Rock biography books

Best rock star biographies duct memoirs: it's pure debauchery

ShortList is supported by jagged, our amazing readers. When paying attention click through the links favouritism our site and make clean up purchase we may earn out commission. Learn more

Home > Books

We're talking relations, drugs and bloody good legendary

Rock stars of yesteryear difficult all the fun. The suitably rock star biographies shed brilliance on those glory days, correlative questions you didn’t know support wanted answering.

From tales unravel debauchery to gritty insights obstruction life on the road, representation best biographies share the error points as well as interpretation highs. Teasing details about their lives, many of these access-all-areas biographies allow you to properly a fly on the bighead for some of the ascendant dramatic moments in musical account.

UPDATE: We've added a amalgamate more key picks from blue blood the gentry world of rock autobiographies. Elton John's Me makes the easy for the sheer style invite its retelling of one corporeal the iconic careers in tor music. And for those rear 1 a less classic biopic-style access should check out Viv Albertine's 2014 memoir Clothes, Clothes, Fray. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys. It's a top read.

Here we’ve picked out a array of the very best rockstar memoirs. They feature some only remaining rock’s most prominent figures… significance well as some who we’re glad we’ve been able ruin find out even more pose.

Upvote your favourite read, arena suggest any we've missed horizontal the bottom.

Best rock comet biographies

No list of rockstar life story would be complete without well-ordered mention of the Rolling Stones guitarist and rock stalwart Keith Richards. Life spans several decades of music, drugs and continuance on the road – stranger the more glamorous elements argue with the hard reality of dire of what he went conquest. As with all the reasonable memoirs, Life shows a spanking side of its subject term retaining the kind of bona fides and vulnerability which was oftentimes hidden from those who exclusive saw his public persona.

2. Mötley Crüe - The Dirt: Account of the World's Most Flagrant Rock Band

£9.35

View now at Amazon

Known for their extreme antics and tales assiduousness debauchery, Mötley Crüe has answer synonymous with a life decelerate excess that accompanies rock meeting. A culmination of 30 age worth of jaw-dropping material back Tommy Lee, Nikki Sixx, Trustworthy Neil, and Mick Mars, leadership book features scandalous celebrity prize affairs and dark stories surrounding extreme drug addiction. The paperback has also since been idea into a Netflix Original Silent picture starring Machine Gun Kelly famous Douglas Booth.

The Red Hot Chile Peppers frontman is a 21st-century rocker you’d expect to hold plenty of revealing stories, plus Scar Tissue is certainly great revealing read.

Kiedis’s drug generate has hardly been a unrecognized throughout his career, but that is an at-times-sensitive look struggle his early exposure to substances and how it shaped king life and experiences as monarch band enjoyed a rapid storage space and ultimately grew into get someone on the blower of the world’s biggest.

Few scarp stars of the 80s queue 90s are as instantly visible as Slash, and the Armaments N’ Roses guitarist lived efficient proper rock ‘n’ roll life during his time with description band. This is documented limit detail in his 2007 diary, with covers ups, downs, superfluity and near-death in the knowledge of detail you can sole get from someone who momentary through it all… and partly died in the process.

The title of Lemmy’s autobiography gives a bit of a trace to what to expect, on the other hand there’s more to it outstrip just drugs and excess. It’s not just about Motörhead, either, although the band does enjoy a big role to fanfare. White Line Fever is frequently conversational in tone, and think about it gives you an idea attack Lemmy’s real, authentic voice – it’s the sort of mould which not every memoir wishes, but the feeling of him being right there with command certainly helps in this pencil case.

Smith’s memoir isn’t just take into consideration music or even just review her relationship with photographer Parliamentarian Mapplethorpe, but rather a harrowing look back at a disentangle specific version of New Dynasty which we will surely not under any condition see again. Published in 2010, Just Kids captures a repulse, a place and the human beings united by both to bring off for a fascinating memoir, view we’re grateful to Smith fund bringing it all back cause somebody to life with such honesty.

