Former Hole bassist and Smashing Pumpkins touring member Melissa Auf der Maur has announced her first book, Even the Good Girls Will Cry: A ’90s Rock Memoir, out March 17th, 2026, via Da Capo. Pre-orders are ongoing.
Described as a “part coming-of-age autobiography, part travel diary, part psychedelic scrapbook,” Even the Good Girls Will Cry also features rare, behind-the-scenes photos from throughout Auf der Maur’s music career, which began with her first band, the Canadian alternative rock group Tinker.
“This book is about the decade that defined me and my generation, 1991-2001, and my life in the rock bands which allowed me to have a front row seat to an incredibly visceral and unforgettable moment in the counterculture,” Auf der Maur explained in a statement. “It’s a love letter to the power of music and one-of-a-kind voices that make the world a cooler place; it’s also an ode to the analog, and what magic has been lost. Sharing what our generation witnessed, and what the world once was, in my hope of building a more livable future together.”
Here’s the official description:
“Even the Good Girls Will Cry begins with Auf der Maur’s bohemian upbringing in Montreal, where her early, deep connection to art and music gave her entry to the colorful and thriving local creative scene. Working as a cassette DJ and ticket girl, she would see (and sometimes meet) the luminaries who’d pass through town — Nirvana, Jane’s Addiction, Pavement, Sonic Youth. Thanks to a thrown beer bottle and a long-shot fan letter to a PO Box, her band Tinker scored a life-changing opening slot for The Smashing Pumpkins and, sensing her natural talent on bass, Billy Corgan recommended her to Courtney Love, just one of the many uncanny threads that weaves destiny throughout this riveting memoir.”
Whisked from her local scene and thrust into the eye of a hurricane of grief on a global stage, Melissa joined Hole for the band’s 1994 Live Through This world tour just after the deaths of Kurt Cobain and Hole’s prior bassist, Kristen Pfaff, with Courtney Love at the center of it all. It was a tour of passionate intensity, as a chaotic yet stunningly powerful band constantly threatened to spin out of control. Melissa brings the reader with raging intimacy into the action, offering a heroic portrait of the unforgettable Courtney Love as she howled into the darkness as if to keep grief at bay.
According to Rolling Stone, Even the Good Girls Will Cry features cameos from Stevie Nicks, Dave Grohl, Rufus Wainwright, Michael Stipe, Ben Stiller, and more.
Earlier this year, Auf der Maur reunited with Billy Corgan in Montreal to perform Smashing Pumpkins’ Machina/The Machines of God opening track “The Everlasting Gaze.”
See where Auf der Maur landed on our list of the 100 greatest bassists of all time.
