The riotous and unbridled confessions of a debauched rock and roller and
his adventures in excess while touring Middle America on the '80's
hair-metal nostalgia circuit
The Unband emerged from the suburbs of late '80's New England and drank,
drugged, crashed, and burned their way across the United States until,
on the brink of the new century and with the help of their dominatrix
manager, a drug-dealing patron bent on revolution, and a willful record
executive or two, the band got their Big Break, in a collapsing music
industry where boy-band pop ruled and rock music had been declared dead.
Equal parts This Is Spinal Tap and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,
Adios, Motherfucker is the candid and hilarious account of that
experience, now updated and expanded from the version published in 2004
as Gentlemanly Repose.
In this epic, intoxicated memoir, Unband bassist Michael Ruffino takes
readers along on a raucous tear across a surrealistic landscape
populated with crack-smoking Girl Scouts, beer-drinking chimps,
two-fisted femmes fatales, and murderous headbangers by the horde, while
on tour with giants of heavy metal including Ronnie James Dio, Lemmy
Kilmister, Def Leppard, Anthrax, and a veritable Who Was Who of reunited
'80's hair bands.
Into that volatile mix, The Unband brought do-it-yourself pyrotechnics,
a giant inflatable hand (for making giant inflatable gestures), a high
tolerance for substance abuse of all kinds, and an infectious love of
rock and roll and everything it stands for. Chronicling everything from
the drug-fueled chaos in the underground caverns of California to
shotgun-toting barmaids on Hamburg's Reeperbahn, Adios, Motherfucker
is a reader's all-access pass, a comic odyssey through the netherworld
of heavy rock.
