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Grohl's prose is surprisingly effective. If this was written without a ghostwriter, it's an admirable effort. However, I found the overall work to be a bit scattered and shallow. Grohl jumps back and forth through time a bit too often, and grants entire chapters to episodes of questionable interest. I'd have appreciated a bit more of a deep dive into some of the things that have made Grohl's life so special; his jump from high school student to international touring drummer of the band Scream seemed so abrupt that I almost felt I had skipped a chapter.

In one moment, Grohl is talking about his first girlfriend. Then, it seemed, in the next, he was playing a show with Scream in the Netherlands. How did such a jump change a teenager? How did this new perspective alter his worldview, cause him to grow as a human being? These sorts of engaging questions are abandoned for amusing, though ultimately disposable anecdotes about being chased through European alleyways by junkies and skinheads. This issue is exacerbated by Grohl's questionable inclusion of chapters on seemingly disposable events, such as being hit in the head as a child and the claims that Grohl does not feel physical pain.

The Nirvana chapters are also comparatively light. Grohl and Cobain lived together in the pacific Northwest during their time in Nirvana, but very little of Cobain is shared beyond what everyone already knows: that he was a brilliant songwriter, that he was a depressive, that he was staunchly anti-establishment. So desperate for Cobain crumbs was I that I found Grohl's mention of Cobain's endless love of strawberry milk to be one of my favorite tidbits in the book.

Too much of this reads as a surface-level description of Grohl's life, and the man—although undoubtedly having lived an incredibly interesting, eventful life—seems to lack the insight as to what, exactly, makes his life so incredible and eventful. Thus we're regaled with pitter-patter, here-and-there stories which seem scattershot and don't dive into any real meaning or cohesive theme which drives Grohl's experience, and seem more instead like a smattering of unrelated tidbits from an old-but-gold rocker. Which is fine, if that's what you're looking for. But Grohl has been there for such monumental events in recent music history that I'd hoped for a bit more.

Foo Fighters and Grohl fans will undoubtedly enjoy this, but those of us on the outside of those descriptors will likely be left wanting more. A solid effort nonetheless, but there's nothing profound to be had here.