Familiar refrain with the rock biography genre... this is the 3rd one I've read this year (and this is the best of those three) and all had the same lesson: success is possible if you want it bad enough and the cost is... your family.

Collins is very honest, or at least seems to be (I don't personally know him), and he doesn't attempt to paint himself in a good light. He just tells it like it happened, from his point of view. As with the other rock biographies I've read recently (Tom Petty, Jonathan Cain), I most enjoyed learning about how my favorite songs were written and how those great albums came together. However, none of the rock biographies I've read to this point have been inspirational. If anything, they are each cautionary tales of what the true cost of success really is.

Though most of us are not rock stars, these books still serve as a warning that any of us who put our careers before our families may well find some measure of success but may also have no one to share it with when we reach the end of our respective journeys.