What do you think?
Rate this book
And the Beat Goes On
The hit singer and variety show star from the 1970s discusses his early career, his life and work with Cher, the music scene from the 1950s to the 1970s, Cher's tragic miscarriage and the birth of Chastity, and "The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour"
274 pages, Hardcover
First published August 1, 1991
2 people are currently reading
74 people want to read
About the author
Sonny Bono
13 books1 followerSalvatore Phillip "Sonny" Bono was an American record producer, singer, actor, and politician whose career spanned over three decades.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
July 30, 2017
Sonny Bono, well I was surprised.
I used to watch the Sonny and Cher show when I was young, I never gave them much thought beyond thinking Cher was beautiful. My most vivid images of that show are Cher on top of the piano, vamp, and Sonny and Cher holding their little girl's hands at the end of the show.
Reading this book was kind of a shock. I had no idea that Sonny was married and a father of a child he never took care of, when he started his relationship with sixteen year old Cher. Sonny was twenty-seven and was regularly cheating on his wife, Cher was someone he fell in love with, more serious than his other dalliances or the relationship he had with his wife and first child. But she was sixteen!
Different times. Sonny writes songs, Cher sings. She has trouble singing before an audience so she sings to Sonny. "I Got You Babe" comes out and they hit the big time.
Because he starts the book recalling singing I Got You Babe on Late Night with David Letterman with Cher in 1987, I watched it. More than ten years since their divorce and the chemistry was still there. Cher's voice just blew me away. Awesome, completely awesome. Sonny looked uncomfortable singing to Cher and she looked like she was looking for approval from him. As soon as he took her hand and kissed it she moved in closer and looked both grateful and happier. She can say that he was a terrible husband but watch the body language and see what you think.
They each have their reasons for doing what they do but in the end Cher forces the break up. I don't know how much happiness Cher finds afterward. Sonny finally finds happiness again with his fourth wife and the two children he has with her, and in his political career as Mayor of Palm Springs and later as a Congressman.
Some random thoughts:
I recall seeing an anti-marijuana film in the early 1970's that Sonny Bono was in. In my recall he was wearing a robe but when I watched the film (it was even stupider than I remembered) he was wearing some sort of satin pajamas.
I liked his nose better before his nose job.
He was a Scientologist? He mentions learning, from Dianetics, that he shouldn't go out with a girl who was involved with someone else. Wasn't obvious to him...
Anyway, I actually enjoyed reading the book; some nostalgia, some celebrity gossip, some watching old Sonny and Cher performances, loving the clothes, missing the 60's.
I used to watch the Sonny and Cher show when I was young, I never gave them much thought beyond thinking Cher was beautiful. My most vivid images of that show are Cher on top of the piano, vamp, and Sonny and Cher holding their little girl's hands at the end of the show.
Reading this book was kind of a shock. I had no idea that Sonny was married and a father of a child he never took care of, when he started his relationship with sixteen year old Cher. Sonny was twenty-seven and was regularly cheating on his wife, Cher was someone he fell in love with, more serious than his other dalliances or the relationship he had with his wife and first child. But she was sixteen!
Different times. Sonny writes songs, Cher sings. She has trouble singing before an audience so she sings to Sonny. "I Got You Babe" comes out and they hit the big time.
Because he starts the book recalling singing I Got You Babe on Late Night with David Letterman with Cher in 1987, I watched it. More than ten years since their divorce and the chemistry was still there. Cher's voice just blew me away. Awesome, completely awesome. Sonny looked uncomfortable singing to Cher and she looked like she was looking for approval from him. As soon as he took her hand and kissed it she moved in closer and looked both grateful and happier. She can say that he was a terrible husband but watch the body language and see what you think.
They each have their reasons for doing what they do but in the end Cher forces the break up. I don't know how much happiness Cher finds afterward. Sonny finally finds happiness again with his fourth wife and the two children he has with her, and in his political career as Mayor of Palm Springs and later as a Congressman.
