I was surprised when in the acknowledgements section, he said, "If I have written it well, readers of this book will know that I owe Dan and John a lifetime of thanks, for the only thing more fun than rocking on the drums and traveling the world is doing it with such wonderful friends."
I seriously did not get the impression that he was good friends with his bandmates. Towards the beginning, it seemed as if they were friends because that's how they formed their band, but when he went on to describe his life on the road, recording albums, doing interviews, etc., it seemed as if they hardly talked or even spent much time hanging out. He hardly said anything about them and didn't really mention any conversations they had either. So I'm wondering if he was pretty much alone, if not physically then mentally.
The book was for sure well-written, but it didn't have the kind of self-depracating tone or mixture of seriousness and levity that Toby Young's books have. I'm just comparing the two because Young wrote about his insider's view of (and failure in) the publishing and celebrity scene in New York and LA, and it's not hard to identify with him as he struggles to make something of himself. But I didn't identify with Slichter at all, just appreciated reading about his experiences.
One funny and telling detail Slichter gives us is of Cher:
Her facial-expression control unit was switched to the "off" position. Don't even think of saying hello to Cher when her face is turned off...We sat down, careful not to block Cher's view of the screen. I peeked to see if she had switched her face on. No, not until Drew Barrymore rushed in and gave her a big hug.
What does Cher's face turned off look like? That would be an interesting picture.
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