Crash a late-night chat room for working mothers and you're guaranteed all kinds of banter about “work/life balance,” the catchphrase used to describe a daily routine of spreadsheets and soccer games, power lunches and Spaghetti-O dinners.

As the singer of punk rock stalwart Pennywise and father to three pre-teen daughters, Jim Lindberg has his own take on the term: “More like work/life unbalance,” he deadpans.

His life is one giant oxymoron. It's on full display in his new memoir, Punk Rock Dad, a hilarious telling of the musician's struggle through the world of diaper duty and PTA meetings. “It was fun to write for the most part,” Lindberg says, “except for the times when I would just be getting into it and the kids would need something or the band would need something. Thatʼs my world in a nutshell.”

Risen Magazine: Just a couple pages into the book I thought to myself, “Wow, this dude can really write.” Are people surprised that you have an English degree and now a published book?

Jim Lindberg: It’s hard to be to be somewhat insulted when the biggest question I always get is, “Did you have a ghostwriter?” Like it’s some celebrity puff piece and I’m Nicole Richie or Paris Hilton, who can’t string a sentence together. No, I definitely was heading for a career in writing and the band was a sidestep away from that. I’m actually working on another book right now. I’d tell you all about it but I don’t want to ruin the surprise.

RM: What spawned the idea for Punk Rock Dad?

JL: I started writing a book about the Hermosa Beach punk scene, just cuz I feel like it’s always underrepresented in terms of the impact it’s had on punk, not to mention bands like Nirvana and Rage Against the Machine, who cite Black Flag as a huge influence on the explosiveness of their music. Then you look at bands like Blink 182 and Good Charlotte, who wouldn’t be around without the Circle Jerks and Descendents.

Those three bands came from a small town, and I wanted to write about why they started here. The very end was starting to talk about what it’s been like for our band to follow in the footsteps, and then I was writing about what it was like being a dad and being on tour. And just as I was writing it, our booking agent took on a literary agent and they sent an e-mail out asking if anyone could write a book called Punk Rock Dad. I said, “I already have it going.” The original idea was to do a sarcastic parenting guide and make fun of that whole idea, but they were more interested in it being a first-person narrative.

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