Mike D promised a Beastie Boys memoir was on its way during an interview with Beats 1 Radio in January. Now, the Beastie Boys Book has a release date. According to an Amazon pre-order link, the book will officially arrive on October 30.
On Tuesday (May 15), Mr. Diamond took to Instagram to provide a first look at the book’s cover and announce pre-orders were available.
“I’m not sure if you remember or not, but a while ago we said that we were gonna write a book about our band,” he wrote. “Well, it’s almost done and it’s coming out soon, and this is what it’s gonna look like. Kinda nice, right? It’s got a little something for everyone. Pre-order today at beastieboysbook.com.”
The Amazon description explains the book will provide “revealing and very funny accounts of their transition from teenage punks to budding rappers; their early collaboration with Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin; the almost impossible-to-fathom overnight success of their debut studio album Licensed to Ill; that album’s messy fallout; their break with Def Jam, move to Los Angeles, and rebirth as musicians and social activists, with the genre-defying masterpiece Paul’s Boutique.”
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The idea for a Beastie Boys memoir was birthed in 2013. In addition to contributions from the surviving members of the pioneering New York City trio, the book also features story snippets from Amy Poehler, Colson Whitehead, Spike Jonze, Wes Anderson and Luc Sante, among others.
Fellow Beastie Adam “MCA” Yauch passed away in 2012, closing the chapter on the group’s roughly 30-year run.
The Beastie Boys Book is listed as $50 and can be pre-ordered here.
(The original version of this article was published on January 18, 2018 and can be found below.)
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Beastie Boys’ Mike D recently chopped it up with Beats 1 Radio host and former NME editor Matt Wilkinson who inquired about the Beastie Boys memoir that’s been in the works since 2013. When asked how the book was coming along, Mike D replied, “swimmingly” before revealing it would come out this fall.
“We’re actually going to finish it,” he said. “I think it’s going to come out finally. Like many things we embark on, there were many false starts and honestly directions we went in we realized were not the direction we should be going in. It’s going to be coming out in fall of this year.”
The surviving members of the New York City trio — Mike D and Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz — lost fellow Beastie Adam “MCA” Yauch in 2012 from cancer, shortly after putting out their eighth studio album, 2011’s Hot Sauce Committee Part II. The memoir will focus on the early days but go into present day as well, according to Mike D.
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“It’s everything and the kitchen sink,” he explained. “To tell our story, we have to give the cultural history of where we came from. So New York City in the ’80s, you had all this incredible, exciting music, art, film. All of that sort of has to converge to be able to explain. We just had the good fortune of being around all of it, so I think that’s number one.”
“I think a lot of times when I read a band book or I watch a music documentary, maybe I’m just kind of ADD, I get a little bored,” he continued. “But actually, I don’t think they do the subject matter justice because it’s kinda surreal what happens in bands’ lives, so you kind of have to use all dimensions to tell the story more accurately.”
Although Mike D says they “aren’t writers,” he added, “I can say pretty confidently, it will be unlike any other music book.”
Listen to the clip above.
