The Royal We
by Roddy Bottum
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Pub Date Nov 04 2025 | Archive Date Oct 31 2025
Akashic Books | Akashic Books, Ltd.
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Description
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 tell-all. 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.
Advance Praise
"Roddy Bottum’s The Royal We doesn’t just offer an important portrait of an era, scene, and sound—it also gives voice to a sensibility all Bottum’s own, along with offering a startling cri de coeur about loss and death. It’s a pounding example of what it sounds like to be ‘alive not dead,’ and we are the luckier for it." -Maggie Nelson, author of The Argonauts
"A very honest and extremely well-articulated story of coming of age, parallel and within the evolution of the alternative music world. Roddy Bottum comes into his sexuality in a homophobic music scene, creating a stunning landscape of alienation and drug use that he manages to lift himself out of. There’s an exuberance to the telling of his adventure that guides the reader along through the darkest of moments." -Kim Gordon, author of Girl in a Band
"This memoir of a rarefied world made me realize I was so lucky to live through it on the fringes—San Francisco in the eighties during the glory days of punk rock, written as if Salinger was there, queer, and started a band. A band I was actually in, but they rarely admitted! Roddy has been an incredible influence on my life, love, friendship, and language. A brilliant and gorgeous book—just like Roddy Bottum." -Courtney Love, musician
"The Gen X Cancerian daddy king of California rock has delivered to us an oral history of a time when queer boys who rocked still played hard and RULED the underground. Emotionally charged, but never reckless (okay, maybe a BIT reckless), this book flows with an emotional IQ that only Roddy Bottum could give us. All the grit and grime aside, this is a story based in wisdom, recounting, and, above all, beauty." -Brontez Purnell, author of 100 Boyfriends
"Thump, thump, thump went my heart as the words popped and the pages turned and I fell more and more in love with Roddy Bottum. Written with the right amount of flourish and punk abandon—what a treat." -Chloë Sevigny, actress
"An alt-rock sideman recalls navigating queerness, heroin, and a now-vanished San Francisco bohemia . . . Bottum’s candor is refreshing, and the book serves as a vibrant snapshot of a time when San Francisco was better known as a creative haven than a tech-bro bunkhouse. A melancholy tribute to punky, grassroots community-building." -Kirkus Reviews
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9781636142692 |
| PRICE | $27.95 (USD) |
| PAGES | 272 |
