Jon Ginoli on His Memoir

Filed Under Books, Gay Entertainment, Music | June 4th, 2009 

Recently I emailed Jon Ginoli of Pansy Division to find out more about his memoir, Deflowered: My Life in Pansy Division and to find out how he was doing on his book tour. Here’s what he had to say.

Jon Ginoli of Pansy Division. (Photo Courtesy: Jon Ginoli)
Jon Ginoli of Pansy Division. (Photo Courtesy: Jon Ginoli)

Robin: Hi Jon, thanks for taking time out from your busy schedule to answer my questions. I was just looking at your site and tour schedule again and you’ve been really busy. There’s the new Pansy Division CD, ‘That’s So Gay‘, that’s just been released, ditto the DVD, ‘Pansy Division: Life in a Gay Rock Band‘ and then there’s your memoir, ‘Deflowered: My Life in Pansy Division‘.

Moving on to the actual schedule, you’re currently on a massive cross-country book tour of the U.S. with some more stops in July in Canada and a few more in the U.S.. And then, in June, Pansy Division is doing an East Coast tour…

I’m exhausted just thinking about it all. How are you making out? Is this all one last big hurrah and farewell, or are you just striking while the iron’s are hot?

Jon: My book tour was so long that I got exhausted and sick! So much so that I cancelled the part of my book tour that was supposed to follow the June band tour. So, I won’t be in Canada, sadly. I had really pushed my physical limits. I visited 46 cities in 2 months, doing about 60 appearances. I know that I’ll be fried following the PD tour. I wouldn’t say this tour is our last hurrah, though I can’t imagine doing another tour soon. But we’re already talking about the next album, which we’ll get to eventually.

Robin: Okay now, the title of your memoir is ‘Deflowered: My Life in Pansy Division’ and it’s the inside story of the first openly queer pop-punk rock band. I love the title and subtitle, it’s delicious, saucy and for some reason it still feels a bit taboo despite the fact that you’re writing about your personal history and music history. In many respects, it seems like you’re still breaking ground. Are you? Has anything actually changed much since you started out?

Deflowered: My Life in Pansy Division by Jon Ginoli
Deflowered: My Life in Pansy Division by Jon Ginoli

Jon: Things have changed. Queer is less reviled, in general, better accepted than before. You Canadians can legally marry. That’s a major step. Our band has always been about openness, and though there’s more of it, it’s still a process. And there are still many places where a kid realizing that he or she is gay is going to have major problems. In my book, I tried to be open and personal, to reveal the reality of things without falling prey to self-aggrandizing detail.

Robin: Writing a novel is hard enough, but writing a memoir…What madness drove you to dig back into your history and the band’s history and publish it? And what was the hardest part about writing this book?

Jon: The thought that although a lot of people know about us and out music, a lot of that early history–the context in which our band formed–is receding into the background. And i felt it was important to document that moment, that history. And I think it would be much harder to write a novel; all i had to do was try to remember what happened instead of making stuff up. If I’d wanted a more outrageous book, I would have just made stuff up!

Robin: Your memoir covers the highs — touring with Green Day — and the lows — homophobic fans — of striving for acceptance and success in the world of rock. And it’s also got the requisite tales of sex, drugs, groupies, band fights, and label battles.

Hang on there…before I get to my real question, how on earth could your fans be homophobic? We’re talking about Pansy Division here. Or am I reading that wrong?

Jon: That’s a line from my publicity for the book that’s a bit misleading–it was meant to describe a segment of Green Day’s fans that were homophobic, not ours. And actually, there are almost no drugs in the book, because there are almost no drugs in our band. Sex & rock & roll yes, precious little on the drug front.

Robin: As for the tales, no doubt they’re interesting, I know I’m hooked; but can we look forward to any shocking moments? Something shocking about yourself, or the band? Outings perhaps? I seem to recall a legend about you outing a bunch of people…

Jon: In our live shows, we used to name drop people in our song “Anthem” who we thought were closeted. They all came out eventually anyway. If anything is shocking about Pansy Division, it’s just how normal we are in certain ways. We aim for candor, it makes us push our own boundaries about what to sing about.

Robin: What does the rest of Pansy Division think about your memoir? Was anyone worried?

Jon: I was worried that I would get something wrong, or offend one of my bandmates, so in the interest of accuracy, some band members read my draft. But almost nothing got changed; they added details, but no stories were removed. Our personal lives are pretty responsible, not nearly scandalous enough! They all really like the book. Even the ex-band members that get shit talked about them also get praised for their good points.

Robin: Lastly, is there anything you’d like to mention to your fans or music lovers who read the Gay News Bits site?

Jon: I guess I should mention that the Pansy Division documentary film (titled Pansy Division: Life In A Gay Rock Band), which played festivals in 2008, is now out on DVD. Our newest CD That’s So Gay–1st new one in 6 years–just got released a couple months ago.

I wish the band had more time available to tour, because we can only hit so many cities. We haven’t played Halifax in 10 years now, though we had 3 fun shows there in the 90s. But our website is pretty comprehensive, and we have a You Tube page full of fun stuff, including a series of 4 brand new video clips (”webisodes”: short films with actors, scripts, and songs from our new CD).

Thanks!
Jon

Robin: Once again, thanks for taking some time out to answer these questions Jon, I appreciate it. All the best on your music tour this summer and stay well.

Note: I now have a copy of Deflowered: My Life in Pansy Division and am looking forward to reading it this weekend.

Related Links:

- Pansy Division
- Pansy Division: Life in a Gay Rock Band – Official Site
- Pansy Division on YouTube

Related Post: My Thoughts on ‘Deflowered – My Life in Pansy Division’