At the height of his success, Evan Dando was notorious for his good looks, heavy drug use and flaky personality. As his memoir, Rumours of My Demise, effectively attests, the Lemonheads frontman was also a shameless rock’n’roll caricature whose addictions and puerile hedonism repeatedly sabotaged his friendships and relationships, along with his career.
In 1992, on the way to a recording studio in Los Angeles, he took acid at the airport and subsequently tried to open the emergency exit mid-flight. A year later, he missed his band’s first appearance at Glastonbury festival because he was holed up in a hotel with a couple of women and had to endure being bottled and booed throughout a rescheduled acoustic set.
Arising from Boston’s white, wealthy, college rock scene, The Lemonheads morphed from their punk origins into a melodic indie band who broke into the mainstream with their fifth album, It’s a Shame About Ray.
