The new memoir from the former KISS guitarist – in which Freheley accuses bassist and reality TV star Gene Simmons of being a money-grubber who crushed his daughter’s film dreams - landed at an impressive No. 10 in its first week out on the New York Times Hardcover Nonfiction Best Sellers list.
Further down the list from Frehley’s No Regrets: A Rock ‘N’ Roll Memoir sits guitarist Tony Iommi’s Iron Man: My Journey Through Heaven And Hell With Black Sabbath. It occupies the No. 35 spot.
The varying successes could well be a question of optics.
Where Frehley calls No Regrets, which was co-authored by journalist Joe Layden, a look back at his “life of sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll” and doubtless gets some lift from Simmons’ high-profile, Iommi describes his book simply: “It’s just my life, really,” he said. “It’s about what happened and what I grew up from, and how I’ve gone through life to where I am now.”
Isn’t that exactly what a memoir should be? Iron Man was co-written by journalist T.J. Lammers and may well need an epilogue detailing how Iommi spent the gazillions of dollars he earned as part of the Black Sabbath reunion heading into arenas worldwide throughout 2012.
Talk about truth being stranger than fiction.
