HAPPY Mondays frontman Shaun Ryder has announced he has written a new book titled How To Be A Rock Star that will tell the "real inside story" of his extraordinary career.
Ryder, 58, was born and raised in Little Hulton before forming Happy Mondays in 1980 and becoming a figurehead of the 'Madchester' scene in the late '80s.
Ryder went on to have further success with Black Grape in the mid-90s.
According to publishers Allen & Unwin, Ryder's new book will include: "insights from three decades touring the world, which took him from Salford to San Francisco, from playing working men’s clubs to headlining Glastonbury and playing in front of the biggest festival crowd the world has ever seen, in Brazil, in the middle of thunderstorm.
"From recording your first demo tape to having a No. 1 album, Shaun gives a fly-on-the-wall look at the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle – warts and all: how to be a rock star – and how not to be a rock star."
Ed Faulkner, publisher at Allen & Unwin UK, said: “Having grown up listening to the Happy Mondays and Black Grape I can’t think of anyone better or funnier than the legendary Shaun Ryder to lift the lid on what it is really like to be a rock star. How to be a Rock Star is a hilarious, swaggering, hugely entertaining book full of classic rock ’n’ roll anecdotes and stories from a bone fide rock legend. We can’t wait to publish it.”
Ryder added: “I’ve been the lead singer of two of Britain’s greatest rock’n’roll groups of the last 30 years, and in that time I’ve seen everything, from the biggest highs to the lowest lows. I’ve lived the sex, drugs and rock’n’roll dream … and the nightmare.
"In How to be a Rock Star, I’ll tell you the truth about some of the Mondays and Black Grape myths, from the early days of the Hacienda, to me and Bez having guns pulled on us while buying crack in the New York, to hanging out backstage with the Rolling Stones, what it’s really like to work in the studio with members of the Velvet Underground, New Order and Talking Heads, and why it’s bollocks that Happy Mondays caused Factory Records to go bankrupt.
"I’ll also tell you how I managed to come out the other side and become a TV celebrity, how my life’s changed, and what advice I’d tell the 20-year-old Shaun Ryder if I met him now.”
How to be a Rock Star will publish in hardback, trade paperback and e-book in October 2021 on the Allen & Unwin imprint of Atlantic Books in the UK.
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