In the past few years, punk rocker Jesse Malin’s health issues have been a focus of press coverage, but they are not the focus of his memoir, Almost Grown. His story opens with him going out to dinner to commemorate the anniversary of his friend and bandmate Howie Pyro’s death. Malin collapsed at the restaurant and later learned he suffered a spinal stroke and was now paralyzed from the waist.
Working through treatment and therapy, he is back to performing live while working on regaining his ability to walk. Malin acknowledges his illness up front, but only to set the stage for a compulsively readable account of his early years.
Almost Grown is billed as “a New York memoir”, and that is about as accurate a description as there could be. Jesse Malin’s adventures through the city during the 1970s and ’80s take the reader through hallowed New York music landmarks, rubbing shoulders with legends with almost comic frequency.
Much in the same way that Thurston Moore’s 2024 autobiography, Sonic Life, placed him at every important show and event like the narrator of LCD Soundsystem’s 2005 song, “Losing My Edge”, Malin has an uncanny ability to find himself connected to New York music legends, including crashing the famous Fear performance on Saturday Night Live and running into Joey Ramone marveling at the marquee for Rock N’ Roll High School as he is on his way to see the film.
If you want a memoir with star power, Almost Grown has it. Best of all, Malin is a born storyteller whose talent for songwriting translates well to book form. His knack for detail makes it easy to smell the trash on the streets during the Ford-to-NYC: Drop Dead era and the sleaze dripping from 42nd Street.
Jesse Malin’s life may have the same humble beginnings and aspirations as many a New York musician, but he was playing CBGB by 14 and Madison Square Garden with KISS in his 20s with his glam-punk band, D Generation. Despite these anomalous occurrences, there is a lot of scrapping and hustling that fills in the time between these peaks. Malin’s adult life might appear charmed on the surface, but he doesn’t get there without a lot of hard work and some lucky timing.
Along the way, he finds and loses bandmates, lovers, and friends, eventually settling into a singer/songwriter career that has brought him fans such as Bruce Springsteen and Lucinda Williams. Despite the glamorous adventures, Malin recalls with a low-key, self-effacing humor, it’s hard not to get caught up in his casual accounts of hanging out with Joe Strummer all night and marveling at his energy and commitment to his fans, or to him finding out that Springsteen is a fan who wants to collaborate.
Malin’s stories are universal–falling in love with music, falling in and out of love with romantic partners, and losing friends and family along the way; they just happen to also have cameos from Joe Strummer, Bruce Springsteen, and Gene Simmons, among countless others. The story behind the autograph Gene Simmons gives Jesse Malin as a parting gift is one of the biggest laugh-out-loud moments.
With so many accounts of late-1970s and ’80s New York already out there, a memoir needs to bring something fresh to distinguish itself, and Almost Grown delivers. As a character, it’s easy to like Malin, a scrappy survivor even before his health concerns surfaced. His reputation as a respected troubadour makes this a must for fans.
However, it’s not necessary to be part of the faithful to be entertained and moved by Almost Grown. Malin’s everyman persona, flair for storytelling, and affable voice regale the reader with snapshots of a wild upbringing, rise, and reinvention. Most of the time, it reads more like he’s holding court in a favorite bar. We’re all staying up too late, but we’re not ready to go home yet.