Book excerpt: Youth Gone Wild is a story about a young boy born in 1962 on the Northwest Side of Chicago to parents ill prepared to raise a son. His premature birth prevented him from bonding with his mother at an early age. His older sister paved the way for how Robert would be raised as her “little sister.” Many years of pain and suffering at the hands of his bullies ensued. It wasn’t until his discovery of heavy metal rock music that Robert found a way out of his chains. Rock music became his religion. It gave him the strength, the courage, and the self-confidence to take back control of his life and to control his own destiny. As the years passed, the transition from a good little boy to an out-of-control teenager was set in motion. This is not your typical coming-of-age story. Robert truly was a youth gone wild! All boundaries were shattered. Nothing was off-limits. Along with his cast of characters, he would blaze a path of “creative” mayhem second to none.