RUMORS OF MY DEMISE

A singer-songwriter reflects on his life in the (too) fast lane.

The title of this memoir by the Lemonheads frontman is wry but fitting. The indie rocker has long had his fans worried about him—in the 1990s, he was open with reporters about his heroin and crack use, which, he writes, continued until recently and once cost him $400 a day. Dando revisits both his lows and highs, beginning with his early years in Massachusetts, where he was an unenthusiastic student but an eager music fan. Dando writes, “I remember singing along to ‘One Way Out’ by the Allman Brothers and my dad said, ‘Your voice sounds good, Griff!’ My dad called me Griff, short for Griffith, which is my middle name. ‘Maybe you’re the rocker of the family!’” Dando and two friends founded the Lemonheads while they were still in high school (rejected band names included Yipes Stripes!, Popcorn Fucks, and the Piggy Popcorn Queers). The band took off quickly, which Dando attributes to their onstage antics: “They came to see a bunch of guys getting drunk and playing loud and fast. Part of the appeal of the Lemonheads was that it could all fall apart at a moment’s notice.” Fall apart it did, many times, with the lineup often changing, and while the band gained worldwide attention for its cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s “Mrs. Robinson” (about which Dando is ambivalent), the fame didn’t last, especially with Dando high and unreliable much of the time. The author writes with disarming candor and vulnerability, admitting that his actions hurt people; at one point, he writes, “If I could go back in time and give a bit of advice to myself, I’d say, ‘Evan, don’t be such a dick.’” He is also quite funny at times: “Opiates help you go to sleep. Sometimes they help you drop your face in your carbonara at a fancy restaurant. That’s not a good look.”

An amiable—and sometimes dark—self-portrait of a self-deprecating artist.