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Artist News
Pete Doherty announces memoir
By Andy Malt | Published on Thursday 21 April 2022
Pete Doherty has announced that he will publish a memoir, titled ‘A Likely Lad’, this summer. It promises to tell “Doherty’s version of the story” and be “a rock memoir like no other”. So you can start pretending you don’t want to read that now. Come on, at the very least you must be hoping to finally find out if he really did eat that really big breakfast.
Doherty’s “talent as a musician has more often been eclipsed by a Herculean appetite for self-destruction”, the synopsis for the book notes, adding that – as a result – his “is the last of the great rock n roll stories”.
“As an icon, he is on par with the early Rolling Stones and Sid Vicious – bad boy and public enemy”, it insists. “To his devoted fans, he is a cult hero, a modern-day Rimbaud. Musically, there is no doubt he has defined the past 20 years of British rock n roll with his sound, lyrics, lifestyle and aesthetic. Since The Libertines rose to international fame, Doherty has proved endlessly fascinating”.
“In ‘A Likely Lad’”, it goes on, “Doherty explores his darkest moments. With astonishing frankness – and his trademark wit and humour – he takes us inside decadent parties, substance-fuelled nights, prison and his self-destruction”.
“Doherty also reflects on the turbulent relationships with various significant people in his life across the years”, it adds. “He discusses poetry, Paris, philosophy, politics, the music business and his key influences (from Hancock to Baudelaire). There is humour, warmth, insight, baleful reflection and a defiant sense of triumph”.
Hopefully the darkest moments and self destruction are now all in the past. Doherty recently told The Mirror that he has been clean for over two years.
“It was tough”, he added. There was no epiphany moment. It was so many years of going to rehabs and trying different ideas, I did everything from projectile vomiting at the Tham Krabok monastery in Thailand to clinics. And people who have been in active addiction would say to me, ‘One day you’ll just know it’s the time to stop’. Somehow the balance has shifted”.
‘A Likely Lad’ will be published by Little Brown on 16 Jun.