Some random thoughts:
I recall seeing an anti-marijuana film in the early 1970's that Sonny Bono was in. In my recall he was wearing a robe but when I watched the film (it was even stupider than I remembered) he was wearing some sort of satin pajamas.
I liked his nose better before his nose job.
He was a Scientologist? He mentions learning, from Dianetics, that he shouldn't go out with a girl who was involved with someone else. Wasn't obvious to him...
Anyway, I actually enjoyed reading the book; some nostalgia, some celebrity gossip, some watching old Sonny and Cher performances, loving the clothes, missing the 60's.
September 21, 2008
I happened to be at the mall in Los Angeles and saw that Sonny was going to autogrpah copies of this beek the week it came out. Of course I had to go meet him, and it was awesome. There were only about two dozen people there including my friend and and me, so we got to chat with him for awhile. Now this time means even more to me since Sonny was tragically killed in a skiing accident.
August 18, 2023
This is a good book to a point--very interesting to hear many of the behind-the-scenes stories about the life of Sonny and Cher. And make no mistake--this book is really about Sonny and Cher. At times mostly Cher. I read this in 2013 and again in 2023.
It is completely told from Sonny's viewpoint, therefore we're getting his ego-centric versions of events, but if even part of what he writes about Cher is true then she is really screwed up. I found I could relate to him as a guy trying to do everything he could for his distant wife while she showed no appreciation. Cher passively wanted more fame and eventually dumped him by claiming he kept her as a slave.
Cher, based on Sonny's writings, is a despicable, insecure person who only seemed interested in herself, killing her relationship with Sonny. If ever you needed to see some reasons why their child born Chastity turned out the way she/he did, you'll find it in these pages--dad Sonny was loving but was kept from his daughter by "in name only" mother Cher, who was psycho, self-absorbed, insecure, and had almost nothing to do with the upbringing of her daughter--who by fifth grade still couldn't really read or write.
The book speeds by and there are many things about Sonny's early years that we didn't know. The one major problem with the book is that Bono doesn't take the time to flesh out stories and instead they come across as a type of confessional version of his sins. He mentions them but doesn't give any specifics. So he admits to cheating on his wives and sleeping with all sorts of women but we never hear specifics. He alludes to having friends in the Mafia. He even tosses bombs at Cher without substantive support, implying that she was either bisexual or lesbian and a wet fish in bed with him.
As a Republican politician he seems to be trying to throw down on paper everything hiding in his closet before opponents reveal things--saying that he learned from his past mistakes. It's hard to hear a guy talk about dozens of affairs over a couple decades, cheating on multiple wives and ignoring his children, then expecting people to just accept him because he says he learned his lesson.
How many kids did Sonny father? Everything online says four but the book actually says FIVE. In his 20s he fathered a son with a woman and after mentioning it once the boy is never mentioned again.
The end of the book is another madcap rush while skipping over five years. It's incomplete and frustrating.
Sonny Bono doesn't seem to be able to see the negative impact of his own ego. He certainly admits his faults but he somehow convinced himself that he was one of the greatest songwriters of all time, half of the top musical group in the world, and had landed on the entertainment "top of the mountain" as he calls it. A few chart hits, a hit TV show that was cancelled due to divorce, and some weeks in Vegas don't qualify him for the accolades he likes to give himself. He was a temporarily successful musician/composer who was unable to sustain his popularity due to his unwillingness to listen to others and admit his talent weaknesses.
Sadly, his beat didn't go on so what's left is this overall entertaining book that needed more details and a less defensive ego.
It is completely told from Sonny's viewpoint, therefore we're getting his ego-centric versions of events, but if even part of what he writes about Cher is true then she is really screwed up. I found I could relate to him as a guy trying to do everything he could for his distant wife while she showed no appreciation. Cher passively wanted more fame and eventually dumped him by claiming he kept her as a slave.
Cher, based on Sonny's writings, is a despicable, insecure person who only seemed interested in herself, killing her relationship with Sonny. If ever you needed to see some reasons why their child born Chastity turned out the way she/he did, you'll find it in these pages--dad Sonny was loving but was kept from his daughter by "in name only" mother Cher, who was psycho, self-absorbed, insecure, and had almost nothing to do with the upbringing of her daughter--who by fifth grade still couldn't really read or write.
