Musician and comedian Reggie Watts will tell the story of his life in a new memoir, Entertainment Weekly reports.
Watts, known as the bandleader for The Late Late Show with James Corden, will publish Great Falls, MT: Fast Times, Post-Punk Weirdos, and a Tale of Coming Home Again with Penguin Random House imprint Tiny Reparations Books this fall. The press calls the book a “story of growing up in Montana as a biracial oddball struggling to navigate life, girls, drugs, and his own identity in America’s heartland—and having a blast doing it.”
Watts was born in Germany to a French mother and American father, and lived in Europe before moving with his family to Great Falls, Montana. He sang for the jazz fusion band Maktub and recorded several solo albums before starring in the IFC series Comedy Bang! Bang! and joining Corden’s late night talk show as announcer and bandleader.
Tiny Reparations says Watts’ book “takes us through his story, hitting on the culture shock he experienced after moving from Europe to the heart of America, where he was called racial slurs by neighbors but wasn’t Black enough for his father’s extended family.…This is his love letter to the town that made him. But like love itself, it’s messy and complicated and dirty and beautiful—and as weird and wonderful as Watts himself.”
Great Falls, MT is slated for publication on Oct. 17.
Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.
