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Brother Sam: The Short, Spectacular Life of Sam Kinison

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A brother recalls the excessive and flamboyant life of the late comedian who died in an April 1992 car crash, portraying Kinison's checkered early years, his road to fame and fortune, and his personal struggles. National ad/promo.

315 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1994

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Bill Kinison

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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
38 reviews2 followers
August 30, 2016
A passionate, detailed, and -- most importantly -- honest account of Sam Kinison's life as told by his older brother Bill Kinison. Bill managed Sam through his professional career up until the very last minutes and witnessed it all first-hand, including the tragic accident. Sam wouldn't have written a better book, he was all too often far out of it, while Bill stayed sober and lucid and recorded his brother's life. This is a very good book.
Profile Image for Anthem Book Review.
23 reviews5 followers
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January 7, 2017
Sam Kinison is a name that has always lingered in my mind since my days growing up in the church. My grandfather was an Apostolic Pastor and I often heard brothers from the church talking about this Sam Kinison fella, a former Pentecostal preacher turned comedian that took God’s name in vain and spoke vile things about the church. In each conversation I overheard, there was the constant threat that with such blasphemy God would seek vengeance. When Kinison died in a freak car accident in 1992, at the height of his career, people from our church agreed that God’s wrath had finally caught up to him.

A few years ago while at the last standing records store in Fresno; I came across a compilation of Sam’s stand-up acts and purchased it. I could not stop laughing, funny man indeed, his God/church jokes are cringe worthy, especially if you grew up in a strict religious household. Then, on the Joe Rogan podcast I heard Sam’s brother Bill had wrote a book about him. I searched everywhere and found the book was out of print. Finally after nearly a year, I purchased the out of print, first edition, hard cover book of Brother Sam. I read it in a day. Now on to the review….

Sam Kinison was born in Yakima, Washington, the son of a fire and brimstone Pentecostal Preacher named, Samuel Earl Kinison. Preacher Kinison was a controversial man; he believed in things like the Holy Spirit and its gifts, such as the speaking in tongues, the interpretation of speaking in tongues, and faith healings. His controversial ways drew in crowds and also brought in the attention of the leaders of the Church of God. Bill Kinison, the older brother of Sam, writes of a violent scene where from the pulpit, Preacher Kinison was removed. The next morning, as Bill sat looking out their home window, a group of men dressed in black came and picked up Preacher Sam and took him away. When he returned he told his young wife and their 4 children that he had been banned from the church and ordered to leave. Needless, to say all four children of Marie & Sam suffered from insecurities as children. They lived in an old church house. They were poor, and often times ridiculed for their lifestyle.

Regardless of their situation, the church played a huge role in the lives of the Kinison boys. Richard and Bill would soon follow in their father’s footsteps and become evangelists; Sam Kinison would also soon follow suit. Up to this point Sam Kinison had a rather typical religious upbringing but then something happened that changes the course of his life completely and may very well be responsible for his unpredictable behavior as an adult. At age three, Sam is hit by a car and suffers 30% brain damage. Bill writes that once Sam is brought home from the hospital he looked like his same brother. Although, his outward appearance was the same, internally he was not.

Before the accident Sam was a rather quiet child, passive and calm. Bill describes that Sam after the accident is aggressive and unruly and not calm or in control of his emotions. As Sam grows he is now prone to mood swings, temper-tantrums, drooling, and seizures and begins to pack on the weight. Sam also starts wetting his bed and continues to do so until his early teens. His mother has to cuddle him and hold him through his attacks.

As Sam grew, he becomes defiant and is very unhappy. Sam’s parents’ divorce and Sam and his younger brother Kevin are sent to live with their mother. His mother cannot control Sam and he runs away from home early on, he starts to experiment with drugs and alcohol. He also teaches himself to play the guitar. Throughout, his rather rebellious teenager years, Richard and Bill become evangelists and soon Sam heeds his calling to the ministry. Despite, his defiant behavior the church remains a strong foundation for his family. Eventually Sam attends bible schools and soon becomes an evangelist. Sam travels with his brothers and begins preaching around the country. His stint of comedic acts initially comes out during this time. Although, his humor is light and churchy, it would soon take a raunchy turn.

