CAMERON CROWE, The Uncool: A Memoir (Simon & Schuster, 2025)

There I was, minding my own business, in the midst of reading Andy Weir’s remarkable novel, The Martian. The narrative is terrific, and I’m having fun paralleling it with the movie starring Matt Damon.

Then, I was interrupted.

I learned about music journalist Cameron Crowe’s new autobiography The Uncool. Less than sixty seconds later, the electronic version was in my Kindle app.

While I tend to read multiple books at the same time (that is, when I’m actually focused on reading), I knew I wanted to finish The Martian before giving Crowe my attention. But I also like to read the first page or two of a new book, which determines where it will reside on my priority list.

I read the first couple of pages of The Uncool. Before I knew it, I’d read ten pages. Then twenty. Then thirty. There was no putting it down and I knew it.

I guess The Martian will have to wait.

Like Weir, Crowe put his book around a movie, albeit in the reverse order. Almost Famous, which Crowe wrote, is semi-autobiographical. Lead character William Miller stood in for Crowe, and the fictional band he followed, Stillwater, subbed for several bands Crowe covered from the inside, out. (Come to think of it, I’m due for another viewing of that movie. But I’ll do what I can to finish the book first.)

As I write these words, I’m two-thirds of the way through The Uncool (about the same as The Martian, in case you were wondering). But I don’t need to finish it in order to complete my thoughts.

As reviews go, the book is fantastic and I highly recommend it. But that’s not the point of this narrative. As I devour the book’s pages, the same thought races through my head time and time again.

I want to be like Cameron Crowe.

There are caveats, of course. Crowe has been at his craft since he was a teenager in the early seventies. I started during the tail end of my law enforcement career, when I was just short of fifty. Living Colour guitarist Vernon Reid and I spent some time together in 2014, making him the first interview for my quasi-autobiography I Can’t Be the Only One Hearing This: A Lifetime of Music Through Eclectic Ears, which was published by Global Publishing Company, LLC in 2018.^

One of the reasons I’m loving The Uncool is because I can relate to it, albeit it on a different level. While Crowe has been able to make his way into the world of rock stars like Led Zeppelin and the Allman Brothers, I’ve been more than thrilled to rub elbows with members of King Crimson, and Frank Zappa alums like Mike Keneally. They may not be as “famous,” but I’ve never aspired to talk to artists on the top tier.+ It takes too much effort to get to a musician only to be told I have 30 minutes to conduct my interview.

Nor have I had the extensive road experiences like Crowe. I’ve gone on the road with Chicago band Sons of Ra three times, but the road trips never lasted more than four days. They all have day jobs, and a weekend out is all their schedules will allow. I have hung out a shingle to let interested bands know I’m available for travel that culminates in multiple forms of media. I got close to spending a few days with We Lost the Sea, but logistics wound up working against me. I have a couple of other irons in the fire, but everything is going to have to wait until I’ve healed further from the back operation I had almost two months ago.

While Crowe has seen his work grace the pages of Rolling Stone magazine among other publications, my work has been published in Prog and Record Collector magazines, which I see as a good start. What happens from here remains to be scene. All I can do is hope for kind treatment from the music gods.

Crowe talks about befriending some of the artists he covered over the years, which some journalists see as taboo. After all, the journalist’s job is to remain objective. While I understand that point of view, I have created my own set of rules. If I’m being paid for my work, my objectivity is guaranteed. If I’m doing the work for myself, my relationship with the artists becomes whatever it ends up being. So, if I get a hug from Keneally, Randy McStine, or Adrian Belew before or after a show, that’s more than cool with me. After all, I spent 25 years in close contact with criminals. There’s no way in hell I befriend them while I try to put them in prison! (*)

I could feel Crowe’s joy at chatting with a musician he admired and was assigned to cover. I could also feel his pain when he spent more time running his interview subject down than he may have actually conducting the interview. More than once, I have remarked to friends that nailing down a musician for a chat can be like trying to nail Jell-O to the wall. But Crowe and I both love what we do. Frustration is just part of the gig.

No one is going to make a movie about my music journalist experiences, and that’s perfectly fine by me. I’d be afraid to see who would be selected to play me anyway. No, the best I might be able to do is write a sequel to I Can’t Be the Only One Hearing This, which I have contemplated more than once. It feels like I have had more than a lifetime’s worth of experience since 2018. I even know that I’d call the follow-up … And What I’ve Been Hearing Since, though I haven’t come up with a subtitle. Trouble is, I haven’t been taking copious notes about my experiences over the past seven years. Then again, I didn’t have them for the first book, either, other than the transcriptions I had for the musicians I interviewed. Oh, well … time will tell where that idea goes. I’m in no hurry to do anything with it.

Regardless of what happens, I want to keep my musical engagements precisely where they are. I’ve vowed to stop chasing after most “legends” save for three or four, and to focus on younger bands on the rise.

I’m 59 years old, but Spotify’s age meter says I listen like a 46-year-old. I rather like the sound of that. Id like to keep it that way. Besides, it’s infinitely easier to reach out to the younger artists who are as eager to establish themselves in the music world as I am.

Given my love for The Uncool, it seems clear that I should reach for higher rung just once, and that would be to interview Crowe himself. Something tells me it will take more than a little effort to make it so, but it just might be worth it. Time will tell.

Meanwhile, read this book. You won’t regret it.

#cirdecsongs

^ — Unfortunately, GPG has since gone out of the publishing business. The book is no longer in print. Plans are being made to make the book available again in 2026. I have, however, seen used copies available on Amazon.

+ — I supposed I would enjoy chatting with someone like Steven Wilson. And while artists like Prince, Frank Zappa, and Miles Davis would have certainly be interesting to chat with, I’m guessing they would’ve had too many rules in place that would limit the scope of my desired chats. Plus, I think there would’ve been serious personality clashes.

(*) — I did have to write a review of Adrian Belew’s two-day performance in Chicago for Prog a couple of years ago. While our post-show encounters were almost like family, being completely objective while I wrote my review was easy. That’s just the way my brain works.

If you would like to have your music reviewed or have your band photographed while you’re in Chicago, contact me at cirdecsongs@gmail.com