The Uncool
Published on 28. October 2025
Book
Hardback
336 pages
978-0-00-869785-3 (ISBN)
Description
The long-awaited memoir by Cameron Crowe-one of America's most iconic journalists and filmmakers-revealing his formative years in rock and roll and bringing to life stories that shaped a generation, in the bestselling tradition of Patti Smith's Just Kids. If you've seen Almost Famous, you may think you know this story, but you don't.
'Cameron has written a book that feels like music, an intimate souvenir, like a song you can't stop listening to' STEVIE NICKS
'If you're a lover of music, or you've ever been in love, then you have something to say. Cameron has always been someone who knows just how to say it' HARRY STYLES
'Lyrical and compulsively readable' GUARDIAN
Cameron Crowe was an unlikely rock and roll insider. Born in 1957 to parents who strictly banned the genre from their house, he dove headfirst into the world of music. By the time he graduated high school at fifteen, Crowe was already contributing to Rolling Stone magazine. With his parents uneasily convinced, he went on to interview and tour with icons like Led Zeppelin; Lynyrd Skynyrd; Bob Dylan; Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young; and Fleetwood Mac.
Crowe spends his teens politely turning down the drugs and turning on his tape recorder. He talks his journalism teacher into giving him class credit for his road trip covering Led Zeppelin's 1975 tour, which lands him - and the band - on the cover of Rolling Stone. He hunkers down with David Bowie as the sequestered genius transforms himself into a new persona: The Thin White Duke. Why did they give him such unprecedented access? 'Because you're young enough to be honest,' Bowie tells him.
At its heart, The Uncool is a surprisingly intimate family drama that charts the path that leads Crowe to writing and directing some of the most beloved films of the past forty years. It's a touching and joyful dispatch from a lost world, a chronicle of the real-life events that became Almost Famous and a coming-of-age journey filled with music legends as you've never seen them before.
'A winning blend of family portrait, rock history, and coming-of-age movies' KIRKUS REVIEWS
'His clarity of observation and memory, his choice words, his people - Cameron Crowe, wonderfully, continues to serve us' WES ANDERSON
'Cameron has written a book that feels like music, an intimate souvenir, like a song you can't stop listening to' STEVIE NICKS
'If you're a lover of music, or you've ever been in love, then you have something to say. Cameron has always been someone who knows just how to say it' HARRY STYLES
'Lyrical and compulsively readable' GUARDIAN
Cameron Crowe was an unlikely rock and roll insider. Born in 1957 to parents who strictly banned the genre from their house, he dove headfirst into the world of music. By the time he graduated high school at fifteen, Crowe was already contributing to Rolling Stone magazine. With his parents uneasily convinced, he went on to interview and tour with icons like Led Zeppelin; Lynyrd Skynyrd; Bob Dylan; Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young; and Fleetwood Mac.
Crowe spends his teens politely turning down the drugs and turning on his tape recorder. He talks his journalism teacher into giving him class credit for his road trip covering Led Zeppelin's 1975 tour, which lands him - and the band - on the cover of Rolling Stone. He hunkers down with David Bowie as the sequestered genius transforms himself into a new persona: The Thin White Duke. Why did they give him such unprecedented access? 'Because you're young enough to be honest,' Bowie tells him.
At its heart, The Uncool is a surprisingly intimate family drama that charts the path that leads Crowe to writing and directing some of the most beloved films of the past forty years. It's a touching and joyful dispatch from a lost world, a chronicle of the real-life events that became Almost Famous and a coming-of-age journey filled with music legends as you've never seen them before.
'A winning blend of family portrait, rock history, and coming-of-age movies' KIRKUS REVIEWS
'His clarity of observation and memory, his choice words, his people - Cameron Crowe, wonderfully, continues to serve us' WES ANDERSON
Reviews / Votes
'A warm-hearted memoir as lively, sentimental and plain envy-inducing as the movie it inspired back in 2,000 ... one of the most fascinating sections of the book sees him reunite with David Bowie three decades after their time on the road' Adam White, Independent'The Uncool captures an extraordinarily inventive period in which rock music was stretching out in all directions ... He succinctly evokes both eccentric characters and the era they represented ... Crowe shows that music can sometimes be a key, not only to the deepest aspects of one's own self, but to the otherwise incomprehensible inner lives of others' Guardian (Book of the Day)
'The book is not a salacious celebrity memoir, but a tender chronicling of his Rolling Stone years, where he earned the trust of musicians and witnessed now-iconic concert moments. He also goes deep on his upbringing and family life, and the time he may or may not have prank-called Lucille Ball' Rolling Stone
'A delicious tale of a devotee who worships at the altar of rock and roll ... It's a love letter to fandom, sealed with Cameron's trademark sincerity and heart' Maggie Rogers
'We know his voice: the journalist/adventurer, the cinematic novelist, and now the raconteur of his own literary self. He sculpts and weaves the events of his experience into scenes and language that often turn into something like a manifesto ... His clarity of observation and memory, his choice words, his people - Cameron Crowe, wonderfully, continues to serve us' Wes Anderson
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
HarperCollins Publishers
Dimensions
Height: 236 mm
Width: 155 mm
Thickness: 34 mm
Weight
542 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-00-869785-3 (9780008697853)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
Cameron Crowe became Rolling Stone's youngest ever contributor as a fifteen-year-old high school graduate, going on to conduct career-best interviews with the likes of Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Elton John, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Led Zeppelin, The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, and The Who. Crowe is also an acclaimed filmmaker who has written and directed films including Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Say Anything, Singles, Jerry Maguire, Vanilla Sky, and Almost Famous (for which he won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay). He wrote the definitive book on the work of writer-director Billy Wilder, Conversations with Wilder. Crowe is currently at work on a film based on the life and music of Joni Mitchell. He has three children and lives in Southern California.