Sam decides to leave the church after his first wife cheats on him which makes his insecurities even worse. Once Sam begins his stand-up act it is not long before he is a hit, and a controversial one at that. Using church and God as a cornerstone of his jokes, Sam soon grows a cult following. By the time he makes it to Hollywood, he is already well known. Despite Sam’s outrageous lifestyle the relationship with his brothers is a tightly knit bond. Bill eventually becomes his manager and his younger brother Kevin moves in with Sam. Sam just makes bad choice, after bad choice. He sleeps and maintains sexual relationships with porn stars and strippers, is often broke. He drug binges and alcohol binges for days. He squanders all his money.

Sam Kinison was a funny man, to that there is no doubt but one could never say he was a decent man. When I found out his brother wrote the book, I definitely thought that Bill would sugarcoat the truth and write in a fashion to make his brother Sam seem like a great moral man that left a legacy of honor. That is not the case at all. Bill Kinison writes the book in complete truth. He gives the readers the real Sam Kinison and that is really what makes the book such a great read. It is littered with beautiful passages that show the Kinison family as an upstanding Christian family that weathered storms but never swayed from their faith. And then, like a punch in the gut it shows Sam Kinison, as a diabolical comedian that loves all things in excess and that has these horrible relationships with women.

It shoves in your face the real Sam, the drug addict, the lack of responsibility, the vile language and lack of respect Sam, the party rock star lifestyle, the Sam that carries on a sexual affair with his fiancé Malika’s sister and the Sam that is quietly still as insecure as in his childhood. Sam never gets it together.

Bill takes the reader down every avenue of Hollywood life through Sam’s eyes, all the disappointment, all the Hollywood elite favoritism and shadiness, all the fun. I recall once listening to a Howard Stern show where he praised Kinison and had said that Kinison had just married his beautiful bride Malika and spoke of this marriage between Sam and hanger-on Malika as a love story.

After reading the book, that was not the case at all. There was no love between the two, there was no happily married man or woman, everything in Sam’s life seemed artificial, his first wife, his second and now his third all used him. Other than the unconditional love that Sam received from his mother, father and brothers, he was not endeared by any one woman in his lifetime. Sam endures heartache not only in his romantic life but also when his young brother Kevin commits suicide; Sam blames himself for this and never fully recovers.

There is a real fun edge to the book. To hear of all these 80’s stars and their wild antics was interesting to read of Motley Crew, Billy Idol and more made the book so intriguing. Sam truly lived like a rock star, and he was for a brief period of time. He made a hit record and song with remake “Wild Thing”.

At the end, according to Bill, Sam was hoping for a mainstream life and wanted to gear his career in a more acceptable way. Sam had quit using drugs and alcohol as he prepared for the next chapter to his life. However, Sam never got that chance to see what could have been. Days after his marriage to Malika, Sam was involved in a head-on collision and died at the scene. But he didn’t just die, his injuries were that of a broken neck, a fractured skull, a lacerated heart and a lacerated small bowel.

Yet, with suffering all those injuries Sam managed to get out of the car with help from his brother Bill and speak to someone or something that seemed to be above him and whatever this unknown being was, an angel or hallucination, no one could see it but Sam Kinision.

In the first moments after impact Kinison seemed as if he was going to make it, but within minutes he appeared to know he was about to die.

Witnesses stated that Kinison appeared to be holding a conversation in which he stated, "I don't want to die. I don't want to die."As the conversation continued Sam said, "But why?”Sam said again, “Why Now?”
And finally, Kinison stated, "Okay, Okay, Okay".The last "Okay" was stated in a very gentle and loving manner, as if he were talking with someone he knew, and loved.Sam Kinision died at 38 years old.

I really enjoyed this book. We will never know who Sam was speaking with in his final moments of life, nor would the accusations I heard as a child, as to his death being a result of God's wrath. This book was just what it said it would be, a short, spectacular tale of the life of Sam Kinison the rest is for you to figure out.

