THE ADVENTURES OF A TEENAGE CAMERON CROWE

IN 'THE UNCOOL,' THE OSCAR-WINNING FILMMAKER BEHIND 'ALMOST FAMOUS' EXAMINES HIS CREATIVE ROOTS AS A YOUNG MUSIC JOURNALIST.

- MIKAEL WOOD POP MUSIC CRITIC

NEAL PRESTON A YOUNG Cameron Crowe, left, speaks with Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin backstage at the Chicago Stadium in 1975.

TWENTY-FIVE YEARS after “Almost Famous” put his origin story on movie screens, Cameron Crowe is thinking again about his roots as a teenage music journalist. The Oscar-winning filmmaker's new memoir, “The Uncool,” is a tender and insightful account of his adventures covering the likes of the Eagles, Led Zeppelin and Joni Mitchell for Rolling Stone in the 1970s. Back then, a relative scarcity of serious rock writing meant that bands would open the doors of their private jets and let him tag along with a notebook and tape recorder for weeks at a time. The newly released book explores Crowe's relationships with David Bowie, whom he shadowed across Los Angeles as Bowie constructed his Thin White Duke persona, and with Rolling Stone’s founder, Jann Wenner, whom he depicts as a kind of mentor-slash-antagonist. But it also ponders what Crowe, now 68, calls the “odd chemistry” of his loving yet complicated family, including his parents’ handling of his older sister Cathy’s suicide at age 19. (He'll discuss the book Nov. 20 and 21 at the Montalbán Theatre.) Crowe, whose movies include “Say Anything” and “Jerry Maguire,” is at work on a Mitchell biopic rumored to star Meryl Streep and Anya Taylor-Joy; next year, he plans to issue a volume of his collected journalism. Over coffee and bagels on a recent morning in Culver City, he talked about “The Uncool,” a missed opportunity with Bob Dylan, and Wenner’s much-discussed ouster from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

I think it’s fair to say that you were known back in the day for being pretty sympathetic toward your subjects. Who'd you get crosswise with?