The book speeds by and there are many things about Sonny's early years that we didn't know. The one major problem with the book is that Bono doesn't take the time to flesh out stories and instead they come across as a type of confessional version of his sins. He mentions them but doesn't give any specifics. So he admits to cheating on his wives and sleeping with all sorts of women but we never hear specifics. He alludes to having friends in the Mafia. He even tosses bombs at Cher without substantive support, implying that she was either bisexual or lesbian and a wet fish in bed with him.
As a Republican politician he seems to be trying to throw down on paper everything hiding in his closet before opponents reveal things--saying that he learned from his past mistakes. It's hard to hear a guy talk about dozens of affairs over a couple decades, cheating on multiple wives and ignoring his children, then expecting people to just accept him because he says he learned his lesson.
How many kids did Sonny father? Everything online says four but the book actually says FIVE. In his 20s he fathered a son with a woman and after mentioning it once the boy is never mentioned again.
The end of the book is another madcap rush while skipping over five years. It's incomplete and frustrating.
Sonny Bono doesn't seem to be able to see the negative impact of his own ego. He certainly admits his faults but he somehow convinced himself that he was one of the greatest songwriters of all time, half of the top musical group in the world, and had landed on the entertainment "top of the mountain" as he calls it. A few chart hits, a hit TV show that was cancelled due to divorce, and some weeks in Vegas don't qualify him for the accolades he likes to give himself. He was a temporarily successful musician/composer who was unable to sustain his popularity due to his unwillingness to listen to others and admit his talent weaknesses.
Sadly, his beat didn't go on so what's left is this overall entertaining book that needed more details and a less defensive ego.
May 3, 2013
A Man After My Own Heart . . .
This was truly a great read. No, I stand corrected ─ it was an excellent read! Perhaps, this was said because I’m partial to the love I have for them both (Sonny & Cher). I have so much admiration for the talents they shared with us all during their long running TV careers (entertaining us with the Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour) and even afterwards. Back in the day; don’t believe I ever missed watching their performances – from their first debut in 1971 till their final episode in 1974. Even after their marriage faltered, the two were still champions. And their actions were evidence of this: Cher with her booming movie career, and Sonny with his rising political career.
Sonny’s honesty in presenting this story made it all enjoyable to read. I’ve read several memoirs and this one gets a “thumbs up” ─ in my book. Whether it made the author look bad or good, he told it like it was. And that said a lot for his writing presentation. The manner in which he shared his story made it easy to follow and visualize at each occurrence. At varies points, I felt as if I was there in time. This story will bring joy; laughter; sorrow; and perhaps a tear or two in some places of the read.
While reading the story, it gave a great deal of insight into their lives. Thanks to Sonny’s openness, as a reader, I had an opportunity to step into their journey. Sonny does an outstanding job of exposing the before; the during; and the after scenes ─ i.e., “the getting to know us ones’.” Throughout my life, I’ve followed their actions and only knew what the tabloids or media wanted us to know. But, to go inside their life and get the scoop straight from the source made a big difference! Another one of his many talents (as “The Writer”) shines through this story. Yes, “And The Beat Does Goes On, and on and on.” Kudos to the author!
Although it’s not written, I can truly say that we loss a great person full of talent, ambition, and life – as a result of his tragic accident in 1998.
This was truly a great read. No, I stand corrected ─ it was an excellent read! Perhaps, this was said because I’m partial to the love I have for them both (Sonny & Cher). I have so much admiration for the talents they shared with us all during their long running TV careers (entertaining us with the Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour) and even afterwards. Back in the day; don’t believe I ever missed watching their performances – from their first debut in 1971 till their final episode in 1974. Even after their marriage faltered, the two were still champions. And their actions were evidence of this: Cher with her booming movie career, and Sonny with his rising political career.
