Since I do not get to engage in much debauchery in my own life, I really love to read biographies and autobiographies about people who have/had “colorful” lives. Rock star/celebrity/drug addict and even true-crime type books are my guilty pleasures.
Drug and alcohol addiction stories are especially interesting to me for more personal reasons.
I have already read a ton of these and will be happy to chime in with my opinion too. I just finished “Mustaine”, by Dave Mustaine of Megadeth. He claims to be in recovery now and a Christian, but spends the majority of the book blaming everyone he has ever met for the problems he has had. I’d probably give it a 6 or so. For frame of reference, “Mötley Crüe: The Dirt” and the Saturday Night Live book get a 9 or better from me :).
If you’d like, please include documentaries or tv shows (behind the music, E True Hollywood Story type stuff). I recently saw a documentary called “The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia” and I swear I thought I had died and gone to Heaven.
I just picked up Nile Rodgers’ new bio, Le Freak. Smashing read so far. He had the most screwed up childhood - raised by hipster junkies and shuttled from New York to LA and back. But he has a great perspective; says it was the perfect upbringing for his profession, and yes there is tons of sex and drugs (dude had an office in the ladies room at Studio 54!). I read half the book today; couldn’t put it down!
Oh yeah…that is exactly what I am talking about! I unexpectedly got an iPad for Christmas and I have been sampling books. Going to look for this one right now!
My Booky Wook by Russell Brand. Contrary to the image he and the media like to portray, Brand is a thoughtful, intelligent person, articulate and well read. He’s also a gigantic douchebag with narcissistic personality disorder, sex addiction and a vast history of substance abuse. However, he’s self-effacing and self-aware about his many failings, all of which contradictions make his autobiography an absolute pleasure to read. And it is seriously salacious.
I will be reading this soon after I heard Rodgers interviewed on NPR. Mustaine’s book was only so so - The Dirt, on Mötley Crüe, by Neil Strauss was suitably salacious.
Steve Jobs bio certainly pulls no punches in portraying him as a narcissistic asshole - but it’s a great read.
Keith Richards amazing book Life has all the sex drugs and rock n roll you could ask for.
I haven’t read Errol Flynn’s My Wicked Wicked Ways or David Niven’s The Moon’s a Balloon, but they supposedly dish…
The late Julia Phillips’ autobiography, You’ll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again. She does a great job of presenting herself as a narcissistic drug-dependent asshole, but she’s not shy about heavyduty snarking on other famous people (the drugs in Joan Didion’s medicine cabinet, Goldie Hawn doesn’t bathe much, etc.). Probably out of print, I have no idea if it’s available as an ebook.
I’d like to recommend “Detour” by Cheryl Crane. All about growing up with Lana Turner and the eventual murder of her mother’s boyfriend. She had a pretty rough life.
OK then, instead I’ll recommend A Bit of a Blur by Alex James, bass player for the eponymous band. He is a gifted writer and captures the ‘cool Brittania’ explosion of the early 90s. Also a gigantic douchebag with substance abuse problems, etc. etc. Similarly salacious but not as gross as Brand’s book.
Bret Hart’s is full of drugs, sex, steroids, and all kinds of professional wrestling debauchery and dirt on other people. One of his stories is about how Rocky Marciano stole money from Bret’s dad, Stu. Of course, the Montreal Screwjob is discussed too.
Both of Chris Jericho’s book are hilarious and interesting. He’s a Christian wrestler and singer for a band and describes his travels through Mexico and Japan on his way to WCW and WWF. He also tells stories about other people, like how the Ultimate Warrior wouldn’t eat dessert, but he would smash up cookies on a table and go back and forth sniffing them because “it’s the same thing.”
Mick Foley is supposed to have a great book, but it’s not a Kindle download yet.