Thank you for this journey! What an amazing life and crazy, beautiful, amazing adventure it was to read about it. Super interesting to learn about Rob starting so young in radio, and all the amazing places he worked. He is definitely a genius and worked so hard to overcome all of the dreadful things in his earlier life. He accomplished things and met people that most of us only dream about. It's a bittersweet ride, and I was happy to go along. Thank you!

That was my ultimate conclusion as my time with his upcoming memoir "Asshole: A Memoir" came to a close.

Tonkin grew up in the 70s in a normal middle class family. At least on the outside. Inside the family, Tonkin's narcissistic parents fought bitterly. Amidst their seemingly inevitable divorce, Rob searches outside the family for the love, acceptance, and guidance he longed to receive. Music, in many ways, saved his soul. Yet, in just as many ways, music led him down a career path fueled by his traumas and turned into, at least in his eyes, a bit of an a**hole until he faced the past and began creating a different future.

Landing a radio station internship at the young age of 14, Tonkin's mentor would end up being a source of trauma that would come to identify a good amount of his personal and professional life. Afraid of ruining his chances at success early on, Tonkin instead immerses himself in his work and ignores his true feelings. He rises in the music industry and eventually leads the Marketing Factory. He produced the 20-year long Honda Civic Tour, a creative and inspired music event that featured the likes of Black-Eyed Peas, One Direction, Blink-182 and many more.

He was a success in most ways we measure success. His personal life said otherwise.

Eventually, Tonkin would dig himself out of this life that he'd created and transform the way he approached life, work, and the world around him. "Asshole" is Tonkin's story of both self-destruction and eventual redemption. It's a journey toward more authentic living that is both insightful about trauma and entertaining in the retelling of Tonkin's stories.

I will confess that as I read "Asshole," I never found Tonkin to be quite the asshole he projects himself to be. In an industry where narcissism isn't exactly infrequent, Tonkin's less an asshole here and more a trauma-influenced human being whose traumas likely both helped him succeed while still leading to his ultimate self-destruction of sorts (again, this feels somewhat overstated in the book).

I found myself also longing for more immersion in Tonkin's redemption, reduced to focus in a couple primary chapters where we tap into healthier living, better choices, and improved relationships.

These are minor quibbles, really, for a memoir filled with the promised wild stories, hard truths, and hard-earned transformation promised by the book's title. To watch interviews now with Tonkin is to fully begin to realize his transformation, a transformation that gains impact by this collection of honest stories and open confessions.

Fans of the music industry and rock n' entertainment memoirs will likely embrace Tonkin's storytelling and be grateful for his lessons learned and shared.