Sonny’s honesty in presenting this story made it all enjoyable to read. I’ve read several memoirs and this one gets a “thumbs up” ─ in my book. Whether it made the author look bad or good, he told it like it was. And that said a lot for his writing presentation. The manner in which he shared his story made it easy to follow and visualize at each occurrence. At varies points, I felt as if I was there in time. This story will bring joy; laughter; sorrow; and perhaps a tear or two in some places of the read.
While reading the story, it gave a great deal of insight into their lives. Thanks to Sonny’s openness, as a reader, I had an opportunity to step into their journey. Sonny does an outstanding job of exposing the before; the during; and the after scenes ─ i.e., “the getting to know us ones’.” Throughout my life, I’ve followed their actions and only knew what the tabloids or media wanted us to know. But, to go inside their life and get the scoop straight from the source made a big difference! Another one of his many talents (as “The Writer”) shines through this story. Yes, “And The Beat Does Goes On, and on and on.” Kudos to the author!
Although it’s not written, I can truly say that we loss a great person full of talent, ambition, and life – as a result of his tragic accident in 1998.
February 7, 2012
I think this was a perfect representation of what an autobiography is supposed to be like. Therefore, I couldn't rate it any less than 5 stars! I think Sonny described his life's events perfectly, I especially liked the way he compared things, using plenty of unique similes, I couldn't think of a better way to explain things the way he did. He told about everything, from the day he met Cher, to the nights he sat by the piano and wrote their classic hit "I Got You Babe", when he opened his first resaurant, called "Bono's", to the day he became mayor.He's led quite an interesting life, with a variety of accomplishments-song writer,entertainer,owner of a restaurant, and mayor. Also, I'm a hudge fan of Sonny &(Cher) so I really liked reading about his relationship with her, which took up a lot of the book. They started off as the sweetest couple ever in the 60s, but in the 70s were stressed about their career, which was masked by their forced smiles on the S&C show. You will read the real true story of Sonny and Cher with this book!
September 9, 2011
This is one of my all-time favorite celebrity memoirs. I did not know about all the things Sonny did before and during meeting Cher, and there were many. He was truly a man of many talents and a positive force during his too-short life.
May 13, 2025
This book was absolutely fascinating. As someone who likes to try and understand both sides of a story, after reading Cher's 2024 memoir, I wanted to check out Sonny's side of the story.
My understanding of this book is that it portrays a somewhat mismatched couple with severe communication issues that eventually eroded their relationship. Nobody's perfect here. Or, as Reddit would put it, 'ETA.'
Honestly, this was really well-written. Like, I have VERY mixed feelings on Sonny as a person, but damn if he didn't put those songwriting skills to use in prose form, because lots of his paragraphs are straight BARS. Great metaphors, very technically sound, etc.
~ Spoilers below ~
Twenty-seven year old Sonny Bono admits to immediately falling in love with SIXTEEN YEAR-OLD Cher upon meeting her, and moving in and having sex with her only a couple of months later. Cher, meanwhile, is portrayed as a distant, aloof partner that seems to struggle with mental eccentricities throughout their relationship. Cher's main coping skill seems to be shutting people out, so Bono decides early that trying to talk through any of Cher's problems with her is to no avail. I don't think I need to explain why this is the worst idea since dating a sixteen year-old.
According to the book, Cher had persistent, paranoid fears of dying before she was thirty, as well as massive panic attacks before performing. In his book, Sonny describes Cher in the following way, and it holds solid throughout the entirety of their eleven-year relationship: "She rarely, if ever, expressed abundant happiness or joy. The same held true with disappointment and anger. Cher was very complex." Furthermore, he writes that adolescent Chaz's stories about his mother often concerned him, including one instance where his son explained that, "Cher feared going outside. She worried about being poisoned and hired food tasters. She lapsed into uncontrollable, seemingly irrational crying jags. She wandered around her house lonely and depressed [...]." Another instance has this exchange between Sonny and Chaz upon picking him up from his mother's house and asking how she was doing:
C: You're never going to believe this
S: What?
C: She was hiding in the closet.
S: Why?
C: She says she wants to disappear and she's afraid you'll see her.
