Cameron Crowe - Early Life

Early Life

Cameron Crowe was born in Palm Springs, California. His father owned a real estate and phone service business, and his mother, Alice Marie, "was a teacher, activist, and all-around live wire who did skits around the house and would wear a clown suit to school on special occasions." She worked as a psychology professor and family therapist and often participated in peace demonstrations and causes relating to the rights of farm workers. Crowe had two older sisters, but one died when he was young. The family moved around often but spent a lot of time in the desert town of Indio. Crowe commented that Indio was where "people owned tortoises, not dogs". His family finally settled in San Diego.

Recognizing that Crowe was gifted, his mother pushed him to excel. He skipped kindergarten and two grades in elementary, and by the time he attended Catholic high school, he was quite obviously younger than the other students. To add to his alienation, he was often ill because he suffered from nephritis. This made him something of an outcast in the tanned surfer culture of Southern California.

To compensate for his lack of social contacts, Crowe began writing for the school newspaper and by age 13 was contributing music reviews for an underground publication, The San Diego Door. He then began corresponding with Lester Bangs, who had left the Door to become editor at the national rock magazine Creem, and soon he was also submitting articles to Creem as well as Circus. Crowe graduated from the University of San Diego High School in 1973 at age 16, and then attended City College of San Diego and the University of San Diego studying journalism to hone his craft. On a trip to Los Angeles, he met Ben Fong-Torres, the editor of Rolling Stone, who hired him to write for the magazine. He also joined the Rolling Stone staff as a Contributing Editor and then became the Associate Editor. During this time Crowe interviewed Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Neil Young, Eric Clapton, Carlos Santana, and the members of Led Zeppelin. Crowe was Rolling Stone's youngest-ever contributor.