I read Sammy Hagar’s memoir, Red, on the plane rides to Tallahassee and back. I love Van Halen so much that I couldn’t wait to read it. I would have paid $50 for the book. Tell you the truth — it wasn’t even that good. But it didn’t have to be. I was hoping for good, but I accept trashy just as well. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks: Trashy rock memoirs like The Heroin Diaries are the male answer to Fabio-romance novels. Pure, wonderful guilty pleasures.
Agree? Disagree? Have a book about rock & roll you want to recommend to me? I am all ears.
I agree Chuck – these are a whole lot of fun to read, albeit not Pulitzer Prize contenders.
I love rock memoirs more than trashy romance. I’ll have to check out the Sammy Hagar one. Thanks!
So what I’m getting from this is, I should give my non-reader boyfriend trashy rock memoirs so he’ll understand why I love my trashy romance novels.
Interesting… very interesting.
Motley Crue:The Dirt is my fave!
Rock and Roll Cage Match. It compares lots of different bands to each other. Complete bromance book. Just a great guilty read.
Radiohead vs. Coldplay
REM vs U2
Rolling Stones vs Velvet Underground
Well you ain’t read anything until you’ve read Three Dog Nightmare; the Chuck Negron Story. It’s the essence of the awful rock bio. Trust me…he trades his gold records for pillowcases full of drugs, and then does so much drugs his, uh, male member EXPLODES!
As a librarian, I can’t recommend this book enough if you want trashy bios! : )
Sammy Hagar always struck me as the neato type of rock star compared to David Lee Roth. Anyway, I heard Slash & Marilyn Manson’s memoirs were pretty wild, but for stuff I have actually read, try Chuck Klosterman’s "Fargo: Rock City". Will dust off some rock memories.
I just picked up I Am Ozzy (I’m a woman, though).
‘The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Band’, by Vince Neil et al (Motley Crue). Just huge fun to read.
I just started reading Keith Richards memoir, "Life." And it starts off with a huge bang. I’ll keep you posted as I read more. But right now I love it.
Too funny! I’ve been curious about that book because I was so in love with Eddie Van Halen in high school. He was such a guitar god. It was different after they became Van Hagar, but Sammy was, in many ways, better than David Lee Roth. I’ll have to read it, even though it’s trashy
I’ve read Scar Tissue (Anthony Kiedis) three times. I dare you not to blow through those pages.
I think one of the best interesting lines in the book was when Sammy explained that when the Van Halen brothers would fight and didn’t want others to understand their bickering, they would abruptly switch from English to Dutch.