S: Is she like that often?
C: She's just weird sometimes, Dad.
This says a lot to me. Although Cher rarely talks about it, she has been documented as saying that she has bipolar disorder and severe depressive episodes, which, although not entirely excusing her behaviour, makes some bits of this a lot more understandable. To me, at least, in the year 2025, Cher's behaviour reads as a stubborn woman struggling with trying to find a sense of security amidst childhood poverty and abandonment trauma, as well as some pretty extreme mental health stuff in a time where it wasn't widely encouraged to get help.
I do not in any way excuse the way she treated the people around her, and both of her children have pretty strained relationships with her, which says a lot to me, but I think it is important to note that when Sonny met Cher, she was street-savvy, but also a traumatised teenager with mental health issues who was trying to date adult men for protection and security. Don't get me wrong, a partner is not in any way responsible for their lover, but as soon as Sonny was like 'whenever Cher got angry and shut me out, I'd just leave her alone until she got over it.' Like... buddy, there is no way in HELL that's going to cause anything other than Mount Rushmore-sized problems down the line.
It is trippy as HELL reading Sonny and Cher's memoirs about the beginning of their relationship because Sonny will be saying some shit like, 'yeah there's this sexy girl, and she's only sixteen, but she's so alluring and wise beyond her years, except there's this hidden darkness within her, and she's icy, and I can never fully reach her, and she's like my white whale, and I worry about us and our financial situation, but I just can't talk to her AGH' and then Cher's memoir describing her thoughts from the same time period are like 'sometimes he's a little controlling, but Sonny is nice :)' and it just DRASTICALLY shows the differences in their maturity and perspectives and kinda serves to further show how bad and fucked up the whole grooming thing was. Like, you literally get to see with 100% clarity that one person in this relationship is a GROWN MAN worrying about his ex-wife and estranged child, has his FRONTAL LOBE FORMED, and holds a pretty nuanced view of young-Cher's trauma and struggles, and the other one is like 'I'm literally sixteen and don't know that I'm projecting my lifelong abandonment issues onto my boyfriend or how to deal with any of this so I'm going to ghost him' and then Sonny does NOTHING!!!!! Sonny would be pissing me off SO much because he kept saying shit along the lines of, 'we were just two crazy kids with a dream LOL!!!! XD' and it's like, no, SHE is a kid! You have a mortgage, bitch!! You're almost thirty!' For so many reasons: SONNY BONO WHAT WERE YOU DOINGGGGGGGGG
I also found it interesting that lots of this does in fact line up with Cher's recent memoir, and the section where "Cher's attitude underwent an abrupt, one-hundred-eighty-degree change[,]" that included refusing to cooperate with him, and turning into "a real ice maiden [...]" while working on The Sonny & Cher Show almost perfectly coincides with her discovering that Sonny owned 95% of Cher Enterprises in her own memoir. Funny how he didn't mention that here. The whole middle section of the book is him being like 'Why won't my wife talk to me or trust me??? Why is she conspiring with this David Geffen guy???' When in her memoir it is ABUNDANTLY clear that it's because he's being way too controlling, tries to keep her child from her, and is semi-threatening if she tries to voice her opinion. (Granted, according to this book, her "opinions" read a lot as complaining, and that leads me back to my main point about communication issues) Honestly, though, I think it'd be a weird expectation to have Bono voice any of that here.
As for Sonny's controlling nature, I 100% believe he's downplaying it in his book. However, I genuinely believe he thought he was protecting her and doing what was best for what she wanted in a way, but because Cher tended to withdraw instead of voicing her problems to him head-on (in her memoir, she mentions that she did a few times, but he reacted badly so she stopped, which kinda lines up with this), his control over her eventually became too much and boiled over to the point where she had to just leave. There were so many times while reading where I was like damn, I wish the two of them could just sit down and talk about this seriously. Like, Sonny has this whole complex where he feels like he has to provide for Cher and make her famous or she'll leave him, and I've already spent paragraphs explaining what Cher's whole deal was, but none of them EVER express any of these fears or desires to each other, or consider, 'hey, maybe we could... not do this?' so they get stuck in this weird loop, and their relationship slowly crumbles. All of this isn't even mentioning the fact that Sonny was a serial cheater the whole time LMAO. RIP Sonny and Cher, you would've loved couples therapy. Or... just therapy in general. (HEY SONNY, WHAT WAS THAT BIT ABOUT HAVING A NO-REMORSE AFFAIR WITH YOUR COUSIN??????)
