Other Sellers on Amazon
& FREE Delivery
89% positive over last 12 months
Pre-order now.
+ $3.00 Delivery
84% positive over last 12 months
Pre-order now.
& FREE Delivery
86% positive over last 12 months
Pre-order now.

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet or computer – no Kindle device required. Learn more
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle Cloud Reader.
Using your mobile phone camera, scan the code below and download the Kindle app.


Follow the Authors
OK
Nöthin' But a Good Time: The Uncensored History of the '80s Hard Rock Explosion Paperback – 30 August 2022
Tom Beaujour (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
Richard Bienstock (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
Amazon Price | New from | Used from |
Audible Audiobook, Unabridged
"Please retry" |
$0.00
| Free with your Audible trial |
Paperback
"Please retry" | $29.75 | $29.75 | — |

Explore your book, then jump right back to where you left off with Page Flip.
View high quality images that let you zoom in to take a closer look.
Enjoy features only possible in digital – start reading right away, carry your library with you, adjust the font, create shareable notes and highlights, and more.
Discover additional details about the events, people, and places in your book, with Wikipedia integration.
The Explosive New York Times Bestseller
"A backstage pass to the wildest and loudest party in rock history―you'll feel like you were right there with us!" ―Bret Michaels of Poison
Nothin' But a Good Time is the definitive, no-holds-barred oral history of 1980s hard rock and hair metal, told by the musicians and industry insiders who lived it.
Hard rock in the 1980s was a hedonistic and often intensely creative wellspring of escapism that perfectly encapsulated―and maybe even helped to define―a spectacularly over-the-top decade. Indeed, fist-pumping hits like Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It,” Mötley Crüe’s “Girls, Girls, Girls,” and Guns N’ Roses’ “Welcome to the Jungle” are as inextricably linked to the era as Reaganomics, PAC-MAN, and E.T.
From the do-or-die early days of self-financed recordings and D.I.Y. concert productions that were as flashy as they were foolhardy, to the multi-Platinum, MTV-powered glory years of stadium-shaking anthems and chart-topping power ballads, to the ultimate crash when grunge bands like Nirvana forever altered the entire climate of the business, Tom Beaujour and Richard Bienstock's Nothin' But a Good Time captures the energy and excess of the hair metal years in the words of the musicians, managers, producers, engineers, label executives, publicists, stylists, costume designers, photographers, journalists, magazine publishers, video directors, club bookers, roadies, groupies, and hangers-on who lived it.
Featuring an impassioned foreword by Slipknot and Stone Sour vocalist and avowed glam metal fanatic Corey Taylor, and drawn from over two hundred author interviews with members of Van Halen, Mötley Crüe, Poison, Guns N’ Roses, Skid Row, Bon Jovi, Ratt, Twisted Sister, Winger, Warrant, Cinderella, Quiet Riot and others, as well as Ozzy Osbourne, Lita Ford, and many more, this is the ultimate, uncensored, and often unhinged, chronicle of a time where excess and success walked hand in hand, told by the men and women who created a sound and style that came to define a musical era―one in which the bands and their fans went looking for nothin’ but a good time…and found it.
- Print length560 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherGriffin
- Publication date30 August 2022
- Dimensions16.1 x 3.91 x 20.85 cm
- ISBN-101250830079
- ISBN-13978-1250830074
Frequently bought together
- +
- +
Customers who viewed this item also viewed
Special offers and product promotions
- Pre-order Price Guarantee! Order now and if the Amazon.com.au price decreases between your order time and the end of the day of the release date, you'll receive the lowest price. Offered by Amazon AU. Here's how (terms and conditions apply)
Product description
Review
the definitive account of the era --PopMatters
an intensive swim through what it felt like to be alive and flyering the Sunset Strip in the '80s --Cryptic Rock
Tom Beaujour and Richard Bienstock have a remarkable knack for placing readers in the moment with every page turn, resulting in a perfectly crafted masterpiece that encapsulates one of the most iconic eras in music history. --Vinyl Writer
a quick-moving and engrossing read... a compelling conversation among a couple hundred people who defined the metal era. --Culture Sonar
This is one heck of a book. --Metal Sludge
Rock music fans will be banging their heads to this book. --Library Journal
Beginning with the early days of Quiet Riot and Van Halen, the book takes the reader through glam's ascent from L.A. clubs to arenas everywhere, spending equal time on Crüe-style debauchery and the behind-the-scenes business that made these bands superstars, through the arrival of Nirvana, which turned the hair metal craze into poison overnight. --Booklist
Lively, comprehensive... An engrossing deep dive into a lurid, free-wheeling monument in pop music. --Kirkus
Revolver cofounder Beaujour and former Guitar World editor Bienstock give heavy metal a flamboyant retrospective in this raucous oral history...Metalheads and those with a fondness for the over-the-top antics that marked the genre and era are in for a treat. --Publishers Weekly
