Kevin Rowland

A searingly honest memoir from Dexys’ iconic frontman, one of the great mavericks and creative geniuses of British music.

At home with his Irish immigrant parents in Wolverhampton, at the beginning of the swinging sixties, Kevin the eight-year-old altar boy was planning to attend college to train to be a priest. Elsewhere, he was thieving, lying, swearing, fighting and rarely out of trouble.

In this astonishing and subversive memoir, Kevin Rowland lays bare his unvarnished life story for the very first time. From the juvenile courts of his troubled teenage years to the early days of the New Romantic scene in the late ’70s and beyond, he recounts his darkest hours, deepest desires and greatest joys. An unwavering passion for music, highly tuned sense of style and an unstoppable determination propelled him down a path that led to huge chart success with Dexys Midnight Runners in the early 1980s. However, despite being celebrated as a creative genius, Kevin was plagued by an inner turmoil, leading to a series of ill-fated self-sabotaging events – including a serious cocaine addiction – leaving him bankrupt and adrift by the 1990s. “Music had kept me so busy and obsessed that it saved me from acting out in other ways, which surely would have landed me in jail. In that way, music saved me. Yet even with the help of music, I came very close to prison.” Bless Me Father unflinchingly details this turbulent coming-of-age period, warts and all, exploring themes of religion, sexuality, creativity, cultural identity and addiction. Through long stints in rehab, embracing self-reflection and exploring gender fluidity with his pioneering project My Beauty, Kevin also charts his steady return to health, sobriety and stability, culminating in Dexys’ triumphant appearance at Glastonbury in 2024. Vividly detailed, with a truly rare degree of self-insight, Bless Me Father is a deeply personal account of an extraordinary life.