My understanding of this book is that it portrays a somewhat mismatched couple with severe communication issues that eventually eroded their relationship. Nobody's perfect here. Or, as Reddit would put it, 'ETA.'
Honestly, this was really well-written. Like, I have VERY mixed feelings on Sonny as a person, but damn if he didn't put those songwriting skills to use in prose form, because lots of his paragraphs are straight BARS. Great metaphors, very technically sound, etc.
~ Spoilers below ~
Twenty-seven year old Sonny Bono admits to immediately falling in love with SIXTEEN YEAR-OLD Cher upon meeting her, and moving in and having sex with her only a couple of months later. Cher, meanwhile, is portrayed as a distant, aloof partner that seems to struggle with mental eccentricities throughout their relationship. Cher's main coping skill seems to be shutting people out, so Bono decides early that trying to talk through any of Cher's problems with her is to no avail. I don't think I need to explain why this is the worst idea since dating a sixteen year-old.
According to the book, Cher had persistent, paranoid fears of dying before she was thirty, as well as massive panic attacks before performing. In his book, Sonny describes Cher in the following way, and it holds solid throughout the entirety of their eleven-year relationship: "She rarely, if ever, expressed abundant happiness or joy. The same held true with disappointment and anger. Cher was very complex." Furthermore, he writes that adolescent Chaz's stories about his mother often concerned him, including one instance where his son explained that, "Cher feared going outside. She worried about being poisoned and hired food tasters. She lapsed into uncontrollable, seemingly irrational crying jags. She wandered around her house lonely and depressed [...]." Another instance has this exchange between Sonny and Chaz upon picking him up from his mother's house and asking how she was doing:
C: You're never going to believe this
S: What?
C: She was hiding in the closet.
S: Why?
C: She says she wants to disappear and she's afraid you'll see her.
S: Is she like that often?
C: She's just weird sometimes, Dad.
This says a lot to me. Although Cher rarely talks about it, she has been documented as saying that she has bipolar disorder and severe depressive episodes, which, although not entirely excusing her behaviour, makes some bits of this a lot more understandable. To me, at least, in the year 2025, Cher's behaviour reads as a stubborn woman struggling with trying to find a sense of security amidst childhood poverty and abandonment trauma, as well as some pretty extreme mental health stuff in a time where it wasn't widely encouraged to get help.
I do not in any way excuse the way she treated the people around her, and both of her children have pretty strained relationships with her, which says a lot to me, but I think it is important to note that when Sonny met Cher, she was street-savvy, but also a traumatised teenager with mental health issues who was trying to date adult men for protection and security. Don't get me wrong, a partner is not in any way responsible for their lover, but as soon as Sonny was like 'whenever Cher got angry and shut me out, I'd just leave her alone until she got over it.' Like... buddy, there is no way in HELL that's going to cause anything other than Mount Rushmore-sized problems down the line.
