 "Married To A Rock Star will enlighten you about what takes place behind the scenes of a rock star's mythical life, both on and off the stage . . ." Hmmm, sounds interesting, especially when the rock star in question is larger than life riffmeister Ted Nugent; 70s survivor, great white hunter and a man never short of an opinion, however controversial. Whatever you think of Ted's politics and music, this should be a story worth reading, right? Wrong. Really, really wrong.
Y'see, Married To A Rock Star wasn't written as an expose of the Nugents' lives and lifestyles, it was written as a catharsis; a way for Shemane to finally get over the pain of Ted's infidelity with a groupie - "a brief affair that stopped before it started." Hey, if it works then go for it. After all, I wrote this review as a way to finally get over the pain of reading this book.
Married To A Rock Star is all about opinions. In the main they're Ted's opinions, or at least they were: "Ted has enlightened me to the truth . . .", "It was Ted who helped me realize . . .", "Before Ted and I met, I had never held a gun in my hands. Now I shoot my Smith & Wesson Lady Smith handgun weekly, if not daily . . ." Creepy, huh? A bit like a cult.
Shemane has opinions of her own though; high-handed moralistic opinions that make you think that she has little contact with the real world. Shemane thinks it'd be a hoot to buy a fur coat specifically to goad animal right protestors, but gets upset when a "tattered-looking hippie . . . dressed in ripped and dirty clothing" gives her some verbal abuse. Her judgemental views on single-parent families, sex before marriage, immigrants, alcohol and of course groupies are equally subjective - the latter being branded as "morally deprived" and "soulless". And throughout Married To A Rock Star we are constantly reminded how wonderful, generous and loving Ted is, and how hard working and God fearing they both are. The only problem is, that by the end of the book you just don't care; you just want the endless self-congratulation and moralising to stop. Please make it stop. :: Rowan Shaeffer |
