I Think Rock Stars Want to Kill Me

As a former NME writer and Kerrang! editor, James McMahon is an esteemed journalist on the very frontline of rock music. But what happens when you start to believe that those same rock stars you love are plotting to kill you?

This is the reality for James, who has chronic obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Equal parts honest and funny, James's memoir ruminates on the touchstones of his life, from his childhood as an OCD sufferer to his attempts at recovery after reaching breaking point in 2017. Yet, as a largely misunderstood and often debilitating mental illness, finding the right help for OCD is sometimes difficult, and James relates the many tortuous waiting lists, disagreeable drugs, funding crises, support groups, therapy techniques and coping mechanisms he has encountered while living with the disorder.

But underscoring it all is James's greatest love: music.

More than a portrait of mental illness, I Think Rock Stars Want to Murder Me offers a wealth of stories from James's interviews, acquaintances and relationships with some of the greatest musicians of our time: Chris Martin once said he had a 'very nice nose'; Bono once made him a very poor cup of tea; Slipknot once threatened to eat his beloved pet guinea pigs; and Lily Allen, Beth Ditto and Gerard Way all call him a friend.

Featuring anecdotes with rock legends as well as interviews with OCD experts, this compelling personal story is a deliberation of the extreme highs, crushing lows and hidden truths of music and mental health.