Blondie cofounder and guitarist Chris Stein is looking back on his extraordinary life and iconic career in his new memoir, Under a Rock.
Stein's candid recollection covers Blondie's formation and squalid early days, its sudden ascension to No. 1 and his particular fall from grace and redemption.
Though he tells Q104.3 New York's Out of the Box with Jonathan Clarke that he didn't begin keeping journals until later in his life, he began exploring his penchant for photography early in his music career and had plenty of images to jog his memory while he was writing his story.
"As I point out in the book, everybody I knew back then was complaining about how terrible it was [in New York City] and how they wanted to leave, but nobody left," Stein recalls of the gritty '70s in the Big Apple. "There's this great Lou Reed monologue where he's in a tobacco store somewhere and he's saying how horrible and how uncomfortable he is in New York, but how much more uncomfortable he is in the rest of the world. So that was kind of the mentality."
In Under a Rock, Stein dives into his memories of the likes of David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat and of course his long and winding relationship with Blondie bandmate Debbie Harry.
Stein no longer tours with Blondie but remains a member of the band; he revealed that they even have a new album on the way.
"It's in the can," he says of the new LP. "We're just getting it mixed and I imagine this year it'll hit. ...I really enjoy recording and music making. I just ran out of stamina for the hotels and buses and all that stuff."
Watch the full conversation via the player above!
For more information on Under A Rock, go here.
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