13 November 2025

Roddy Bottum: A queer rock pioneer remembers San Francisco’s lost era

Roddy Bottum, a founder of the alternative metal band Faith No More, chronicles 1980s and ’90s San Francisco — a dark, overlooked era between the Summer of Love and the tech boom. His memoir, “The Royal We” recalls a vanished city of bicycle messengers and punk rock in the shadow of the AIDS crisis. It’s a poetic testament to community, loss, and the creative rebellion that defined pre-tech San Francisco.

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