From the streets to the Strip, the studio to the stage, this is an epic tale told by the people that lived it. It's a backstage pass to the wildest and loudest party in rock history--you'll feel like you were right there with us! --Bret Michaels of Poison
"If you want to relive the explosive decade, this is as close as you're gonna get. All right here, right now." --Stephen Pearcy of Ratt
Tom and Rich -- the two music journalists most likely to be called as expert witnesses in a court case about hair metal -- have compiled a fun, funny, and frightening chronicle of the so-called 'Decade of Decadence' with interviews from every major player in the scene. --Kory Grow, Rolling Stone
"Sure, there's plenty of sex, drugs and rock & roll but, like the best rock books, Nöthin' But a Good Time is really about people and their stories. Those stories attest to the power of hard work, ambition, friendship and community. And that's what makes this hilarious, sordid and deeply researched book so inspiring." --Michael Azerrad, author of Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground 1981-1991 and Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana
No stone is left unturned in this deep dive into the bands you love, and the bands you love to hate. This book goes to 11. --Katherine Turman, co-author, Louder Than Hell: The Definitive Oral History of Metal
"An extremely well-written, thoughtful, and indeed inspiring exposé on one of the most misunderstood musical genres in history. Come for Yngwie Malmsteen, stay for Gunnar Nelson." --Dave Hill, comedian, author, Parking the Moose
"Tom Beaujour and Richard Bienstock recreate the reckless and carefree era of hair metal--a fantastical, debauched world of car wrecks and casual sex, codpieces and Capezios, boys dressed like girls and girls dressed in almost nothing, cocaine and even more cocaine and no, seriously, So. Much. Cocaine. Nöthin' But a Good Time is the literary equivalent of a pyro explosion." --Rob Tannenbaum, author of I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution
"I came for the debauched Guns 'N Roses, Mötley Crüe and Poison stories and was not disappointed. I did not expect equally delightful stories about Stryper, Warrant, Faster Pussycat, Nelson and Trixter. Brilliant book of familiar and forgotten rock history." --Steve Knopper, editor-at-large, Billboard, author, Appetite for Self-Destruction: The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age
Review
Book Description
From the Publisher
About the Author
TOM BEAUJOUR is a journalist and co-founder and former editor-in-chief of Revolver, America’s premier hard rock and heavy metal monthly. Beaujour has produced and mixed albums by Nada Surf, Guided by Voices, the Juliana Hatfield Three, and many others.
RICHARD BIENSTOCK is a journalist whose writing has appeared in the New York Times, Rolling Stone, Billboard, Spin, and other publications. He is a former senior editor of Guitar World magazine and executive editor of Guitar Aficionado magazine. He has authored and co-authored several books, among them Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck.
Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.
Product details
- Publisher : Griffin (30 August 2022)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 560 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1250830079
- ISBN-13 : 978-1250830074
- Dimensions : 16.1 x 3.91 x 20.85 cm
- Best Sellers Rank: 357,437 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 243 in Biographies of Heavy Metal Musicians
- 307 in Heavy Metal Music (Books)
- 2,195 in Biographies of Opera Performers
- Customer Reviews:
About the authors
Former Editor in Chief of Revolver and Guitar Aficionado magazines, bit part player on Orange is the New Black, music producer.
RICHARD BIENSTOCK is the New York Times Best Selling co-author of Nöthin' But a Good Time: The Uncensored History of the '80s Hard Rock Explosion. He is a former senior editor of Guitar World magazine and executive editor of Guitar Aficionado magazine, and his writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Rolling Stone, Billboard, Spin, and other publications. He has authored and co-authored several books, among them Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, the companion to the award-winning documentary of the same name, and Slash: An Intimate Portrait, with Slash, Joe Perry and Ron Wood.
Customer reviews
Top review from Australia
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
It got me listening to old favourites like Motley Crue and Ozzy and made me a fan of Cinderella and Ratt and cranking Quiet Riot and others. Amen to that
Top reviews from other countries


This book provided a useful insight and reminder of names, faces and places some of us can never, and will never, forget. For those who weren't there, you could say this is a tale of caution, but to be honest, you missed out on one hell of a party!
The interviews are well presented, and the narrative takes you through some of the highs and lows that some of the final sections of the "tale" alude to.
Missed 80's metal? This book will help inform you, and show you, what it was like being a desperado, slogging it out on The Strip!


