SlushPile.net

Add guitarist and singer Lita Ford to the burgeoning list of rockers with book deals. [Here's a round up of hard rock books.] Reports are that the former Runaways member and longtime solo artist has signed a publishing deal with William Morrow for a memoir called Living Like a Runaway. Joel Selvin is flying co-pilot [...]

Read the full story

To the outsider, the world of books and publishing is sometimes perceived as a stuffy, stodgy, genteel world of college professors, pipes, and tweed jackets with elbow patches. Now imagine that quiet book reading, with a string quartet playing the corner, being crashed by a bunch of unwashed, drugged out rockers. That clash of cultures [...]

Read the full story

When the house lights go down and the crowd jumps to its feet and the spotlight operators squint through the dry ice, seeking musicians on the stage, the bass player is often the last rocker they highlight. Singers and guitarists generally get most of the attention. So perhaps it’s fitting that Duff McKagan released It’s [...]

Read the full story

In recent days, we examined the trend towards everyone with a Marshall amp stack releasing a book of some form. And, unfortunately, many of those books haven’t been very fulfilling. So I wanted to close the discussion by mentioning some hard rock and heavy metal books that are interesting and different and worth a read. [...]

Read the full story

According to Blabbermouth.net, we can add Ratt vocalist Stephen Pearcy to the list of hard rock and heavy metal memoirs. The article states that Pearcy’s management is “entertaining publishers” for Pearcy’s book. The singer says that he is “working on a few rough chapters as we speak!” Ratt drummer Bobby Blotzer released Tales of a [...]

Read the full story

While I have been critical of some recent hard rock and heavy metal books, it should be obvious that I am a huge fan of this genre of music. The more opportunities that I have to learn about the musicians I admire, the better. My forthcoming book covers this genre so when I criticize this [...]

Read the full story

During this weeklong examination of the hard rock and heavy metal memoir trend, it’s impossible to ignore the role of the co-author in these projects. Sometimes the co-authors (or ghostwriters if you prefer that title) can bring a level of literary high art to the proceedings. Other times, co-authors are reduced to mere typists by [...]

Read the full story

I’ve seen Motley Crue nine times in the last five years. I’ve purchased plane tickets in order to travel to Crue performances. My love of the band is so well-known that people often come to me with motleyish questions. “On that first reunion tour in 2005, I could see how Vince Neil might have been [...]

Read the full story

As the proliferation of hard rock and heavy metal memoirs continues, there is a growing trend of what I consider very “thin” books. This description doesn’t apply to the actual page counts, but instead the depth of detail and examination. All of these books made the bestseller list so clearly a certain amount of readers [...]

Read the full story

That Metal Show on VH1 Classic is required viewing around my house. Hosted by Eddie Trunk along with Don Jamieson and Jim Florentine, the show focuses on classic hard rock and heavy metal. It has also become a prime outlet for musicians to discuss their books. For example, drummer Carmine Appice recently discussed writing his [...]

Read the full story

Yesterday, we discussed the deluge of books related to hard rock and heavy metal. Whereas the prevailing attitude used to be that rockers don’t read, it now appears that anyone with a Marshall amp stack can get a book deal. And even if you don’t have a massive stack of amplifiers, you can still sell [...]

Read the full story

In 2001, in his debut book Fargo Rock City: A Heavy Metal Odyssey in Rural North Dakota Chuck Klosterman wrote “I mean, nobody literate cares about metal, right?” Obviously, Klosterman himself didn’t think that metal was unworthy of literary examination and he plowed ahead with the book that set the foundation for his successful career. [...]

Read the full story

In bestselling author Anthony Bozza’s new book, Why AC/DC Matters we get the kind of impassioned art criticism that is normally relegated to websites, fanzines, and independent publishers. Now, in the sake of full disclosure, Bozza is a friend and business colleague of mine. So take these comments with a grain of salt if you [...]

Read the full story

Galley Cat is reporting that former Guns ‘n Roses drummer Steven Adler is sending out a proposal today for a memoir entitled My Appetite for Destruction. The book deals with his drug addictions and efforts to hold onto sobriety. Undoubtedly, it will also contain his perspective on the excesses of the Guns as well as [...]

Read the full story