Brother Sam has scattered throughout some of Sam’s most brilliant jokes and stories. I must have looked like a crazy person, because at times I was laughing out loud while in the break room at work reading this book. Bill wrote a beautiful tribute and honest till the very end in Sam’s memory. I am glad I was able to finally obtain a copy and read it. For an interesting read, I suggest you start looking for it now, as the book is out of print, but worth the search.


Written & Reviewed by Anthem Book Review

Profile Image for John Bruni.
Author 73 books85 followers
March 3, 2016
This is an incredible biography of an incredible man. It's written by Sam's brother, Bill, and this kind of book can be tricky. You never know how reliable a biographer who is related to his subject can be. Personally I think Bill did a great, honest job. He bares it all. He has no illusions about his brother. He even gives himself a hard time in some cases. This book is the very definition of "warts and all." I remember loving the hell out of Sam Kinison's stand up when I was a kid, and I remember the shock I felt when I heard that he'd died. It's good to have the behind-the-scenes story, and it is a hell of a ride. The only thing I found kind of doubtful was when everyone had the portents of Sam's death. That seemed a bit shady to me. But that's a small quibble. This is one of the best biographies I've ever read.
Profile Image for Michael.
Author 54 books67 followers
November 9, 2017
I will never forget the first time I saw Kinison on HBO. It was late and I was probably 11 or 12 at the time, and it was about midnight which meant whatever I watched, I had to be quiet. Then I saw Sam, and I could not stop laughing. At the end of his set my stomach hurt, I had tears pouring out of my eyes, but I knew I saw something ground breaking. Sam was the voice of the people. He said what most guys thought, and even wished they had the balls to say. When he passed it stunned me, and I remember listening to Have You Seen Me Lately and tried to imagine a world without Sam. I heard about the book many years later, but it took me a while to track it down. Hell, I don't even think it's in print anymore. I own the hardback and when I did a search for it, that's all I could find.

So, reading the book there was a lot that stood out. Sam was truly a genius, and he was out of control which really didn't surprise me. This was a guy who connected with his audience, but I didn't realize how long it had taken him to achieve success, and I didn't realize just how many demons Sam had. I think the one thing I learned from the book was that Sam just wasn't emotionally mature enough to handle success, and it shows in all of the choices he made. This was a guy who lived fast, and partied hard. The way he died was truly tragic, and came at a time when he was finally cleaning himself up, and trying desperately to change his image. Reading the book there's the usual amount of heartbreak and sadness, but Bill Kinison rarely strays from the bad Sam. The guy that was out of control, the guy that couldn't keep his shit together very long.

What I didn't know was that Sam had a two year affair with his girlfriend's sister, or he didn't even want to marry Malika at all, and felt pressured into it. Bill Kinison doesn't hold back on his dislike of Malika at all and after this book came out, she promptly sued him. Sabrina was really the only woman he really loved, and it seemed that of all the women he was with, she was the one that maybe could have pulled him from the brink of disaster. Also here is the brief affair with Jessica Hahn. Not much is here of course, and what we learn is that Sam actually fell asleep while still inside her. What didn't surprise me was the drinking, and the overall insanity of what it was like to be Sam Kinison. Warts and all is the correct way to describe this bio, but while it's not perfect it's an okay book that seems to quiet down the need for a book about Kinison's life. Hopefully a better one will come along that fills in the gaps that this one left behind.
Profile Image for Mike Kowis.
Author 15 books31 followers
May 7, 2024
Any devoted fan of 1980s standup comedy will surely list the name Sam Kinison among their top 5 comics of that era. Sam certainly made my top 5, which is why I was so excited to read this detailed biography written by Sam's oldest brother and road manager, Bill Kinison. Lucky for Sam's fans, Bill didn't hold back anything in his 300-page book about Sam's short, but crazy life.

