Slap Happy Fun Time

Controversy Creates Cash - Eric Bischoff                                                                      Here's the interesting thing about Bischoff's biography. It's not your typical bio, and for some it's exactly what you expect it to be. Not a story of a man's life, but a story about a company called WCW. That's why most of us picked up this book. Hell, it's why I paid 2.99 for it on Kindle. I'm sure Bischoff has lead an interesting life, but Eric himself knows why we're all gathered here to read his book. There are a few interesting notes about his personal life, but the focus here is on his career as the guy who killed WCW. He was the most hated man in professional wrestling and for good reason. I want some dirt, and I want to see pics of Eric hoisting that dirt onto the bodies of his enemies. ...

Brother Sam The Short, Spectacular Life Of Sam Kinison 3/5 stars       I will never forget the first time I saw Kinison on HBO. It was late and I was probably 11 or 12 at the time, and it was about midnight which meant whatever I watched, I had to be quiet. Then I saw Sam, and I could not stop laughing. At the end of his set my stomach hurt, I had tears pouring out of my eyes, but I knew I saw something ground breaking. Sam was the voice of the people. He said what most guys thought, and even wished they had the balls to say. When he passed it stunned me, and I remember listening to Have You Seen Me Lately and tried to imagine a world without Sam. I heard about the book many years later, but it took me a while to track it down. Hell, I don't even think it's in print anymore. I own the hardback and when I did a search for it, that's all I could find.       So, reading the book there was a lot that stood out. Sam was truly a genius, and he was out of co...

Makeup To Breakup: My Life In And Out Of Kiss   3/5 stars/                                                                 Just when you think you have the entire story behind Kisstory another book comes out, and it's just as ugly as the last one. I'm not talking about the bio Nothing To Lose because that was as close to the truth as you're going to get to the behind the scenes world of all things Kiss. Criss' bio is full of anger, and even bitterness. Every time he cries, you should take a drink. Hell, you should invite your friends over to group read this one just so you can create a new drinking game. This is an interesting read, and what surprised me was that Peter is supposed to be uneducated, yet he wrote a better book than Gene Simmons. You want dirt? Here is a book you full of it. Criss holds nothing back ...

Iron Man: My Journey Through Heaven & Hell With Black Sabbath 5/5                                                                             At best, I would consider myself a casual fan of Black Sabbath. There's no denying the fact that they invented not only heavy metal, but paved the way for every other band after them to pledge their allegiance to Satan. I didn't get into the band until Ronnie James Dio joined and believe me, I got a lot of grief for not enjoying the original lineup as much as everyone else did. The point here is that Iommi's biography is meant for a wide audience. Even a casual fan can pick this book up and enjoy it which is cool. The book is merely the story of the band, not exactly Iommi and that makes the book a bit more interesting than most bio's.    ...

   Too Much, Too Soon: The Make-up & Break Up Of The New York Dolls - Nina Antonia 5/5                                                                    Let me just say thank Bob for Youtube so I can finally see old footage of the Dolls live because I wasn't lucky enough to have seen them during their initial run. I was born the same years the Dolls exploded on the scene looking like crazed transvestites. They were original at a time when rock music needed it and they gave rock fans something no one had ever seen before. You can see their influence all over popular music. Let's be honest and say that if it weren't for the Dolls those hairbands from the 80's would've never existed, and it's a known fact that KISS was hugely influenced by the band as well. With that being said, the book tells the Dol...

The Girl With The Lower Back Tattoo - Amy Schumer 3/5                                                                               Hi, I'm Michael, and I'm a fan of Amy Schumer. I know, I know I hear what you're saying; "You're a fan of Carlin, Hicks, Kinison! You can't seriously find Amy Schumer funny!" I do, and yeah, it surprised me too, but when I heard about the book I wanted to read it because Amy's funny and the book should prove a little interesting. I ignored all the reviews because they all pretty much said the same thing. No help at all. If you're a fan, you'll like the book, and if you're not, well you won't. It's that simple. It's not even a biography just some essays, but they aren't bad. Quite a few of them are pretty damn funny. At times it did feel as if she were trying t...

     American Scream: The Bill Hicks Story - Cynthia True 3/5 stars                                                                                 I've been an avid Hicks fan for a very long time and I know that people say that quite often, and quite a few times it's all bullshit. The reason I love Hicks so much is that he said exactly what I was thinking most of the time. He connected with his fans on a level that most comedians only dream of and American Scream was finally our chance to learn about who Hicks was. I think most of the problem is True's fear of upsetting his fans. She gives us exactly what we want and we get to know Bill a little better, but as a fan I was expecting more. It's as if she knows that we want a book that respects Bill while talking about h...

