"What the 62-year-old does detail well in this memoir are his harrowing struggles with heroin and the loneliness he long battled because of his sexuality. Bottum shares some genuinely perturbing stories of sexual encounters he experienced with adult men while underage, growing up in Southern California. His journey to coming out in the pages of The Advocate is a fraught and sometimes frightening one. That interview he gave to Lance Loud, he reveals, was sold to the British rock press without his consent."
"Later, Bottum very effectively captures the dichotomy of functioning as a gay musician in a rock world that was inherently homophobic. One of the high-points of the book is when he writes - and you can practically feel his skin crawling through the page - about Faith No More's increasingly reluctant participation on a 1992 Guns N' Roses and Metallica tour."
"Despite these issues, The Royal We is a mostly easy, compelling read. It's a swift 252 pages full of youthful folly, alternative culture, unchecked rebellious instincts and an undercurrent of oddly formed faith that things will work out the way that they're supposed to. Bottum's seemingly lifelong refusal to succumb to planning - or frankly, giving a crap about much of anything - is often astonishing to behold."
Roddy Bottum experienced harrowing heroin addiction, prolonged loneliness tied to his sexuality, and underage sexual encounters with adult men while growing up in Southern California. An interview given to Lance Loud and published in The Advocate was later sold to the British rock press without his consent. He navigated the dichotomy of being a gay musician within a rock world steeped in homophobia, including rampant misogyny during a 1992 Guns N' Roses and Metallica tour. The life described mixes youthful folly, alternative-culture rebellion, and a persistent refusal to plan, while offering scant detail on Faith No More recording sessions such as Angel Dust.
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