Cameron Crowe Remembers a ‘Once-In-A-Career F—Up’ While Touring With Led Zeppelin (Exclusive)

As a teenager reporter for Rolling Stone, Cameron Crowe rubbed shoulders with some of the biggest names of ‘70s rock, from the Eagles to Joni Mitchell and David Bowie. But his time touring with British rock band Led Zeppelin (also an inspiration for Crowe’s 2000 film Almost Famous) was particularly memorable.

In his new memoir The Uncool, out Oct. 28 from Avid Reader Press, Crowe, 68, looks back on touring with the “slightly forbidden” rock legends while writing a cover story for Rolling Stone — a publication that the band “famously hated,” he recalls in the book.

Crowe wrote about Led Zeppelin for the Los Angeles Times, and finally got the opportunity to profile the band for Rolling Stone during a 1975 tour. He was on a “secret mission” to wrangle the group for a cover story.

“I was always darting into bathrooms, making notes on little pieces of paper, often to the soundtrack of cocaine-sniffing patrons and sometimes sex on the other side of the stall door,” Crowe writes.

But after getting his coveted interviews (including with elusive guitarist Jimmy Page), things took a turn. Following the band’s cover shoot in New York, Crowe learned that his friend and collaborator Neal Preston’s flash had malfunctioned. 

“It was a once-in-a-career f—up,” Crowe writes. “The light source was a millisecond behind the camera, and none of the shots were usable. Everything was pitch-black, save for a single heartbreaking slide.” The magazine ran live photos of the band with the story instead.

Though Crowe got his cover story, he was called into Rolling Stone cofounder and editor Jann Wenner’s office after it ran. Crowe recalls Wenner sitting him down and telling him he “missed the story.”

Per Crowe, Wenner told him that to be a real writer, he occasionally had to “suffer to get it right.” The editor also gave Crowe a copy of Joan Didion’s book Slouching Toward Bethlehem, so he could understand “real writing.”

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“Joan Didion’s Slouching Towards Bethlehem became my reminder of that day when a little part of me died,” Crowe writes. “But another part of me sprouted wings.”

In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE, Crowe also remembers writing the story while still attending San Diego City College. When he talked with his journalism professor about getting class credit for the tour, his teacher had another proposition. 

“He goes, ‘Rolling Stone, that’s pretty prestigious, man. That’s pretty good. Could you get me published?’” Crowe says. “I was like, ‘I’m not really an editor.’” His teacher asked, “Could you make a call or something?”

“I went back to my mom and I had that in my back pocket,” Crowe recounts. “I was like, ‘Tell me this. If my teacher is trying to get me to get him a gig writing for my newspaper, I think I’m doing okay with this class.’”

In The Uncool, Crowe looks back at his once-in-a-lifetime journalism career, as well as his turn as an Oscar-winning director and screenwriter. But he also wrote the book as a way to share the real stories behind his influences, professional and personal.

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“My mom always used to say, ‘Seek out your heroes. What’s the worst that could happen?’” he says. “And really nothing bad ever happened from seeking out heroes.”

The Uncool is now available, wherever books are sold. Crowe will also kick off his book tour in Nashville on Oct. 30.