Who’s The Boy With The Lovely Hair?
The Unlikely Memoir of Jakko M Jakszyk
From reflecting on who he could have been after meeting his birth family and discovering their extreme beliefs to performing for 120,000 people in Rio de Janeiro…
This is the unique and incredible life of a successful musician who went on a journey of self-discovery to find out who he really was and found out much more than he ever bargained for. From revelations set against the backdrop of Nazi Germany, a mother with a previously unknown successful singing career, to terrifying white supremacists - and everything in between…
Published on 10 October 2024
Sir Ian Rankin
“Musician Jakko Jakszyk, known globally for his work with King Crimson, here tells his own compelling story. Blending his personal history with the drama and conflict of the twentieth century, from wartime Poland to contemporary Arkansas. Providing powerful testament to his achievements and his resilience.”
Michael Attenborough CBE
“It made me laugh and, on way too many occasions, made me cry. Jakko’s story is
remarkable and unique; especially when told with such wit, perception and humanity.”
David Fricke (Rolling Stone/MOJO/Sirius XM Radio)
“Here is a life in great music and a lesson in its power and sanctuary, vividly told from inside one of rock's most important and tumultuous bands, King Crimson. But Jakko Jakszyk's story is also one of profound, personal discovery – of family lost and found; friendships made; identity revealed. This is the pain and joy, the secrets and revelations, that became the music. Read it the way you listen to King Crimson: ready for anything.”
Sir Lenny Henry
“Jakko is a consummate storyteller; his tales of his upbringing are warm and heartfelt. And he shreds lead guitar like a mofo. I am very jealous.”
Jakko Jakszyk is an award-winning, world-renowned musician, best known for spending the past 13 years as lead singer and guitarist with progressive rock founding fathers King Crimson, having previously been a member of Level 42.
Who’s The Boy With The Lovely Hair? is, at first glance, a traditional rock’n’roll memoir, charting Jakko’s long and varied musical career, packed with eyebrow-raising and hilarious anecdotes about his encounters with everyone from Michael Jackson, Kate Bush, Cliff Richard and Gene Simmons, to Uri Geller, Jack Charlton, Audrey Hepburn, the Dalai Lama and crossing swords with Millwall Football Club’s dodgy director Reg Burr.
But step away from the tales from the trenches of late 20th and early 21st century rock’n’roll, theatre and alternative comedy, and you uncover:
- The harrowing stories of his adoptive parents’ lives during World War II
- Discovering his adoptive father had fought on both sides of that war
- His birth mother’s fame as a successful singer in Ireland
- Jakko finding and meeting his birth mother and self-proclaimed ‘white supremacist’ step-siblings
- How a lonely, despondent adopted child ended up working and playing with his childhood heroes
This is a book about origins, identity and who we become. It’s about a kid who found
solace in music when the very sense of who he was left him floundering. It is about how his journey to discover his family allowed him to reflect on who he could have been had he not been given away at birth.
Who’s The Boy With The Lovely Hair? is a tale about discovering, processing and making peace with who you are, and ultimately asking: “How much of us is nature and how much is nurture?”
The book has been published as a 400-page hardback, including 48 pages of photographs documenting Jakko’s life and career
Click the link below for a playlist of selected music by Jakko, as well as a Spotify playlist of artists mentioned in the book.