Hit So Hard

"A smart, clear-eyed look back at the 1990s alt-rock scene . . .[Hole drummer] Schemel writes with humor and insight."―Philadelphia Inquirer

Patty Schemel's rise to hard-rocking drummer in the platinum-selling band Hole was the ride of a lifetime, happening as it did during the the last great era of rock-and-roll excess. In this deeply personal memoir, Schemel recounts her meteoric rise and fall. As she pursued her passion for punk rock and playing the drums, Patty's struggles with addiction and her sexuality drove her notoriously hard playing, and by the late '80s she was jamming in regular gigs with well-regarded bands in Tacoma, Seattle, and Olympia. She met a pre-Nirvana Kurt Cobain at a Melvins show, and less than five years later, was living with him and his wife, Hole front-woman Courtney Love.

As Hole's new drummer, Schemel contributed memorable, driving beats to hits like "Beautiful Son," "Violet," "Doll Parts," and "Miss World." But the band was plagued by tragedy and heroin addiction. By the time Hole went on tour in support of their critically-acclaimed album Live Through This in 1994, both Cobain and Hole bassist Kristen Pfaff had died at the age of twenty-seven

Schemel intimately documents her dramatic exit in 1998, followed by a life of homelessness and crime on the streets of Los Angeles, and the difficult but rewarding path to sobriety. Hit So Hard is a testament not only to the enduring power of the music Schemel helped create but an important document of the drug culture that threatened to destroy it.

"[Schemel] lifts the veil on the punk mythos with an unsparing memoir." ―Village Voice