It is trippy as HELL reading Sonny and Cher's memoirs about the beginning of their relationship because Sonny will be saying some shit like, 'yeah there's this sexy girl, and she's only sixteen, but she's so alluring and wise beyond her years, except there's this hidden darkness within her, and she's icy, and I can never fully reach her, and she's like my white whale, and I worry about us and our financial situation, but I just can't talk to her AGH' and then Cher's memoir describing her thoughts from the same time period are like 'sometimes he's a little controlling, but Sonny is nice :)' and it just DRASTICALLY shows the differences in their maturity and perspectives and kinda serves to further show how bad and fucked up the whole grooming thing was. Like, you literally get to see with 100% clarity that one person in this relationship is a GROWN MAN worrying about his ex-wife and estranged child, has his FRONTAL LOBE FORMED, and holds a pretty nuanced view of young-Cher's trauma and struggles, and the other one is like 'I'm literally sixteen and don't know that I'm projecting my lifelong abandonment issues onto my boyfriend or how to deal with any of this so I'm going to ghost him' and then Sonny does NOTHING!!!!! Sonny would be pissing me off SO much because he kept saying shit along the lines of, 'we were just two crazy kids with a dream LOL!!!! XD' and it's like, no, SHE is a kid! You have a mortgage, bitch!! You're almost thirty!' For so many reasons: SONNY BONO WHAT WERE YOU DOINGGGGGGGGG
I also found it interesting that lots of this does in fact line up with Cher's recent memoir, and the section where "Cher's attitude underwent an abrupt, one-hundred-eighty-degree change[,]" that included refusing to cooperate with him, and turning into "a real ice maiden [...]" while working on The Sonny & Cher Show almost perfectly coincides with her discovering that Sonny owned 95% of Cher Enterprises in her own memoir. Funny how he didn't mention that here. The whole middle section of the book is him being like 'Why won't my wife talk to me or trust me??? Why is she conspiring with this David Geffen guy???' When in her memoir it is ABUNDANTLY clear that it's because he's being way too controlling, tries to keep her child from her, and is semi-threatening if she tries to voice her opinion. (Granted, according to this book, her "opinions" read a lot as complaining, and that leads me back to my main point about communication issues) Honestly, though, I think it'd be a weird expectation to have Bono voice any of that here.
As for Sonny's controlling nature, I 100% believe he's downplaying it in his book. However, I genuinely believe he thought he was protecting her and doing what was best for what she wanted in a way, but because Cher tended to withdraw instead of voicing her problems to him head-on (in her memoir, she mentions that she did a few times, but he reacted badly so she stopped, which kinda lines up with this), his control over her eventually became too much and boiled over to the point where she had to just leave. There were so many times while reading where I was like damn, I wish the two of them could just sit down and talk about this seriously. Like, Sonny has this whole complex where he feels like he has to provide for Cher and make her famous or she'll leave him, and I've already spent paragraphs explaining what Cher's whole deal was, but none of them EVER express any of these fears or desires to each other, or consider, 'hey, maybe we could... not do this?' so they get stuck in this weird loop, and their relationship slowly crumbles. All of this isn't even mentioning the fact that Sonny was a serial cheater the whole time LMAO. RIP Sonny and Cher, you would've loved couples therapy. Or... just therapy in general. (HEY SONNY, WHAT WAS THAT BIT ABOUT HAVING A NO-REMORSE AFFAIR WITH YOUR COUSIN??????)
March 7, 2012
Here's Sonny's side of the story. Weird reading about a man who's passed away.
January 3, 2013
This was a VERY good autobiography. I recommend it.
January 20, 2014
Very entertaining and sincere. Although he claims to be untalented, he was a great songwriter and evidently a darn good book writer as well. Sorry that he is gone.
January 19, 2016
Interesting book. Quick easy read.
July 31, 2023
Started off as an interesting semi dual auto biography,then fell into the realms of the said she said type.amazes me that people with talent get what they set out to achieve squander their chances and money.and the the other part of the story where each one listens to a third party in a double act muddies the water is a tale as old as time.
May 1, 2024
Enjoyed this book as it is very open about Cher and Sonny
August 9, 2024
We get it - Cher thought you were a svengali monster
August 28, 2019
Look kids, I love Sonny & Cher, so I was in the bag before I started this book. Even so, it is a pretty amazing story. Sonny was so good at being the butt of the joke that you forget just how clever he really was.
For more on my love of Sonny & Cher tune in to this special episode of the All the Books Show where I discuss finally seeing Cher live. https://soundcloud.com/allthebooks/ep...
For more on my love of Sonny & Cher tune in to this special episode of the All the Books Show where I discuss finally seeing Cher live. https://soundcloud.com/allthebooks/ep...
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews