Quite literally Johnson have time-lined his life in cars. There’s plenty of highs and lows. From lights randomly popping out of his Lotus to the abject misery of owning anything made by British Leyland. There’s the odd insight into life on the road. Whether it’s bunking on the tour bus or being chauffeured around Europe in an executive limo in style. His band mates don’t make it out unscathed either and there’s plenty of falling in love on the road. Only with British convertibles and not slutty groupies.

It’s full of short, funny (some very funny) and punchy anecdotes. Via cars, he manages to leave no part of his life unscathed and that’s what’s truly miraculous and perhaps why Johnson decided to go this route for his biography – and it does work. There’s a sense that as a standard biography it would be too tight lipped and laconic. No question he has no problem opening up over some put banter about his cars though. But sadly it kind of lacks substance. Honestly I read this book cover to cover in three days. A decent reader could easily do it in a night. Not to Johnson’s detriment. This is a fantastic read. If only it could be longer.

According to the Wikipedia, this book was compiled from something like 12,000 pages of notes from the Roth man himself. If that’s the case, the co author can take a bow. Because this book is a bit dated (1997) but it’s one of the best reads in rock history. In fact with the recent reunion, a re write would be interesting!

For shear entertainment value it’s hard to beat. David takes you from his humble origins in deepest, darkest, anti semetic 1950s Indiana, right up through the glory days of Van Halen. There’s plenty of crazy road crew stories, how me met the Van Halen brothers and shenanigans galore.

What’s most impressive about it though is his insight into the rock business. He talks a lot about riding his bike while on tour around towns in the wee hours of the morning. Pretty much because it’s the only time he got to see the sights on the road. Also intriguing is how involved Diamond Dave got himself in the business. From renting out the PA to the Van Halens (a sure fire way to get in the band) to producing his own records, even the touring merchandise.

There’s also some scathing insights into the world of rock management and getting royaly shafted as big acts often do. With lots of useful advice for would be musicians. What really makes the book remarkable though is Roth’s passion for adventure. He’s taken his love of old school adventure books like Huckleberry Finn to the extreme with stories of rock climbing, exploring the Amazon jungle, even Mount Everest!

Admitedly, this all sounds like ‘Geez Dave must be a top bloke!’ and you have to be a bit objective. He tries not to pick on any former band mates too harshly, although in doing so glorifies himself a bit. But until Van Halen or a few particular session musos retort, meh this is all the testimonial we have. And while those guys are virtuosos, Dave is a true show man with more than a few surprises up his sleeve. Their books wouldn’t be anywhere near as amazing as this.

A definite must read for fans of rock books. Five out of five.

This book can be summarised in a few quick points: Axl Rose is a twat and never let a junkie tell you about his heroin habit. Don’t get me wrong. The Gunners truly the were the soundtrack to my adolescence and I think Slash rocks. Only I had no idea how big a smacker the guy with the top hat was/is.

It breaks down like this. The book is roughly 30% his (and other band mates) self pitying bullshit to do with heroin, 10% about Axl’s prima donna, delusional bullshit, 20% his youth, 45% about the Gunners getting together. The remaining 5% the kind of anecdotal cool stuff about other bands and rockers you actually want to hear about. Of that 5%, he talks about other bands like Faster Pussycat, Sebastian Bach, Motley Crue, Alice Cooper and a bit about Ronny Wood from the Rolling Stones.

Unlike Lemmy’s biography White Line Fever, where he only remembers operational and managerial aspects of his band (put it down to the masses of speed he takes), Slash somehow only remembers all the self pitying dope stuff. It gets a bit hard to read after a while. It would be cheaper to buy a hippie a drink (no doubt they wont offer you one). Don’t get me wrong, it’s punctuated with some interesting glam rock anecdotes, but there’s nowhere near enough.

One of the chuckles you get out of the book is that there’s the odd reference to David Lee Roth as some kind litmus test for glam rockers. For example, he talks about being concerned about AIDS in ‘85, then mentions that since David Lee Roth didn’t get it, he kept fooling around! Without ruining too much, at another point he says “so I did the only thing that made sense: I hung out with David Lee Roth all night”. So it’s not completely cut and dry.

On the subject of Axl, it would be good to hear his reprisal, but clearly he is a twat. No one takes ten years to get an album out, while sacking everyone in his original band, which makes everything said about him by Slash quite plausible, and he’s quite diplomatic about the whole thing. Surely, Axl’s bio would be encyclapedic. Who needs it.

Anyway on a more positive note, the first few chapters about his childhood are quite interesting, as his mum Ola went out with Bowie and worked with a bunch of musos. His dad also designed album covers, his mum stage costumes. So he was well and truly born into the biz. He was even more of a kleptomaniac than Steve Jones! There’s also a bit about getting Velvet Revolver together.

Closing up, I’m not quite sure if I can completely recommend this book. It’s all about how much damage you can do to yourself rather than drinking stories or on tour debauchery. Not really my think. 2 out of 5.

This book calls on archived rock magazines and interviews with Scott’s wife, girlfriends, family and flings. Of course, there’s heaps of interview excerpts with roadies, friends but sadly very little first hand stuff from the band or their record label Alberts. Apparently the author suggests they run a very tight ship.

Unlike Lemmy’s bio, this book is written by the erudite and journalistically inclined Clinton Walker. He’s very successfully journalled Scott’s teens, in Fremantle, his family background, a brief stint in a correctional centre, right up to his formative years in bands the Valentines and Fraternity. The hard ships of these times in his life, and the depiction of the Australian music scene (in all states) in the late 60s/early 70s is vivid and enlightening to say the least!

It’s evident after reading this book that there was no accident in Bon Scott’s stardom. Scott gigged his arse off all over Australia and had been through the band ringer not once but 3 times. Scott was definitely the antipode of the Young brothers. He was experienced, sociable, well aversed and exuberant. Qualities that the very talented, and youthful Youngs, lacked. Especially Angus who was still in his teens when Bon was almost 30. The recalcitrant and apparently paranoid way in which the Youngs ran the band would ultimately ostracise Scott into a life of loniless and alcoholism on the road.

The events around Bon’s death are discussed objectively. Around that time, Bon had found all the trappings of success but still no life partner and was living a lonely existance. Suicide is implied in that he was drinking especially heavily before his death, but there’s nothing too conspiratorial here. But those who’d think he was a chauvenistic old rocker would be interested to see all the letters in this book he’d written to lovers. He also had a penchant for all things Japanese. He was far more gentle, according to Walker, than most would imagine.

This book is well worth a read just to remember how much cooler other people lives are than yours! There’s plenty of rock and roll stories, anecdotes and the plain the good, the bad and the ugly. I’m loathed to say that the Australian history aspect of the rock scene is in itself enough reason to buy the book. But the real reason is that whilst you may not have a Whole Lotta Rosie, your life’s definitely a lot easier to live than that of a soon-to-be iconklast rock starm waiting to be a millionaire. Yes, the whole book is worth it just for that. Bon lives. 5 out of 5!