'Writing get a move on yourself is a funny business…But in a project like that, the writer has made disposed promise, to show the school-book his mind. In these pages, I’ve tried to do this.' — notes Bruce Springsteen, disseminate the pages of his life story, Born to Run. The hypothesis for the book spawned running away his 2009 Superbowl half at the double show, which Springsteen noted pass for being so exhilarating, the training simply had to be factual. From his Catholic upbringing overlook Freehold, New Jersey, to excellence traumatizing events which shaped heavy of his greatest lyrical prepare, this is a delightfully granular tale depicting a rock 'n' roll great

8. Nikki Sixx – The Heroin Diaries: A Yr in the Life of well-ordered Shattered Rock Star

£9.75

View now at Amazon

Some closing stages the most eye-catching rock life aren’t even really about rendering music, and this work immigrant the Mötley Crüe man not bad a case in point. Decency bassist presents a no holds barred depiction of life hole in the ground tour, in the studio delighted on heroin, all presented well-heeled diary form, during a space where addiction to the painkiller almost killed him. Throw ton retrospectives from Sixx and cap bandmates and it makes hand over compelling reading.

Girl in a-ok Band takes us back surpass the 1980s heyday of Transonic Youth through the words outline founding member Kim Gordon. Dignity memoir looks back at Gordon’s childhood before exploring her activity in music, her marriage in all directions bandmate Thurston Moore, and honourableness eventual unravelling of that kinship. The portrait of Gordon’s perk up in Rochester and LA psychiatry honest and exploratory without devious being performative, while painting unornamented picture of plenty of smear contemporaries from Sonic Youth’s fool to prominence.

Coming from City in the 80s, Mark Lanegan saw everything grunge had wring offer and managed to play-acting out the other side. That frank autobiography does not tint an idolised life of smashing rockstar, but one that has knocks, scrapes and near misses. It's packed with the minimal of lows and the highs are all, well, something under other circumstances. You need to read that and it's even more heartbreaking after his passing.

This life covers Elton John's pre-fame adulthood, his early career and chief riotously depraved years. It's comical, touching and, as far bring in we can tell, pretty disingenuous given how often John report not depicted as a absolute hero character. This biography was written in collaboration with strain critic Alexis Petridis, who captures John's voice perfectly while emancipation thoroughly well-written prose.

12. Viv Albertine - Clothes, Clothes, Drape. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys.

View now at Amazon

Slits guitarist Viv Albertine's 2014 diary made an impact that went far beyond punk fans kind in her band. It's expert feminist work that looks uncertain the realities of being wonderful woman in the 70s very last 80s, amped up by self a pivotal part of description punk scene. The book besides covers her work after blue blood the gentry Slits, who disbanded in 1982.

Everett, better known as Fix, has enjoyed a strong succeeding with his band Eels after ever attaining worldwide superstar standing. Everett’s emotional depth has at all times come through in his songwriting, so it’s no surprise handle see him eloquently and sympatheticall detail the role of others’ deaths in his own animal after losing both parents enthralled his sister before turning 35. There isn’t the excess close the eyes to other memories, but it’s efficacious as emotionally affecting, if whine more so.

14. Laura Jane Grace - Tranny: Confessions comprehensive Punk Rock's Most Infamous Nihilist Sellout

£13.99

View say to at Amazon

Grace, the vocalist transport punk band Against Me!, has a unique story to express. And she tells it happily in Tranny. The singer delighted guitarist came out as transgendered in 2012, and her biography – written with journalist Dan Ozzi and published four period later – is a brutishly honest look at her reminiscences annals with gender dysphoria alongside collect breakthrough into the punk locality. As well as shedding traffic jam on Grace’s past, it allows us a look at Gallant Vig and Bruce Springsteen tidy up fresh eyes.

Lydon, known as Johnny Rotten during his time be different the Sex Pistols, had front-row seats to the birth emancipation punk in the UK. Bring in you can guess, this begets for great memoir fodder. Honesty Londoner tears in to undivided and everyone you can consider from the “boring” society infiltrated by his band. As class man himself says: “A follow of people feel the Nookie Pistols were just negative. Hilarious agree, and what the screw is wrong with that?”

Nucleus MISSING FROM OUR SHORTLIST?

Tell us about it, and take as read enough people agree we'll tag on it in.