Musicians Autobiographies

[cowboyjunkie]

Anyone else into them?

I basically work alone and often listen to audiobooks to entertain myself. I’ve been through many biographies. Some of artists that I greatly admire and others who I’m not necessarily a fan of but curious to hear their stories.

My favourites so far:

Bruce Springsteen (I’m not a huge fan)
Bono (also not a huge fan)
Keith Richards (love the stones)
Pete Townsend (Interestingly says The Who was Roger’s band).
Rob Halford (This one was heartbreaking. He lived a lonely, drunk and depressed existence for many years before getting clean and sober and finding his partner).
Brian Johnson (ended his book with the success of Back in Black though)
Geddy Lee (yep, even Rush did loads of drugs early on)

It’s cool to hear about their rise to success and the debauchery (Anthony Kiedis, Nikki Sixx) that followed.

The only one I regret listening to is actor Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad). He’s a fine TV actor of course but his book made me hate him. LOL

 

[triptych]

Hi ...good idea for a thread. Ehm, I started reading autobios, then passed to bios

 

[cowboyjunkie]

Hi ...good idea for a thread. Ehm, I started reading autobios, then passed to bios

Yeah, a lot of these guys partner will writers to help tell their stories. Audiobooks don’t seem to be popular with Sherdog. I can’t quite understand why. I love’em.

 

[Spounman]

I've read Maynard's and Scott Weilands. Both were good and interesting.

 

[rikwebb]

Motley Crue - The Dirt
My dads got a really good Thin Lizzy / Lynott one but i can't remember the name at the moment
Lemmy - White Line Fever

 

[triptych]

Yeah, a lot of these guys partner will writers to help tell their stories. Audiobooks don’t seem to be popular with Sherdog. I can’t quite understand why. I love’em.

I'm into both paper books and audiobooks and e-books as well.....it's not the format that counts, it's the content.
I find that some bios are better than autobios because if the writer is really into the artist he's writing about, he/she will remain quite impartial in his thoughts, facts and end product on the artist. I prefer those autobios where the artist is really big time and has important things to tell about himself, not only trivia.

 

[PurpleStorm]

Yeah I love reading them. A few I'd recommend. Ian Hunter: Behind the Shades, Bob Dylan: Chronicles Vol. 1, Johnny Cash: Cash, Jay Z: Decoded, Ronnie Spector: Be My Baby.

 

[Jackonfire]

Yeah, I love reading musical biographies/autobiographies. And I'm the same way in that I'll read about an artist even if I'm not really into them. I read Eric Clapton's autobiography and it was pretty bad, lol. I don't know if he realized how poorly he came off in telling his own story. He talked about his pursuit of Patty Boyd who was married to George Harrison at the time. I then read a biography on George Harrison to get his side of the story. And then I read Patty Boyd's book to get her point of view. All I can say about Clapton is Christ, what an asshole.

I read a couple of books on Bowie. One was kind of a fluff piece and the other was almost a hit piece. I imagine the truth about him was somewhere in the middle of the two.

I've read about Kiss, Willie Nelson, The Smiths, The Rolling Stones, Jerry Garcia, Keith Richards, the Ramones, The Clash, Bob Dylan, really too many to name. I just ordered Will Sergeant's Bunnyman: Post-War Kid to Post-Punk and I'm looking forward to reading that over the holidays.

 

[AleYeah]

Mark Lanegan's Sing Backwards and Weep is definitely worth a shot.