Melissa Auf der Maur Reflects on Hole, Smashing Pumpkins, and the ’90s in New Memoir
March 17th is the birthday of former Hole and Smashing Pumpkins bassist Melissa Auf der Maur, but this year she’s giving us the present. Her book Even the Good Girls Will Cry: A 90s Rock Memoir has been released in hardcover, Kindle, and audiobook editions.
In it, she chronicles her unusual upbringing, her beginnings on bass, and her time in two of the biggest – and most chaotic – bands in rock history.
“This book is about the decade that defined me and my generation, 1991-2001, and my life in the rock bands which allowed me to have a front row seat to an incredibly visceral and unforgettable moment in the counterculture,” said Auf der Maur. “It’s a love letter to the power of music and one-of-a-kind voices that make the world a cooler place; it’s also an ode to the analog, and what magic has been lost. Sharing what our generation witnessed, and what the world once was, in my hope of building a more livable future together.”
Melissa Auf der Maur befriended Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan before she even played an instrument. She picked the bass up soon after and convinced him to let her fledgling band open for them in Montreal. Corgan would later recommend her to Courtney Love to join Hole; a prospect she first turned down. The band’s previous bassist, Kristin Pfaff, had recently died of a heroin overdose, not to mention Love’s husband Kurt Cobain’s suicide. Love’s charisma soon changed Auf der Maur’s mind, leading to a whirlwind five years that turned out the classic album Celebrity Skin. After leaving Hole, she joined the Pumpkins for their final tour before they disbanded in 2000, after which she largely withdrew from music to focus on her family and art.
The book is full of stories that run the gamut of emotions. Along with all the strife and grit, there are deeply funny stories that she told The Guardian are “like Monty Python meets Spinal Tap.” Auf der Maur tells her story in incredible detail including interviews with Stevie Nicks, Dave Grohl, Rufus Wainwright, Michael Stipe, Ben Stiller, and more.
“Part rock memoir, part travel diary, part psychedelic scrapbook, Even the Good Girls Will Cry is a behind-the-scenes rock ’n’ roll memoir with a soulful intimacy and mystic undertone that sets it apart from memoirs by her peers,” the book description summarizes. “It is a vivid dispatch from the last analog decade, artistically capturing that bygone era in all its messy, angsty glory.”
Even the Good Girls Will Cry: A 90s Rock Memoir is out now in hardcover, Kindle, and audiobook editions through Amazon.
Hear more about her story as well as Corgan’s perspective in this interview from “The Magnificent Others”:
In his time with No Treble, Kevin has met hundreds of amazing bassists and interviewed icons like Jack Casady, Victor Wooten, Les Claypool, Marcus Miller, and more. He's a gigging bassist performing jazz in Northern Virginia and bluegrass with The Plate Scrapers up and down the East Coast. Kevin appreciates all genres of music, from R&B to metal and everything in between. Connect with Kevin on Facebook and check his performance schedule on his website.