For those unaware, Sam was a former Pentecostal preacher who later tried standup comedy in Houston around 1978. Using his preaching background, he developed a one-of-a-kind delivery on stage that was as intense and loud as it was hilarious. He became famous for using irreverent humor (think Andrew Dice Clay) and releasing his primal scream of the downtrodden married man, "Oh! OH! AAAAUGH!!!"

As detailed in this fun read, Sam's standup career took off when he moved from Houston to Los Angeles in 1980. At that time, he quickly fell into the party scene fueled by lots of booze, strippers, and hard drugs. Later, he would sometimes be called the "rock-n-roll comic" b/c he could play the guitar fairly well and often hung out with legendary rockers like Bon Jovi, Guns N Roses, Aerosmith, Billie Idol, etc. Around 1985, Sam famously made a parody music video of the song Wild Thing (you can find it on YouTube).

In addition to covering his career highlights and lowlights (plenty of both), the book also detailed Sam's personal life, which began with a troubled childhood, eventually led to an addiction to drugs and alcohol and a love life that could easily be mistaken for a dumpster fire. His personal life was as wild as the persona he created for himself on stage. Sadly, his life (and the book) abrupty ends on a tragic note with a car accident that took Sam's life at the early age of 38 years old - just 5 days after getting married to his long-time girlfriend.

This biography is a wild ride and well-worth the read for fans of Sam. I give it two thumbs way up!
802 reviews2 followers
December 16, 2019
Really excellent biography of a truly tortured guy (written by his own brother no less!) I feel like Bill Kinison could have went the standard route of talking about how great and talented and nice and clean-living his brother was and that is what you typically expect from a celebrity biography. But this one was warts-and-all to the tenth power. Really great read if you were a fan of Sam.
Profile Image for Jeff Olson.
204 reviews1 follower
November 3, 2024
Gosh if Sam Kinison were alive today he would have so much material to use with this current Dem. group running our country...I would die laughing my head off!!!
Thanks Bill Kinison for sharing this story of your beloved brother...Cheers!!!
144 reviews3 followers
May 16, 2024
I love the comedian's biography, but he didn't deserve to die in a drunk car crash.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Shawna.
917 reviews7 followers
June 15, 2011
This was a riveting book. Years ago I saw the E! True Hollywood Story on Kinison which gave me an entirely different impresssion of the track the man was on at the time of his fatal car accident. This book revealed that his recent marriage was far from healthy and the man himself was still using drugs. His addictions put the people around him through hell. I can't imagine putting up with all his drama on a daily basis the way his brother did. Sam was a talented and generous guy but in the end I didn't like him very much.
Profile Image for Aer Bluewilson.
16 reviews3 followers
June 15, 2013
This was a very good read, Kinison was a great comedian. However, after learning more about the man, I don't think he would be someone I cared to be around. This bio by his brother definitely did not endear me to Sam Kinison. But in a way, reading this may of made me understand and like his comedy even better now. I do think he had the potential to be a decent person, unfortunately he passed away just when he was finding his way. I would encourage others to read this book if they like comedy and reading about original people.
Profile Image for Roxann.
244 reviews
April 21, 2015
I got the book in the mail this morning and finished it tonight. I stopped reading it but just kept picking it back up. What a crazy life. I thought the authors did a good job, being as honest as anyone can be about someone they loved. I was looking for some huge revelation or secret about Sam Kinison and never really got that. I think it was because through his comedy he really was being honest about his life, experiences and who he was.
Profile Image for TrumanCoyote.
1,113 reviews14 followers
September 5, 2016
Brother Bill came off a bit too good here: always having a sense of what was really going on and able to see through every situation. Also I got a little tired of the armchair-psychology bit (phrases like "self-esteem" and all of that). But anyway, the portrait of Sam is robust and vital--and everything you might well have expected it to be (in spite of the occasional surprise).
Profile Image for James.
12 reviews
June 21, 2014
An interesting read, with the complete text of some of Sam's most famous (and controversial) routines. On the other hand, it is clear that he was a very complex person with a very difficult personality and a serious addiction problem.
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