Tuesday, November 18, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Skylight Books, Los Angeles
 CLICK HERE TO RSVP _**RSVP is recommended but not required. Entry and seating are first-come, first-served. RSVPs do not guarantee entry to a full event.**_ **_A founder of the iconic band Faith No More shares his coming-of-age and out-of-the-closet story in pre–tech boom San Francisco_** **_THE ROYAL WE_** is a poetic survey of a time set in a magical city that once was and is no more. It is a memoir written by Roddy Bottum, a musician and artist, that documents through prose his coming of age and out of the closet in 1980s San Francisco, a charged era of bicycle messengers, punk rock, street witches, wheatgrass, and rebellion. The book follows his travels from Los Angeles, growing up gay with no role models, to San Francisco, where he formed Faith No More and went on to tour the world relentlessly, surviving heroin addiction and the plight of AIDS, to become a queer icon. The book is an elevated wallop of tongue and insight, much more than a tell-all. There are personal tales of historical pinnacles like Kurt and Courtney, Guns N’ Roses, and recaps of gold records and arena rock—but it’s the testimonies of tragedy and addiction and preposterous life-spins that make this work so unique and intriguing. Bottum writes about his dark and harrowing past in a clear-eyed voice that is utterly devoid of self-pity, and his emboldened and confident pronouncements of achievement and unorthodox heroism flow in an unstoppable train that’s both captivating and inspirational. A remarkable portrayal of a creative individual in emergence, a gay man figuring out how to be a gay man, and a detailed look at the nuance of 1980s pre–tech boom San Francisco, _The Royal We_ will be greatly appreciated by people who loved Kathleen Hanna’s _Rebel Girl,_ Patti Smith’s _Just Kids,_ Hua Hsu’s _Stay True,_ and other memoirs about the artist’s life. **RODDY BOTTUM** is a musician, writer, creator, and actor based in New York City. He started the band Faith No More in San Francisco in the early 1980s and toured the world, selling millions of records. In 1992, he came out of the closet and blew open the spectrum of what being gay in the world of rock music meant. That same year he also formed the critically acclaimed band Imperial Teen, cited as the original pioneers of alternative queer rock. Bottum moved to New York City in 2010 and has performed and created records with Crickets, JD Samson, Nastie Band, and Man on Man, a band with his partner, Joey Holman. He’s developing his _Sasquatch_ opera project into a musical in New York City where he continues to live. Comedian. Actor. Musician. Advocate. Entrepreneur. Five-time Grammy and Emmy nominee. **Margaret Cho**’s strong voice has been lighting the path for other women, other members of underrepresented groups, other performers, to follow. Her recent television appearances – guest star on Season 2 of _The Flight Attendant_ (HBO Max), guest star on Season 2 of _Hacks_ (HBO Max) and two _Netflix is a Joke_ comedy specials: _Stand Out: An LGBTQ+ Celebration and Jane Fonda & Lily Tomlin: Ladies Night Live_ – have expanded an already wide-ranging career, and her role as the ‘mother hen’ in the well-reviewed movie _Fire Island_ solidifies why we all love Margaret in the first place. As a comedian Margaret has been named one of _Rolling Stone_ magazine's 50 Best Stand-Up Comics of All Time, one of _Vogue_ magazine’s Top 9 Female Comedians of all time, while _CNN_ chose her as one of the 50 People Who Changed American Comedy. Thankfully, Margaret has more stories to tell, and her production company, _Animal Family Productions_, has multiple scripted shows in development for 2022 and beyond.