Review: Sammy Hagar's book truly 'Uncensored'

There are tell-all books. And then there are tell-all books written by Sammy Hagar. The 63-year-old ex-Van Halen frontman holds back nothing - and I mean absolutely nothing - in his autobiography,

Red: My Uncensored Life in Rock

(It Books).

Sex? During Van Halen's live shows, Hagar says, the four band members set up tents under the stage where they would have trysts with handpicked women who were rounded up by roadies.

Drugs? You name it, Hagar has snorted, smoked or ingested it.

Rock 'n' roll? He's played with some of the biggest names in music, from Van Halen and the Grateful Dead to Kenny Chesney and Toby Keith.

"I'm not a liar," Hagar writes. "I'd rather tell you the truth and deal with it."

And that's exactly what he does, providing readers with a backstage pass that shows how a guy who grew up "bone poor" in post-World War II California and relied on welfare money to survive in his early adult years ascended to the pinnacle of the rock world.

Hagar's first big successes in music came in the 1970s with Montrose, which, in a bit of foreshadowing, was a band named after a lead guitarist who later replaced Hagar as singer.

He spent the next decade as a solo artist, churning out hit records and songs ("I Can't Drive 55") and playing sold-out shows around the world.

In the mid-'80s, Hagar returned from a lengthy tour with the idea of slowing down and spending more time at home with his wife and kids.

"Then Eddie Van Halen called," Hagar writes.

Hagar writes that he didn't plan on joining Van Halen, but after jamming with them, "got the goose bumps all over my body."

The next 10 years provided Hagar with some of the highest highs and the lowest lows of his life, and some of the book's best passages.