King Crimson's Jakko Jakszyk announces autobiogaphy

Jakko Jakszyk
(Image credit: Jakko Jakszyk)

King Crimson guitarist and vocalist Jakko Jakszyk has announced that he will release his autobiography, Who’s The Boy With The Lovely Hair? The Unlikely Memoir Of Jakko M Jakszyk, through Kingmaker Publishing on October 10.

Inspired by Jakszyk's 2022 Edinburgh Festival one-man show The Road To Ballina, which itself developed from a 1996 Radio Three presentation of the same name.

Who’s The Boy With The Lovely Hair? is part rock’n’roll memoir, charting Jakko’s long and varied musical career, which included a stint with Level 42 and of course King Crimson, and includes anecdotes including Michael Jackson, Kate Bush, Cliff Richard and Gene Simmons, to Uri Geller, Jack Charlton, Audrey Hepburn and the Dalai Lama.

It also explores Jakszyk's heritage, born Michael Curran, in Highgate, North London, son of the singer in one of Ireland’s biggest show bands, who, after adoption, became Jakko Jakszyk. He traces his mother to Arkansas and discovers revelations set against the backdrop of Nazi Germany and discovers white supremacists still in the family line.

"It's a voyage of self-discovery from an orphanage in rural France, a Polish mining village, to a terraced house in Hertfordshire," says Jakszyk.

Who’s The Boy With The Lovely Hair? The Unlikely Memoir Of Jakko M Jakszyk will be published as a 400-page hardback including 48 pages of photographs documenting Jakko’s life and career.

Pre-order Who’s The Boy With The Lovely Hair? The Unlikely Memoir Of Jakko M Jakszyk.

Jakko Jakszyk

(Image credit: Press)
Jerry Ewing

Writer and broadcaster Jerry Ewing is the Editor of Prog Magazine which he founded for Future Publishing in 2009. He grew up in Sydney and began his writing career in London for Metal Forces magazine in 1989. He has since written for Metal Hammer, Maxim, Vox, Stuff and Bizarre magazines, among others. He created and edited Classic Rock Magazine for Dennis Publishing in 1998 and is the author of a variety of books on both music and sport, including Wonderous Stories; A Journey Through The Landscape Of Progressive Rock.