Boys Keep Swinging: A Memoir

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Savage became something of a mentor to Shears after telling him on air that he should come out as gay to his parents; he took the advice, but it didn’t go very well, unfortunately.

In the bestselling tradition of Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run, Patti Smith's Just Kids, and Carrie Brownstein's Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl, the lead singer of the multiplatinum-selling band Scissor Sisters explores his evolution as a young artist: coming of age in the Pacific Northwest and Arizona, his entry into New York City's electrifying, ever-changing music scene, and the Scissor Sisters' rise as they reached international fame in the early 2000s. The movie theater had gigantic glass windows in the front, and inside, red and orange velvet curtains and patterned carpets that stank of butter. And as he grew into his awkward teenage years, and realized he was gay, he wasn't ready to acknowledge this fact to his parents or those who knew him, but that didn't stop him from dressing and acting flamboyantly. My first haircuts were from a vampy woman outside the Phoenix suburbs by way of sleepy desert side roads. His lyrics adorn and inform the text, along with extracts from the brilliant work of his father - esteemed Life magazine columnist Loudon Wainwright, Jr.Relentless hard work and self-promotion paid off with a record deal and enormous success in England, where the band’s self-titled debut became the best-selling album of 2004.

The book is split into three parts: 25% about his childhood in Arizona and Seattle, 25% struggling in New York, and 50% after the formation of the Scissor Sisters group, from early club-performing days with just Jason Sellards (Jake Shears) and Scott Hoffman (Babydaddy) to the first album's meteoric rise, and brief mention of the second album. Being the first in Arizona to attempt firefighting by air had led to financial problems and a reliance on alcohol as self-medication that weren’t conducive to good marriages. By the time we made it back to our repaired motor home, we had decided that we were leaving Arizona. Shears was a one-man sexual revolution, dreaming big and tripping on the rush of conjuring his muse and realizing those dreams. He sensitively reveals his lifelong struggle with self-acceptance while also detailing New York’s queer scene with salacious ease.It’s inspiring to read how Shears overcame a lack of confidence, and wide-eyed wonder at the possibility of becoming a star, to seriously start making music that impacted on the charts across the world.

As with all of these kinds of books, it also feels like a cautionary tale of being careful what you wish for and realising that hitting the top doesn’t always mean you’re going to get a smooth ride. 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. Eventually he graduated to spraying insecticide on lemon trees, riding on top of trucks, his head floating above the groves as he showered them in chemicals. Before hitting the stage as the lead singer of the iconic glam rock band Scissor Sisters, Jake Shears was Jason Sellards, a teenage boy in Arizona living a double life and unable to hide it any longer, resulting in a confusing and confining time in high school as his classmates bullied him and teachers showed little sympathy.My father would unload their luggage, exchange pleasantries, and watch them take off in a fleet of limos or in Hughes’s ’37 Packard. Maybe because my father was older, I felt jealous and sad that I didn’t have a brother closer to my age.