Nothin' to Lose: The Making of KISS (1972-1975) - Ken Sharp, Gene Simmons, And Paul Stanley 5/5 stars                                                As a fan of Kiss I thought I knew everything there was to know about the band. I read all of the bios that the original four members released so when I heard about Nothin' To Lose I wasn't all that excited because I was sure that there would be nothing new to add. We've already got all of the stories from four different sources. Why do we need another book? What's left to tell that Paul and Gene haven't already told us?      That's the draw for Nothin' to Lose. It takes you to be beginnings of the band and their struggle to succeed. When Kiss started they were innovative, yet no one actually saw it that way. Critics hated them, the press ignored them, and everyone thought that Kiss was a too gimmick...

     I Am Ozzy - Ozzy Osbourne & Chris Ayers 2/5             First I have to be honest and say that I'm not a die hard Ozzy fan. Didn't really like Black Sabbath until Dio joined and then I heard Born Again and I stuck around a little longer. Of Ozzy's solo work I have Blizzard Of Oz, Diary Of A Madman, and The Ultimate Sin on vinyl. The last two records are by far the best work that the Oz has ever created and are the only records of his that I listen to regularly, The book has never been too high on my list of books to be read. Finally I figured what the hell, I may as well check it out.       If you're a die hard Ozzy fan this book should be right up your alley. It contains a great deal of humor and a lot of stories about his drunken misadventures. I expected a lot more about Randy Rhoades, but there isn't a whole lot here which was disappointing and I'm not sure why he chose to not include more about Randy other...

     The Life And Times Of Charles Manson - Jeff Guin 5/5 stars                                                                     The Life And Times Of Charles Manson sounds like quite a whimsical little book doesn't it? Almost sounds like a feel good story that will pull at your heart strings a little and make you weep with joy. This isn't that kind of book. I have read a few books on Manson and the Family but most are terrible. They don't offer any new insight or even tell us who Manson really is. How was he able to convince these people to kill for him? The only book that came close was Helter Skelter. That was a fascinating glimpse of the Family and the Tate/Labianca it was the Holy Grail of Manson And The Family. Now we have The Life And Times Of Charles Manson which gives us an even deeper g...

    Red: My Uncensored Life In Rock - Sammy Hagar  2/5                                                                    I have no idea what I was expecting when I started reading this. Maybe a lot of dirt, a lot of drugs and alcohol maybe. What I didn't expect was Sammy being by far one of the sanest guys in rock and roll. This is a guy that made more money outside of music than he did inside. If there was money to be made he found a way to do it. You get an alcoholic father, a batshit crazy wife, and a batshit crazy guitarist named Eddie, but the problem is that Sammy comes off as a nice guy which is really unexpected. The problem is that the book truly captures Sammy's manic energy and the book often comes off incoherent. This isn't a bad biography. It's just boring.      If you...

     A Lion's Tale: Around The World In Spandex - Chris Jericho 5/5                                                                                                                                     It's true I'm that I'm a huge pro-wrestling fan, but the problem is that the bio's usually suffer from WWE censorship. The best ones are those that allow the whole story to be told. Warts and all. Those are rare and only one comes to mind and that's Mick Foley's. He proved that not only is his story one that needs to be read, but one that is not only full of hilarity but the stuff that we don't see behind the curtain. Foley's book proved that you ca...

     Dee Snider - Shut Up And Give Me The Mic  - Dee Snider 5/5                                                                          Let's go ahead and get the disclaimer out of the way. This will no doubt contain a lot of foul language because this is the memoir of the legendary Dee mother fucking Snider of the one and only Twisted fuckin' Sister. While Kiss may have been my first foray into heavy metal it was without a doubt the boys in Twisted that blew the doors wide open and showed me just how awesome heavy metal was and could be. I was probably eleven when I was at Kenny Kessler's house and he pulled out this tape of a band that I had never heard of. The label of the tape itself was in German (at the time I had no idea that there were such a thing as imports!), and ...

Here's The The deal: Don't Touch Me  - Howie Mandel, and Josh Young  3/5                                                                                                                      This is one of those biographies that I was quite interested in reading for obvious reasons. The problem that I had was if I had to give it a bad review someone would just call me an asshole for disliking it. This is a guy that suffers from OCD and ADHD and he probably had a hard time writing this book so I should be fair. As both a reader and a reviewer it's not helping anyone if I lie and say that I liked a book simply because the author has mental health issues. That's not how this works. I...

Bret Hart -  Hitman: My Real Life In The Cartoon World Of Wrestling  3/5                                                    I totally forgot that I had read this about three or four years ago. The digital edition sports a different cover so it threw me off a little. I should also warn you that I'm a huge pro-wrestling fan. I have a ton of wrestling books lined up so be prepared. In terms of how many of these books I've already read this one isn't exactly the worst. Bret isn't publishing this with the WWE's backing so you can breath easy and be prepared for some serious dirt. That's why we read these isn't it? We want to know which wrestlers are assholes, You know the guys that refuse to put anyone over and think that their shit doesn't stink even though they suck. Bret pulls no punches and he doesn't allow you to forget that he was the best...