Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Like so many rock stars who survive into their 40s, Motley Crue front man Neil has produced an autobiography. Raised in Compton, Calif., just as gangs were starting to take over, Neil turned multiracial good looks and a bad attitude into a career singing for the leading hair band of the 1980s. Motley Crue embraced the values of rock star excess and garnered fame as much for their drunken exploits as for their music. In one grim episode, an inebriated Neil crashed his Ford Pantera into a Volkswagen, killing his passenger and critically injuring two others. Later, Neil was ejected from the band but eventually returned. Today, he lives in Vegas, making music and running several businesses, including a chain of tattoo parlors. Neil makes no pretense of being thoughtful or reflective, but with Sager's help he's done a more than adequate job of representing himself. Much is said about all the women he's had, all the drugs he's done, all the nice cars he's owned, and all the celebrities he's met. Yet within the rock-star braggadocio lies an entertaining story of a handsome, insecure guy with a lot of energy who got really lucky. Interviews with friends, business associates, and ex-wives bring much-needed depth to the narrative. To his credit, Neil deals honestly with the suffering he's caused. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Neil got the taste for entertaining by winning a lip-synching contest and went on to be the lead singer of the 1980s glam-metal (or hair-metal) band M^tley Cr e. Writing with Sager (Scary Monsters and Super Freaks: Stories of Sex, Drugs, Rock 'n' Roll and Murder), Neil focuses more on his rock star lifestyle than music and conversationally intersperses recollections from family, wives, and various industry people. We read about the debauchery that the band is known for-drugs, alcohol, partying, fighting, run-ins with the law, and girls, girls, girls-and lives lived in pursuit of dissolute indulgence. Three plastic surgeries later, Neil, now in his late 40s, is a mostly sober businessman, with a solo album, a line of tequila, a charter aviation company, tattoo parlors, and bars. Verdict While there is little reflection here, there are good rock'n'roll anecdotes, many of which are similar to the stories in the band's best-selling autobiography, M^tley Cr e: The Dirt, Nikki Sixx's The Heroine Diaries, and Tommy Lee's Tommyland.-LP Smith, Ohlone Coll. Lib., Fremont, CA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
