Well, I really want to encourage people to buy the book. I bought it on kindle at amazon for $9.99 and it was totally worth it.
Billy said he bought a new house immediately after he joined the band, so he got a lot of money upfront. He said the band spent $1.2 million to record Behind the Mask and almost the same on Time. They also paid Patrick Leonard a LOT of money to produce Love Shines and Heart of Stone. He wrote about how some of the band hated performing live on TV and even pulled out of a few shows because of that (Good Morning America, I believe he said). Let's see, also he described how they flew in private planes with bedrooms, which they rarely used, he made out with Stevie when they all traveled by train once, and how awkward it was when Mick wrote his biography and how uncomfortable the bus ride was to the airport that day. Chris, Stevie, and even John were very displeased with Mick. Once, Stevie had a party for U2 but U2 insisted Tom Petty and the Eagles and some of her friends be disinvited. Stevie and Chris were the ones who insisted Billy and Rick be formal members of FM, and Mick and John finally agreed. Billy said nothing but nice things about everyone, with the exception of Rick, who he writes virtually nothing about. Even when he wrote about FM's performance at the Super Bowl pre-show, he didn't mention that Rick rejoined the band at Billy's request. Very odd.
Oh, and some really surprising stuff about FM's performance at the inauguration that I had never heard. And there's more. Many times I was like, "oh, I had no idea." Nothing life changing, but the kind of minor details a FM fanatic would be interested in. One other thing I found fascinating was a casual mention that Richard Dashut lived in a home worth something like $10 million. He was (and maybe still is) well compensated in his job, apparently! Hope this whets your appetite a bit.
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