Scan barcode
A review by kitsabeautifulday
They Don't Need to Understand: Stories of Hope, Fear, Family, Life, and Never Giving in by Andy Biersack
4.0
"I never want to live as if the simple act of being myself is burdensome to me."
I'm going to kick off this review by saying that I'm not anywhere close to the target demographic for this book. I don't listen to Black Veil Brides, I have only a passing familiarity with their music, and I think I watched about half of the video companion to Wretched and Divine (which I do remember being very cool). I am familiar with Andy Biersack for one reason only, and that reason is Joe Flanders.
Joe's YouTube series (Average Joe) became a huge hit among my roommates and I during my freshman year of college, and "rock and roll pneuMONia!" became a meme that could send any of us into uncontrollable laughter. So, Joe brought Andy onto my radar and there he stayed in the periphery. I've kept very small tabs on his career over the years in the way any of us in the rock, metal, or punk scenes keep track of people, but I wouldn't position myself as a fan.
A post about this book wandered across my Instagram feed, and I have a job that enables me to listen to a lot of audiobooks during my shift, so I checked it out. It's narrated by Andy himself, which is great because I genuinely don't think anyone else could do it justice (and he does have, as they say, a voice for radio).
I found his book insightful and interesting. Some of it is charming and easy to identify with, and some of it is an unflinching look at things that Andy said or did that alienated and/or offended people (and that were generally uncool things to do). It's the good and the bad, and he has the grace and the awareness to look back on some of these things and to say, "I was wrong, here's why." I think that's very valuable for someone who is positioned as a role model for so many people.
Overall, this book is about 75% memoir, and 25% self-help advice by the way of life experience. It was very interesting, and a pleasure to listen to. He comes from a place of not assuming that his audience is familiar with... well, anything, which is an unexpected place for a rock star to come from. It's interesting to have someone explain who Gene Simmons is, or the various awards their band received, in the context of what is essentially a rock-n-roll memoir (though he does state in the opening paragraphs that he's entirely too young for this to truly be a memoir). I appreciated that. Though I was familiar with all the Gods of Rock referenced throughout the book, I appreciate how... accessible the book is. I think someone could pick up this book without having any idea who Andy Biersack is at ALL, without ever having heard of Dee Snyder or Alkaline Trio, and still find entertainment and value in the experience with a very minimal amount of Googling (if any).
I'm going to kick off this review by saying that I'm not anywhere close to the target demographic for this book. I don't listen to Black Veil Brides, I have only a passing familiarity with their music, and I think I watched about half of the video companion to Wretched and Divine (which I do remember being very cool). I am familiar with Andy Biersack for one reason only, and that reason is Joe Flanders.
Joe's YouTube series (Average Joe) became a huge hit among my roommates and I during my freshman year of college, and "rock and roll pneuMONia!" became a meme that could send any of us into uncontrollable laughter. So, Joe brought Andy onto my radar and there he stayed in the periphery. I've kept very small tabs on his career over the years in the way any of us in the rock, metal, or punk scenes keep track of people, but I wouldn't position myself as a fan.
A post about this book wandered across my Instagram feed, and I have a job that enables me to listen to a lot of audiobooks during my shift, so I checked it out. It's narrated by Andy himself, which is great because I genuinely don't think anyone else could do it justice (and he does have, as they say, a voice for radio).
I found his book insightful and interesting. Some of it is charming and easy to identify with, and some of it is an unflinching look at things that Andy said or did that alienated and/or offended people (and that were generally uncool things to do). It's the good and the bad, and he has the grace and the awareness to look back on some of these things and to say, "I was wrong, here's why." I think that's very valuable for someone who is positioned as a role model for so many people.
Overall, this book is about 75% memoir, and 25% self-help advice by the way of life experience. It was very interesting, and a pleasure to listen to. He comes from a place of not assuming that his audience is familiar with... well, anything, which is an unexpected place for a rock star to come from. It's interesting to have someone explain who Gene Simmons is, or the various awards their band received, in the context of what is essentially a rock-n-roll memoir (though he does state in the opening paragraphs that he's entirely too young for this to truly be a memoir). I appreciated that. Though I was familiar with all the Gods of Rock referenced throughout the book, I appreciate how... accessible the book is. I think someone could pick up this book without having any idea who Andy Biersack is at ALL, without ever having heard of Dee Snyder or Alkaline Trio, and still find entertainment and value in the experience with a very minimal amount of Googling (if any).