Brandi Carlile Recounts a Life Spurred by Adventure, Advocacy and Virtuosity in 'Broken Horses': Book Review Brandi Carlile Recounts a Life Spurred by Adventure, Advocacy and Virtuosity in 'Broken Horses': Book Review Carlile's memoir is the best-written, most engaging rock autobiography since her childhood hero, Elton John, published "Me." Chris Willman, provided by FacebookTwitterEmail Brandi Carlile has worshipped Elton John all of her adult and adolescent life, so it’s fitting that as she started writing her memoir, “Broken Horses,” she’d just finished reading his 2019 autobiography, “Me.” With Sir Elton and Bernie Taupin likely having the biggest historic impact on her songwriting, it might not be a leap to imagine that the cheeky humor and conversational style of “Me” had at least a slight influence on the wry laugh lines that pop up with just a little less regularity in her tome, too. Not that her humor is going to be quite as determinedly wicked as his: Carlile mentions in the acknowledgments that the one piece of advice from John she ever turned down was that she should title her book “Rug Muncher.”