Take Another Little Piece of My Heart

In I'm with the Band, Southern California-based Des Barres chronicled her lustful liaisons with such rock legends as Mick Jagger, Jimmy Page and Keith Moon. This candid sequel, tracing her life since the 1970s, cannot surpass the first book's trashiness--few tales, true or fictional, do--but it is indisputably juicy, thanks to Des Barres's effervescence and no-holds-barred approa c h to celebrity gossip. She recalls a rough dozen years of marriage to singer-actor Michael Des Barres; tells of going into labor with their only child at the home of Frank Zappa; spends time with old cohorts Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith and admits she once fell for a woman, comedian Sandra Bernhard. Des Barres refuses to name names only in regard to a passionate one-year fling with a mega star referred to as "HIM." Some readers may skim over the "cosmic" insights, most will sympathize with the plight of her emotionally troubled son and many will welcome the return of this irrepressible, unflaggingly optimistic writer.