-of-age movies."
--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"More than fifty years after his debut as a professional writer, Crowe is finally ready to tell the real story. . . . A tender chronicling of his Rolling Stone years, where he earned the trust of musicians and witnessed now-iconic concert moments."
--Angie Martoccio, Rolling Stone
"Captivating . . . Crowe's depiction of the travels and interviews he did with musicians brings both them and the era vibrantly alive. . . . This is a remarkable and moving memoir, with an engaging and unforgettable cast of characters, that will resonate well beyond fans of celebrated '70s music. The Uncool is a celebration of the passionate, often awkward and chaotic journey to find one's place in the world."
--Elizabeth DeNoma, Shelf Awareness (starred review)
"We know his voice: the journalist/adventurer, the cinematic novelist, and now (with The Uncool) the raconteur of his own literary self. He sculpts and weaves the events of his experience into scenes and language that often turn into something like a manifesto. He talks to us like he's talking to us. Many centuries ago, he instructed me and Owen Wilson about an early cut of our unformed first film: 'Your movie has a rock sensibility. Don't fight it. It will serve you.' On the screen (and stage) and on the page: his clarity of observation and memory, his choice words, his people--Cameron Crowe, wonderfully, continues to serve us."
--Wes Anderson
"A delicious tale of a devotee who worships at the altar of rock and roll. From the jittery reverence that comes with the first taste of backstage to the intimate thrill of the post-show motel room, this is a story for every kid who's ever dreamed a dream and dared to watch it all come true. It's about the friends you make and the memories that linger long after the credits roll. It's a love letter to fandom, sealed with Cameron's trademark sincerity and heart."
--Maggie Rogers
"Cameron has written a book that feels like music, an intimate souvenir, like a song you can't stop listening to."
--Stevie Nicks
"If you're a lover of music, or you've ever been in love, then you have something to say. Cameron has always been someone who knows just how to say it."
--Harry Styles
