And as Scissor Sisters’ international star rose and peaked, we play witness in an intimate way to the rigorous schedule of touring and the steep emotional and physical toll it exacted on not only Shears but the band as a whole. That night, Chris, my mom, and I got to my apartment and it turned out the roommate I had at the time hadn’t found another place to sleep, which he had agreed to do that night because he hadn’t been paying rent. I was surprised to find out that most of his influences are classic rock, punk, and electronic rather than pop music, only because Scissor Sisters were always marketed as so pop-heavy. There were far too many off-hand mentions of people and places that he never really gave reason for that it just began to feel like name dropping for the sake of it.

When I was seven, I had no idea I was gay, but I was effeminate, sensitive, and demanding of people’s focus. So, although I have never danced on a bar in my underwear or performed in drag, I found once again that we were more similar than different. Shears was a one-man sexual revolution, dreaming big and tripping on the rush of conjuring his muse and realizing those dreams. There, she met my handsome father, twenty years her senior, with two small girls and a teenage boy from previous marriages to women that he’s told me were a disaster. First performing in the smoky gay nightclubs of New York City, then finding massive success in the United Kingdom, Scissor Sisters would become revered by the LGBTQ community, reach platinum status, and also win multiple accolades with hits like "Take Your Mama" and "I Don't Feel Like Dancin'," as well as their cult-favorite cover of Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb.Despite all this, the middle of the book really drooped for me and I considered not reading any more, because it felt fruitless. I'm sarcastic (in case you didn't know), slightly impatient (ha ha), a compulsive workaholic, and reasonably insane. While watching The Muppet Show with my sisters one evening, I turned to them and said that I was going to marry the episode’s guest host, Christopher Reeve. Instead of my dad piloting the family in his little Cessna airplane (which he did occasionally), we decided to drive our motor home to Canada for Expo ’86—but the behemoth broke down just north of Seattle and we never made it. The house was as Spielbergian middle-class as they came: yellow-patterned linoleum in the kitchen and foamy-looking olive-green shag carpeting in the bedrooms.

They knew I would believe anything and filled my head with false stories designed to fuel the flames of my anxiety. At night we’d lie in our pajamas on my parents’ king-size bed in front of the TV, me on my back with a stack of pillows under my head. Turns out this was because he and his uncle had painted a whole house with lead paint when my dad was eight.

The first half of the book was an interesting slice-of-life experience, describing Jason's upbringing in what was an uncertain time for gay people: the outbreak of AIDS, the social stigma of your sexual orientation being "abnormal. So this is really a book about how a kid named Jason Sellards, who grew up feeling like an outcast, became the platinum-selling rock star Jake Shears, and hints at why he had to walk away from it all for a while. Scissor Sisters videos became my soundtrack for reading "Boys Keep Swinging" while I kept wondering what ignorance or music snobbery prevented my indulgence in this brilliant and energizing dance music while the rest of the world was singing and dancing along! He experienced bullying and derision for being himself but started on his journey of self-discovery when he moved to New York at the age of 19.

Not a massive fan of Scissor Sisters by any means but thought this would be an interesting book; it didn’t disappoint and the fact it’s read by Shears himself makes it all the better, more sincere and more authentic.I imagined he would make a perfect husband, and wouldn’t it be great to be able to wrap my arms around his shoulders? Starting with his life in Arizona, to his youth in Portland, we follow young Jason as he struggles with his sexuality, his family life and his own self worth.