Burning Down Rome - Melodie Ramone

Book Details

Country: USA
Language: English
Genre: Modern Fiction
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Publication Date: 2014


Fictional Artist: Cry Baby Jake
Genre: Punk
Country: USA
Real World Analogue: Ramone wrote on Goodreads: "In 2004, a very good friend of mine, who happened to be a professional rock 'n' roll guitarist, died from a drug overdose. His death hit me very hard, even though we had stopped speaking as his addiction had intensified. Still, I always wanted to do something to honor him because he was more than a guy with a problem. He was a real person. He was funny and the kind of man who would (and did) give you his coat in the middle of a snowstorm if you were cold. 

"Although it's all fiction, Burning Down Rome comes from the years I spent with him and working in the music industry: the people and places I knew, what I observed, and much of what I experienced for myself. It was my goal to show "rock stars" for what they are - just people doing their best to survive in an industry of the harshest pressure, criticism and insanity. I hope that's what I did and I hope I honored my friend's memory, because he had the kindest, most beautiful heart, much like the character Kid Cade from the book. 

"My wish is that's what you take away from the story - the bit of fearlessness and magic that was in him, and exists in all of us who have the courage to be who we really are in the face of what "the others" expect us to be. That kind of audacity is the stuff that, despite our faults and failures, in the end makes us legends. And Derek, like Kid, Joey, Tash and Cecily from the book, left a mark on time that can never be erased. This is for him. Five stars for Derek."

Jacket Blurb: 

"When your life becomes a lie you can close your eyes. Or start bucking like a wild horse and become a legend."

BURNING DOWN ROME follows four friends on their spectacular journey to rock super-stardom.

Hand picked by a record label at too young an age, they quickly came to understand that the business of fame was all a big game. Nothing was real. Sold out show after sold out show, autograph after autograph, screaming fans, television appearances and interviews in every major city, pushing through exhaustion just for the high they got on stage... Living the dream was all that mattered.

Until the day arrived when not one of them could remember what the dream was about anymore.

In spite of being caught in the maelstrom of unprovoked media attacks, vicious personal vendettas, and massive professional pressures, their band - Cry Baby Jake - brazen, bold and ultra-talented, ascended to the top of the rock'n'roll world where they held steady for six solid years.

That's when the work related injuries - the behind-the-scenes mental torture, intense physical tolls and the hidden, soul-numbing truths of the industry that fans never see, set in.

"Living the dream" began to unravel for Cry Baby Jake's fearless leader, Aiden "Kid" Cade. His thoughts and emotions were drowned out by the millions of strangers crying his name - all of them believing that they knew him intimately, but to him were strangers. He lost his inner compass. He forgot who he was. Then he lost his ability to reason. And, a victim to inner demons he could no longer control, eventually, he nearly lost his life.

One band member saw it coming. Another ignored the signs.

And the third loved him through it all.

While the world cheered for him, so loud he couldn't hear his own heart beating, behind the scenes Kid was poised between the band's overwhelming success and his feelings of crushing personal failure. In the midst of it all Kid fell in love, fell apart, melted down to almost nothing, and finally realized that making his way in a land of make-believe could either be deadly, or it could set him free.

Burning Down Rome is the story of a rock'n'roll dream that became a nightmare for four unconquerable souls who nearly lost it all: Themselves, each other, and their passion... And who then reclaimed their destinies, and blazed beyond what the world said they were allowed to do.