My Damage | Jim Ruland

Available from Da Capo Press
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Paperback edition of My Damage now available

Keith Morris is a true punk icon. No one else embodies the sound of Southern California hardcore. Morris is known the world over for his take–no–prisoners approach on the stage and his integrity off of it. Over the course of his forty–year career, he’s battled diabetes, drug and alcohol addiction, and the record industry.

My Damage is more than a book about the highs and lows of a punk rock legend, however. It’s also a look at rock ’n’ roll through the lens of someone who has shared the stage with just about every major figure in the music industry and appeared in cult films like The Decline of Western Civilization and Repo Man. It’s a Hollywood story from a native’s perspective. My Damage is Keith’s streets, his scene, his music—as only he can tell it.

Praise for My Damage

“In his compelling, unexpectedly moving, and all-around badass memoir My Damage, punk-rock legend Keith Morris lays bare what it means to be punk.” —Esquire

“Parses a rough childhood of being bullied and clashing with his father, tells stories of drug abuse mixed with managing diabetes, and provides an inside look at the fragility and jealousies that have torn apart some of the American underground’s most vital bands.”
—Rolling Stone

“My Damage is a celebration of that punk rock work ethic, a story of maintenance and perseverance as told by one of the hardest working men in the punk underground.”
—Ryan Bray, The A.V. Club

“Keith Morris’ new memoir is just as raw, fast and fucked up as one of his songs.”
—Peter Holslin, L.A. Weekly

“Hands down, it’s one of the best books about the Los Angeles music scene.”—Jaime Pina, Punk Globe

“My Damage has emerged as one of the most important, and most hilariously quotable books ever written about punk rock.”—Bob Lee, The Los Angeles Beat

“Fans of punk rock will get the most out of the book, and those interested in the music industry in general will also appreciate Morris’ candor as he details the machinations and manipulations he’s encountered over the years—up to the present day, as he’s still recording and touring—in this roller coaster of a book.”—Publisher’s Weekly

“[A] riveting memoir filled with stories of excess, blackouts, near misses and bad decisions.”—Decibel Magazine

“The book is characterized by sharp wit, abundant empathy, and the wisdom of a man who has outrun his many demons, pelting by like an afternoon with a particularly garrulous storyteller.”—MOJO

“Morris is a born raconteur who handles youthful abandon, drink-and-drug-dominated despair and latter day wisdom with the same sure touch.”—RTÉ

“Keith Morris is a human firecracker. You can literally hear his leg kicking under the table as you rip through the pages. If his life were the bars, these words are the file hidden in the cake. He is as truthful as funny and if you don’t read this book you might as well join an REO Speedwagon cover band.”—Ryan Adams

“Keith Morris, survivor of bouncers and blacklisters, thrown down the stairs yet still standing tall, damaged, patched up, last laugher of all, this is the punk rock story I’ve always wanted to hear.”—Exene Cervenka of X

“In My Damage, Keith Morris lets loose with a shotgun blast of funny, often harrowing vignettes/opinions in every chapter, chronicling growing up in Los Angeles’ South Bay and the evolution of not just Southern California punk (and his part) but rock music in general, from the late 1960s up to the present. I found it so readable I finished half the book in one night’s sitting.”—Chris D. of The Flesh Eaters

“Even though Keith was so wasted most of the time, that nebb’d up surfer who lived on the strand made me want to be a punk singer.”—Greg Graffin of Bad Religion

“I came late to Southern California and its Punk Rock scene, but after reading Keith Morris’s memoir I feel I was there from the start. My Damage is like Neal Cassady’s The First Third read aloud by William Burroughs for his private enjoyment: clear and unapologetic as a bell, fast as you can go, a rolling dumpster on fire, and a treasure trove for any student of West Coast Punk history. Lonely, funny, brave, tragic, anonymous, and famous all at once, until the moon disappears and everything goes to sleep. And wakes up again to dream a new song.”—Viggo Mortensen

“Kill your idols, please. Check that tired rock star shit at the door. Keith Morris is nothing less than a living, breathing symbol. He’s a snot-voiced, Southern California archetype and prototype, an influential fuckup whose ripple effect in punk has been felt every single day since he spat out, ‘I’m about to have a nervous breakdown’ in 1979. Without My Damage’s middle-finger shaped piece snapped into place, no history of L.A.’s punk rock puzzle is complete.”—Todd Taylor, Razorcake

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