Solo singer-songwriter Mike Doughty was once the singer-songwriter of the 1990s alternative band Soul Coughing, but don't remind him. In this memoir, he describes his neurotic former bandmates and his own outrageous behavior with self-deprecating humor and brutal honesty. Behind the media spotlight and record company hype is a painfully insecure young man lying on wet pavement for hours for an MTV video shoot. Throughout his downward spiral to an unglamorous near-death from heroin, and his eventual recovery through 12-step programs and a mysterious rock legend, Doughty rarely sees himself as a rock star. "I was usually too high to pick up girls," he says. "Every night that I spent alone, cotton-mouthed, in a hotel room, I loathed myself for loneliness itself." His travels in Asia and Africa are as much a part of his reconnection to his creative process as his recovery from drugs and alcohol. Annotation ©2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)