Duran Duran bassist John Taylor has led a life most people can only fantasize about. As part of the New Romantic
British band, he made music that influenced an entire generation of fans and musicians alike. He had money, astonishingly good looks, charisma and no small amount of talent. But there's always a dark side, the shadow balancing the light. For Taylor, that involved drug abuse and an addiction to sex, sicknesses that almost killed him.
In his autobiography, he talks about all those moments. What makes In the Pleasure Groove so fascinating is that it's almost impossible to believe that somebody who had so much could have any problems at all. But he did. Here he talks about yet another stint in rehab.
"Rehab. What a loser. Was there a more blatant, obvious acknowledgement that I had totally fucked up my life? As I lay in bed with last night's booze and drugs oozing out of my pores, I was haunted by the familiar wave of regrets:
the opportunities I had wasted in the Eighties, the bad choices I had made, over and over, again and again. What an asshole I was! "I could have been a contender."
Taylor pulls no punches in his self-appraisal. He is equally quick to point out his successes, and that makes the book refreshingly honest and balanced.
Anybody who ever danced to a Duran Duran song will want to read this.