Carmine Appice - Stick It! My Life Of Sex, Drums And Rock ’N’ Roll book review

It’s not big and it’s not clever.

Carmine Appice Stick It! My Life Of Sex, Drums And Rock ’N’ Roll book cover

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Drummer Carmine Appice enjoyed fame with Vanilla Fudge, Cactus and Beck, Bogert & Appice before managing to get sacked from both Rod Stewart and Ozzy Osbourne’s 80s bands. Despite firing his co-writer on Do Ya Think I’m Sexy? (which Appice maintains was because Rod was sick of hearing how he may be joining Led Zeppelin, even though that band ceased instantly after Bonzo’s death), Stewart provides the foreword to this narcissistic Tarzan call.

Sadly, it’s stuffed with too much information, whether it’s straddling underage sex, racism, misogyny, homophobia or the tediously over-mythologised mudshark incident.

Rather than calculating his conquests, the book would have benefited greatly from more insight on Appice’s encounters with Hendrix and Fudge producer Shadow Morton, rather than the endless macho bragging and skin-crawling sense of entitlement. Predictably, it’s been seized on by the tabloids and he probably does interviews with a cucumber stuffed down his shorts. The title says it: avoid.

Kris Needs

Kris Needs is a British journalist and author, known for writings on music from the 1970s onwards. Previously secretary of the Mott The Hoople fan club, he became editor of ZigZag in 1977 and has written biographies of stars including Primal Scream, Joe Strummer and Keith Richards. He's also written for MOJO, Record Collector, Classic Rock, Prog, Electronic Sound, Vive Le Rock and Shindig!