While crafting his memoir, Jian Ghomeshi kept a target audience in mind.
"It's meant for anyone who can identify with being an oddball in high school," Ghomeshi said during a stop in Toronto to promote 1982, in stores Tuesday.
"Because it really doesn't change that much from what 20-somethings and 60-somethings on either side of me tell me now."
1982 is about the 14-yearold Ghomeshi growing up in Thornhill, Ont. - a David Bowie-obsessed PersianCanadian immigrant in love with a cool older girl and desperate to fit in with the New Wave crowd.
Already a recognizable personality as the host of CBC's daily talk radio program Q, Ghomeshi reveals a more personal side through a collection of 12 music-infused stories that span what he calls a very formative year in his life.
In a candid and witty account of that all-toofamiliar awkward stage of adolescence, Ghomeshi shares everything from his obsession with hair gel and pointy black boots to his father's confusion over all of his antics.
"I am me on my show on CBC, but I don't think people see all of me," Ghomeshi says. "I was cognizant about halfway through writing the book that 'Oh, this is going to be a surprise for the people who only know me as the guy interviewing so-and-so.'"
Ghomeshi says he's been approached to write a book before, but wasn't interested in a "womb-to-tomb memoir." Instead, he chose a project that tapped into his creative energies.
"I wanted [the story] to be relatable, I also wanted it to be entertaining," he says. "I want people to laugh, I want people to be able to feel the more heavy moments."
Music is the driving force of the memoir. Most anecdotes reference at least one glam-rock icon, while every chapter is labelled by a song title. The Talking Heads' Once in a Lifetime chapter covers Ghomeshi's monumental day at the Police Picnic concert, while David Bowie's Let's Dance chronicles that fateful last dance where he wins and loses an elusive girl named Wendy in one whirlwind evening.
While Ghomeshi often jumps from one memory to another - at one point he's describing the summer when he and his buddy Toke spent weeks stalking Rush outside their Thornhill studio, while a few pages later he's recounting his performance in an Ebony and Ivory school duet, two characters carry the story from start to finish: Bowie and Wendy.
In addition to the music, Bowie was a guidepost for style, attitude and just about everything else that mattered to the adolescent Ghomeshi.
Wendy was the dream girl: cute, cool, New Wave and really nice, she weaves in and out of that formative year.
"Bowie, Talking Heads, the Clash - that's my life right there," Ghomeshi says. "And I will leave this interview and go cry in a fetal position in the corner thinking about how I lost Wendy."
Ghomeshi also works hard to channel his 14-yearold voice into the story, making sure to establish the nuances of teenage life in the 1980s that didn't include Facebook, laptops or iPhones.
"There's a bit of a wink to Generation-Xers, people in their 30s, 40s, early 50s, who will understand what it was like to get a girl's phone number and have to call her parents' house before cellphones and texting," Ghomeshi says. "All of which was pretty traumatic stuff."
As he chats about the memoir, it's clear that much of the adolescent Ghomeshi lives on. That's most obvious when discussing the Rush stakeout that culminated with some handshakes and autographs from rockers Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson.
Speaking 20 years later, Ghomeshi can't hide his delight in having an excerpt of Lee's review gracing the cover of 1982, calling it "sort of the best thing that ever happened to me."
The passage also shows how much has changed then - nowadays, Ghomeshi routinely rubs shoulders with famous people while making his career in the public eye. But that doesn't mean he's not nervous about the release of his first book.
"Every day when I finished writing, I'd be like, 'Who's going to read this? Who cares about me and Bowie?'" he says. "I was nervous that everyone would hate the book.
"And that's already not happened so it helps a little bit."
