The Dirt, Tommyland, Herion Diaries

By Vix
(SugarBuzz Oklahoma City)

SugarBuzz Magazine

So I know I have been absent and only resurface on occasion. Here is my futile attempt to try something new and see what you fuckers think. When I moved to the armpit I thought that there would be, like in other places, an array of music and talent for me to review. As you can tell from my lack of writing that is so not the case. So now I am going to turn to reviewing a few books for all you brainiacs out there.

I started off with Motley Crue's book "The Dirt: Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band". I know almost all of you glam heads that can read have probably read this book. It delves into the not so pretty side of the rock world that Motley Crue created on the Sunset Strip. In all honesty it just scratches the surface of what makes this band who they are and how they got there. It’s a funny story but at the same time sad and surprising. You find out that what you saw on the outside was no where near what you would imagine was really going on deep inside the band with these Bad Boys of Rock. From the vision of the future fro Nikki to the trouble and pains of Mick, the lack of companionship of Tommy and the drunken tragedy of Vince you get to see a bit of the underbelly of what made these guys tick. Ups and down and shocking antics involving women, drugs, booze and music makes this a must read for anyone that loves the 80s or lived it.

The thing is that this book kind of sugar coats it and makes what went on there seem fun. Sure it makes me wanna don some make up and spandex and see if I could do it too right? Actually what it really did was make me even more curious so I picked up and read Tommyland. The biography of Tommy Lee.

"Tommyland" is intense. This book lets you in to the inner workings and mindset of one of the most powerful, creative and influential drummers in the history of music. He talks about how in love his parents were and the lack of communication between them. His mother was Greek and his father American and the only way they could communicate was through drawing pictures. It was a love like that, that set Tommy out with a yearning deep inside to find that same thing in his life. In the mean time he joins the Crue and it is game on.

Through the ups and downs of the band and the drug Superbowl with Nikki, Tommy tells all in a candid and honestly shocking read. After reading the Crue Book, this has given me insight to the inner workings of the band in a way The Dirt didn't. It wipes off some of the showy glitter and lets you see the harsh reality of what was going on from the view of the drums.

Tommy goes into details about Heather and Pam and the other women he was involved with. He talks about hatred of paparazzi and the time he spent in jail. This is a fairytale type of story that doesn't end where the hero gets the girl and they ride off into the sunset happily ever after, but where the antihero finds himself and learns to live with who he is and walk down the high road proud.

After I got done with that I picked up "The Heroin Diaries: A Year in he Life of a Shattered Rock Star" by Nikki Sixx. First let me tell you out there that I read this book in ONE day. ONE FUCKING DAY!!!

I thought at first it would be a narrative like Tommyland but boy howdy was I wrong. This is the journal that Nikki kept over a year, the year that he was heaviest into the drug abuse. He talks candidly about the Heroin and Cocaine and how dying twice at one point still wasn't enough of a wake up call to straighten him out. He talks about how he wanted love so badly yet the only person he had to turn too was deeper into the drugs than he was. Internally he was crying, screaming for help but on the surface a facade, a hard edged, abrasive, live on the edge guy that took no shit but dished it in double scoops. The fun and rowdy rock and roll lifestyle that influenced then, and still does, the young aspiring musicians that travel from far and near to follow in his footsteps, is slashed open and exposes the reader to he ugly nasty face of reality. I recommend this book to anyone out there that thinks living the rock and roll lifestyle is their dream. It is NOT what it appears to be.

Anyone out there that thinks they are going to start a band and be the next Motley Crue please read all three of these books. Preferably in the order I did. It is a hard slap in the face to what really went on behind the scenes in the 8's. Forget what you read in the tabloids or see on TV...this is it...From the horse’s mouth.

The Dirt: Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band (Paperback)

By Tommy Lee, Vince Neil, Mick Mars, Nikki Sixx, Neil Strauss

Tommyland by Tommy Lee and Anthony Bozza

The Heroin Diaries: A Year in the Life of a Shattered Rock Star by Nikki Sixx

Are all available at Barnesandnoble.com or Amazon.com

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