Author and musician Doug Esper. Credit: Courtesy of Doug Esper
Next week, ScoutMedia will release Doug Esper’s Reintroducing Chuck Mosley: Life On and Off the Road, a book about the time that Esper, a local musician, spent working with the former Faith No More singer who died in 2017.

“For 20 years I was Chuck’s fan, band mate, cheerleader, unknowing drug mule, AA plus one, friend, and I tried to help him write his autobiography,” says Esper in a press release about the book.

He’ll be at the Root Cafe in Lakewood at 6:30 p.m. on Friday for a book release event at which he’ll auction off a copy of the book and a setlist from one of the shows he played with Mosley.

After Mosley passed away, Esper continued working on a book about the recording of Mosley’s solo record with producer Matt Wallace (Faith No More, Deftones, the Replacements). The book offers a behind-the-scenes look at the reunion shows Mosley performed with Faith No More in 2016, and the “ups and downs of dealing with Chuck Mosley, warts and all.”

Mosley and Esper performed over 150 shows together. They also recorded under the Chuck Mosley name as well as the indie-pop moniker Indoria, and they acted together in the short film Like An Open Heart It Shines.

“Chuck battled so many demons, but he remained a kind-hearted soul who loved to make other people laugh until the end,” says Esper. “Our tour wasn’t always pretty, and we spent a lot of time bickering, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. We tried like hell to reintroduce Chuck Mosley to the world. This is our story from my point of view.”

Mosley spent time fronting Faith No More, Bad Brains, Cement, VUA and Indoria, and he had just released Soul Pretender with the band Primitive Race the week he passed away.

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This article appears in Nov 20-26, 2019.

Jeff has been covering the Cleveland music scene for more than 25 years now. On a regular basis, he tries to talk to whatever big acts are coming through town. And if you're in a local band that he needs to hear, email him at jniesel@clevescene.com.

2 replies on “Root Cafe to Host ‘Reintroducing Chuck Mosley: Life On and Off the Road’ Book Release Party on Friday”

  1. Why is this guy Doug trying to make money off of Chuck Mosley? And he said he wanted to reintroduce the world to chuck… what’s the point of reintroducing him when hes been irrelevant since 1988? Also besides the hardcore fans of Faith people probably don’t even know who he is.

  2. Gort,

    You’ll just have to take my word for it that I’m not making money off Chuck by doing this book. To you he was irrelevant since ‘88, to me he was my friend and a talented songwriter who had great albums post-fnm. I just wanted to share our story.

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