Shooting Up and Making Out

From Jennifer Finch (1966-2026), the bassist of L7, comes a candid and clear-eyed memoir that stands apart from the rest with its grounded perspective and bracing, edgy wisdom.

If overcoming obstacles makes for great art, then Jennifer Finch was the consummate artist. She was a recovering addict, a photographer, the co-founder of an influential pro-choice advocacy group, and the bassist for the groundbreaking all-female hard rock group L7. Driven to express herself despite neglect and abuse, Finch carved an artistic path and pulled herself out of a personal hell. This is the story of how she pulled it off and lived an extraordinary life, in her own words.

Finch was twelve when she dove into LA’s hardcore punk scene, fourteen when she first started shooting heroin, nineteen when she joined her first band with Courtney Love and Kat Bjelland, and in her early twenties when L7 got caught up in the maelstrom of the grunge phenomenon. She shared stages with bands like Pearl Jam and the Red Hot Chili Peppers in between overdosing, dating Dave Grohl, and coping with the tragic, early deaths of some of her closest friends. And re-defined herself through sobriety, photography, and her courage in the face of a deadly illness.

Jennifer Finch was a beloved pillar of strength and compassion in LA's creative community, and her death on July 18th, 2026, was an irreplaceable loss. Shooting Up and Making Out was completed just before her illness took hold, and every word of it – hard-hitting, funny, profane, and wise — is what she intended it to be.