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Alex Van Halen Brothers Book Review
I’ve been looking forward to this book being released for some time.
Brothers by Alex Van Halen, the drummer of the band Van Halen and brother of guitarist Edward Van Halen (RIP).
I also bought the Audio CDs of the book because I knew that Alex himself read it for this and wanted to hear him read it as I read along too.
It was worth the extra money because you can hear it in his voice than he means what he says and that you can hear that he’s gone back in time while reading the book.
The book Brothers covers a lot of ground. Alex and Edward’s upbringing, coming to America from Holland, starting to play music as kids, swapping instruments, playing in earlier bands, forming what became Van Halen, their relationship with singer David Lee Roth, playing backyard parties, clubs, making a demo with Gene Simmons of KISS, getting signed to Warner Brothers Records, making their first 6 albums, and more.
I loved this book and especially hearing Alex tell these stories.
I only wish the book went beyond the Dave years and focused on the other years of VH also. There are a few mentions of some of those times, but not much.
But either way, if you are a VH fan, this is a MUST READ.
And if possible, please get the audio too. You won’t regret it.
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Behind The Mask Of The Horror Actor By Doug Bradley (Pinhead from Hellraiser Franchise) Book Review
Horror movie icon Doug Bradley (Pinhead in most of the Hellraiser movies) released a book in 2004 called Behind The Mask Of The Horror Actor.
Part autobiography, part history book, Doug talks about getting into acting, earlier projects and working on the Hellraiser movies, but also, he talks extensively about other Horror movie icons, like Lon Chaney Sr. and Jr., Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Christopher Lee, Vincent Price, Peter Cushing, Robert Englund, and many more.
He also talks extensively about Horror movie characters, like Dracula, Frankenstein, Phantom Of The Opera, Michael Myers, Freddie Krueger, Jason Voorhees, Leatherface, and much more.
He talks about earlier origins of Horror characters too and people who made up many Horror characters, including Clive Barker, who did the forward to the book.
This is a very good book about the history of Horror but also is a partial autobiography of Pinhead himself, Doug Bradley.
I really enjoyed this book.
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Rod Stewart Rod The Autobiography Review
Rod Stewart released his autobiography Rod The Autobiography in 2012.
If you are a fan of Sir Rod’s, I cannot recommend this book enough.
He’s done it all and more.
Lots of music, lots of tours, lots of relationships, lots of sports, lots of everything.
He is one of the ultimate “rockstars”.
Get this book.
It is PHENOMENAL!!
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John Corabi Horseshoes And Hand Grenades Book Review
Singer/songwriter/guitarist John Corabi (The Scream, Motley Crue, Union, RATT, The Dead Daisies, solo artist) released his autobiography Horseshoes And Hand Grenades in 2022.
I bought it when I saw him earlier this year. Sorry John I was late getting to it.
It’s a great book, though. Co-written with Paul Miles, it traces his life from childhood, some of the crazy things that have happened in his life, all the bands he’s been in, and tons of stories throughout.
If you are a fan of John’s, I cannot recommend this book enough.
It has it all.
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My Tribute to Jack Russell of Great White and My Review of His Book The True Tale of Mista Bone
When I got home from work on Thursday, August 15 of 2024, my girlfriend Mariah called to tell me one of our favorite singers, Jack Russell, of the bands Great White and Jack Russell’s Great White, had passed away.
It was not long before this that Jack announced that he was retiring from doing concerts, because his health was not good.
Even though I knew he had a lot of health problems, I did not expect this.
I’m not going to say I’ve cried, but I feel very sad that he is gone.
Mariah and I really bonded over his music and went to see Jack Russell’s Great White a few years ago and had a blast.
I got to see him again the following year and thanks to his amazing guitarist Robby Lochner, I was able to meet Jack.
He was very kind and thanked me for being a fan.
I showed him all of my Great White CD booklets, and he was quite surprised to see how many I had. I only got out three of them for him to sign because I did not want to keep him. Although I think he may have signed them all if I asked because I saw him interact with other fans that night, and like with me, he was very kind and gracious with everyone.
I’m so glad I got to meet him.
I love his albums and I can’t say enough how much I love his voice. It was always great. Truly one of the best singers I’ve ever heard, and I’ve heard many great ones.
I’d actually received his recently released book, The True Tale of Mista Bone, as a birthday present, a few weeks before he passed, but I had not yet had the time to read it.
Well, I’ve since read it and even though I wish it was longer (my usual complaint with books), I’m glad he was able to tell his story, and like all of us, the book shows that he was human too.
The book is not always pretty, but it’s the truth.
I applaud him for telling his story to K.L. Doty, who wrote the book.
Lots of stories, and if you are a fan of his, then I recommend it.
Many other people were interviewed for the book too, and they tell a lot of stories related to Jack also.
He rocked all the way to the end, and I’m so glad he made as much music as he did. Because that will live forever.
Thank you Jack Russell for your great gift of making music fans like me very happy. I will always be a fan and will listen to your music for all time.
I love and miss you forever.
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Arnold Schwarzenegger Be Useful Seven Tools For Life Book Review
Arnold Schwarzenegger has been one of my heroes since I was a little kid.
I love most of his movies, and his current show on Netflix Fubar is a lot of fun too.
His autobiography Total Recall is excellent.
And this book, Be Useful Seven Tools For Life, is quite good also.
Released on October 10 of 2023, this book is part self help/part autobiographical/part inspirational/very positive.
