Too much "name dropping" and not enough insight into the main character's motivations or feelings about things.
Got pretty boring for me. ( )

3.5 stars

Stevie Salas earned his fame by becoming one of the youngest guitar players to travel on a big name rock and roll concert tour, Rod Stewart’s “Out of Order.”

I'm a 80s generation Rod Steward fan, but before reading this book, I didn't actually know who Stevie Salas was. The Rod Steward element is what made me pick the book up, but upon starting it, I immediately liked Stevie. He comes across as a very likeable guy whose intentions seem inherently good. With his sweet, enthusiastic personality, he is the kind of guy anyone could easily imagine themselves hanging out with.

The book tells of Stevie’s problematic childhood, to his early love for music and playing guitar. It progresses to meeting some big names in the music business to securing his position with the Rod Stewart’s touring band, and his days of ‘living like a rock star,’ touching briefly on his own individual success within the industry. Along the way, he includes personal, heartfelt moments that make it easy for the reader to connect with him.

We get to see the inner workings of the band, how Stevie learned to work with them, striving to prefect his craft until the band sounded unified, but we also got to see how hard they partied, too — often so hard, they were unable to perform in concert to their full ability, offering fans substandard performances because they were hungover and tired. As a concertgoer, that was disappointing to hear.

I respected that Stevie kept his story relatively PG-13 and didn’t get into sordid details of his countless sexual romps. It was an eye-opener at how frequent, and basically expected, it was for hordes of beautiful girls to get naked and party with the band. Stevie alludes to routinely waking up with one or more naked girls in his bed. Knowing sexual promiscuity is a big part of the celebrity life-style; I was, at first, fascinated to hear about the episodes. But as the meaningless sex continued without any significance, accounts of his further sex-capades grew tiresome. (Maybe some sordid details would have made it more interesting...)

Along with the partying, sex and vague mention of drugs, there were also pranks performed by Stevie and a few of his fellow band mates. While amusing, they were often ridiculously juvenile. The destruction of hotel rooms along with some other stunts clearly demonstrated just how entitled the members of the band thought they were.

“When We Were The Boys” was a fun, quick read. Salas doesn’t use big words and seems fond of the adjective supercool. He’s guilty of name-dropping, but with the impressive amount of A-listers he’s met and partied with, I can’t say I blame him! Fans of the 80s rock era will enjoy this insight to the life of a rock and roll star.

*I received this book from the publisher in exchange for a review. ( )

I was expecting a memoir but was sad to find that this book was written more of a listing of people that Stevie Salas met or played with. There were quick glimpses into his life but it fell short of being readable.

When We Were the Boys is an interesting and very readable memoir by Stevie Salas about his time touring with Rod Stewart as his lead guitarist. Stevie was quite young when he auditioned for Stewart and this is a coming of age tale in that never never land of touring with a rock'n'roll band. The stories of crazy parties and backstage and hotel room hijinx are tempered by the fact that Stevie must be a pretty nice guy. I read the book fairly quickly, enjoying the backstage, behind-the-scenes stories. I would recommend it to rock'n'roll fans, especially Rod Stewart fans. There are references to sex and drugs Great insight into what it is like to be a rock star at a young age.

(Review based on complimentary Advance Reader copy.) ( )

This is just a fun read. I'll be honest with you I had never heard of Steve Salas before this book even though I consider myself well versed in Rock and Roll lore. After reading this book I most certainly will be looking for his name. His story reflects the dreams of a million other want to be guitarists, the difference being that he's living the dream. Highly recommend. ( )