'I don't think I was ever sober for long enough to get a hangover. I thought it was normal to inject drugs. I saw it as a lifestyle - my job. But it becomes pretty sad when you're in, say, Vienna and spending all your time trying to find a needle exchange.' - Pete Way
There are rock memoirs and then there is this one. A Fast Ride Out of Here tells a story that is so shocking, so outrageous, so packed with excess and leading to such uproar and tragic consequences as to be almost beyond compare. Put simply, in terms of jaw-dropping incident, self-destruction and all-round craziness, Pete Way's rock'n'roll life makes even Keith Richards's appear routine and Ozzy Osbourne seem positively mild-mannered in comparison. Not for nothing did Nikki Sixx, bassist with LA shock-rockers Motley Crue and who 'died' for eight minutes following a heroin overdose in 1988, consider that he was a disciple of and apprenticed to Way.
During a forty-year career as founding member and bassist of the venerated British hard rock band UFO, and which has also included a stint in his hell-raising buddy Ozzy's band, Pete Way has both scaled giddy heights and plunged to unfathomable lows. A heroin addict for more than ten years, he blew millions on drugs and booze and left behind him a trail of chaos and carnage. The human cost of this runs to six marriages, four divorces, a pair of estranged daughters and two dead ex-wives. Latterly, Way has fought cancer, but has survived it all and is now ready to tell his extraordinary tale.
By turns hilarious, heart-rending, mordant, scabrous, self-lacerating, brutally honest and entirely compulsive, A Fast Ride Out of Here will be a monument to rock'n'roll debauchery on an epic, unparalleled scale and also to one man's sheer indestructability.
'They call me a madman but compared to Pete Way, I'm out of my league.' - Ozzy Osbourne
'Pete Way was a force of nature. Most people actually need to be sober at some point in the day, but he didn't seem to require that. At one gig we were backstage listening to UFO play and the bass just disappeared - of course he'd fallen off the stage.' Geddy Lee, Rush
Pete Way has lived a life so outrageous, shocking and full of incident that rock wild man - and his regular partner-in-crime - Ozzy Osbourne once said, 'They call me a madman but compared to Pete Way, I'm out of my league.' As founding member, songwriter and bassist of one of Britain's most venerated hard-rock bands, UFO, Way scaled the heights of arena-rock success in the US and around the world during the '70s and '80s - and inspired such acolytes as Steve Harris of Iron Maiden and Nikki Sixx of Mötley Crüe. He also left behind him a trail of carnage and self-destruction.
A heroin addict for more than ten years, Way blew millions on drugs and debauchery. The human cost of his rampaging runs to six marriages, four divorces, a pair of estranged daughters and two dead ex-wives. More recently, he has fought a successful battle against cancer.
A Fast Ride out of Here is Pete Way's own no-holds-barred account of his rock'n'roll life. By turns hilarious, harrowing and heart-breaking, it is the extraordinary tale of one of rock's great survivors.
His story . . . is never less than entertaining, screamingly funny and . . . deeply moving . . . an extraordinary insight into a bygone era when prodigious talent coupled with breathtaking prodigality to produce some of the most unforgettable performances in the history of rock n roll