I so wish I could be as positive and driven as Governor Schwarzenegger is.
I’ve been a fan since I was little, but I’ve never been confident or driven and ambitious like he is.
I don’t know if I ever could be.
Either way, I enjoyed this book very much.
I’ve been lucky enough to meet him and just be in the room with him a few times, courtesy of the Arnold Sports Festival.
I can tell you he is very much as he appears to be. Very smart, confident, positive, driven, focused, disciplined, and much more. All the things I’m not.
But still, he is a hero to me and he always will be.
Check out this book.
And as he says “Be useful”.
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Sting Broken Music Book Review
I’ve been a fan of the singer/songwriter/musician Sting for decades.
I’m a fan of his work with The Police and his solo work.
He’s a tremendous talent all around.
I’m also a fan of his book.
Broken Music was released in 2003.
In the book, Sting talks about his upbringing, his parents, school days, first getting into music, early bands, early relationships (including his first marriage and becoming a father), and the initial days of The Police.
It’s a great book, but I do wish he would have talked more about the rest of his career.
But his intention was to talk about his early days, and he does that quite well with this book.
If you are a fan of Sting, you need to read this book Broken Music.
And in order to know what he means by “Broken Music”, you have to read the book.
Please do.
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Ian Gillan: The Autobiography of Deep Purple’s Singer by Ian Gillan w/David Cohen Book Review
Deep Purple singer Ian Gillan released his autobiography in the late 90s.
Called Ian Gillan: The Autobiography of Deep Purple’s Singer, he talks about his upbringing, early bands, playing Jesus for the Jesus Christ Superstar album, his stints with Deep Purple (3 stints, 3rd time was the charm, staying to this day), his solo stuff and brief time as the singer of Black Sabbath, fun, wild rock and roll road stories, and just his life basically.
It also includes some of his lyrics interspersed throughout, when talking about certain life stories, in which he wrote into song.
It’s a fun read and I highly recommend it to anyone who is a fan of his or just a fan of music, bands, and life on the road.
Like I said, this book was initially released in the late 1990s, but has reprinted a few times.
Ian is still going strong with Deep Purple, FINALLY being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, still making albums, actually releasing a new album in 2024 and still touring.
Ian Gillan is one of my favorite singers and I’ve been blessed to see him in concert 3 times as of this writing.
He’s always been great and always will be, as far as I’m concerned.
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Tom Selleck You Never Know: A Memoir Book Review
Tom Selleck has been one of my favorite actors since I was a kid.
He released his memoir called You Never Know: A Memoir on May 7 of 2024.
It is a great book.
It by no means covers everything that has happened in his life, but he focuses on certain parts of his life and career throughout the book.
He talks about trying to hang on to his basketball scholarship and deciding to take a theater class because he thought it would be an easy A.
Well, when he started taking the class, his instructor told him he could get him an agent. Tom being new at this said Oh-Kay. This agent ultimately got him some jobs but also got him an appointment with the then head of 20th Century Fox, in which he was sent to their studio system program.
Tom says in this book that his career was really an accident because he never had aspirations or dreams on being an actor. But through studying, hard work, and luck, and as he says throughout the book, laying down bricks, he became an actor and eventually a very successful one.
He talks a lot about his time starring in Magnum, PI (as he just calls it Magnum).
I love the whole book, but these parts of the book are especially a big deal for me because the show Magnum PI came along at a very tough time in my life growing up. I had moved to a new state, with all new people, and had to try and get used to that.
Magnum was the one of the few shows I watched at the time (two shows a day in reruns on two different stations) and I really clung to this show. I really needed it at the time and I will be forever grateful to Tom Selleck John Hillerman (RIP), Roger E. Mosely (RIP), Larry Manetti, Donald P. Bellisario, and everyone involved in Magnum PI. Thank you so much for all of your hard work and dedication to the 8 years that show was on the air.
Tom also talks about some of his movies, including The Sacketts and The Shadow Riders (two of my favorite movies ever), High Road To China and Lassiter (two really good movies he did while filming Magnum), Three Men and a Baby, and how he ALMOST became Indiana Jones for Raiders of the Lost Ark. Read the book to find out more.
Again, I love this book and Tom Selleck will forever be a hero to me.
I wish he would have talked about some of his other work too (Such as the movies Runaway, Her Alibi, Folks, An Innocent Man, and other. He touches on Blue Bloods some too but not a lot.) but I still love the book and I especially love all the Magnum stories.
And, thanks to Premiere Collectibles, where I purchased this book from, I was able to get a signed copy. Thank you so much for that. I’ve wanted his autograph for 30 years and now I have it.
Thank you so much.
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The Last Action Heroes: The Triumphs, Flops, and Feuds of Hollywood’s Kings of Carnage by Nick De Semlyen Book Review
The Last Action Heroes: The Triumphs, Flops, and Feuds of Hollywood’s Kings of Carnage is a great book about movie action heroes of the 70s, 80s and 90s.
Released in 2023, Nick De Semlyen has written a very good book about a few of the biggest action heroes of all time.
The action heroes included in this book are Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Chuck Norris, Jackie Chan, Dolph Lundgren, Jean Claude Van Damme, Steven Seagal, and Bruce Willis.
Each star has some of their history chronicled throughout the book, and some even overlap because some of them worked together at certain points in time.
Lots of great stories here.
If you are a fan of these stars, like I am, then I highly recommend this book.
