Book Spotlight: Disgraceland by Jake Brennan

As someone who's interested in both true crime and music, I was pretty sure I'd enjoy Jake Brennan's Disgraceland: Musicians Getting Away with Murder and Behaving Very Badly, and it did not disappoint! In this book, Brennan tells some fascinating stories about Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Axl Rose, Chuck Berry, and more, and his writing style really pulled me into the story and made me feel like I was there, witnessing the events in person. I enjoyed the whole book, but the most interesting chapter was the one about Jerry Lee Lewis. Of course I knew about Jerry Lee marrying his 13-year-old cousin, but I had no idea that he possibly murdered one of his other wives and got away with it or that he rammed his car into the gates of Graceland one night, threatening to assassinate Elvis. The Sid Vicious chapter was also really interesting...before I read Disgraceland, all I knew about him was that he was in the Sex Pistols and killed his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen. I didn't know that the Sex Pistols' manager tried to have Nancy run over with a car because he thought she was so bad for Sid, that Sid killed Nancy with a knife that she gave him for protection (for when he was looking for drugs in bad parts of town), that Sid was never really sure why he killed Nancy or if he did it at all, or that it's rumored that Sid's mother injected him with the heroin that killed him. (The moral of this story? Don't do drugs.)

If you're interested in true crime or just like reading about musicians doing bad things, you'll love Disgraceland. It's really hard to put down, and Matt Nelson's illustrations are badass and amazing. Make sure to check out the podcast too...I've listened to the Madonna and Led Zeppelin episodes so far and can't wait to listen to more.

Disgraceland Podcast

My rating: 9/10

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