Back in December 2021 when I announced I was doing a Jeff Scott Soto Series, I got a lot of response on the picture of my collection. One such person contacted me on Facebook and offered to send me a hard back edition of a biography on Jeff Scott Soto, so I quickly thanked him and agreed. He quickly mailed out this glorious copy of the book. His name was Sundeep Pooni and that book has been a massive reference guide for my review series up to this point. So, a big thank you to Sundeep and his very generous gift!! From here on out in the review series, we are past the date of the book so none of the albums I’ll be reviewing from ere on out are in the book, so I am on my own.

Before we get to the next review, let’s go through this book. It was originally written by Ronny Hahn and it was written in German and only an electronic book. For the 30th Anniversary of Jeff’s career, it was released thanks to Frank Tunney who took the original book and added more chapters and re-organized the structure. It is now a hard back book and chock full of the details of his career that all hardcore fans love to know. The book is called “Authorized” so it has the blessing of the man himself and that is good enough for me.

The book starts off with the original foreward written by Ronny Zahn and then there is a great dedication to the late Marcel Jacobs who played with Jeff in several bands and was a very close personal friend. It was a terrible loss, but thankfully he left behind a great legacy of music. Afterwards you get a brief biography of Jeff’s very early life, but the rest of the book is all Jeff’s music career.

The book is broken up in to aspects of his career. First, his leading roles where he was the main singer in bands including his solo career. It all starts in 1979 with his first band called Faze all the way up to 2014 and W.E.T. And there were so many bands including Reaper, Kanan, Resless Breed, Panter, Yngwie Malmsteen, L’Armour, LA Rocks, Kuni, Eyes, Talisman The Boogie Knights, Humanimal, Takara, Skrapp Mettle, Axel Rudi Pell, Slam, Bakteria, Ku De Ta, Redlist, Soul Sirkus, Journey, W.E.T. and that doesn’t even count all his solo stuff and the later bands such as SOTO and Sons of Anarchy.

The book goes through each band, each album (if there was one). There are sometimes comments from former band members, news articles and even quotes from Soto himself. Sometimes it goes in to great detail about songs, about the happenings and inner workings of the band. and it even focuses on the negative stuff, but I like that it is mostly positive and doesn’t speak negatively about anyone. It might point out faults, but it is all done in a respectful way. It was because of the detail of this book that I discovered so many albums I didn’t even know he was on and that, my friend, is why I liked this book and it was a valuable tool.

After each band discussion, you usually get pictures of the bands and even album covers. There are a ton of track list and talks of demos and songs that might have never seen the light of day. Now, the book isn’t perfect. I have found some wrong dates on releases and maybe a live album or two that were missing, but damn, there is so much here that I didn’t know. And you even get some details in to his time in Journey. That was what I was excited to read about.

The next part of the book is where Jeff might have done demos for a band, guested on vocals and other collaborations and let me tell you there are ton of albums this man has appeared on either as a lead, a guest, a background vocal, as a songwriter, producer or whatever. If I tried to get everything he has ever appeared on, I would have hundreds of albums.

The 3rd part is his work in the cinematic world, commercials, radio shows are other performances. Some of the most notable are the movie Rock Star where was the vocals for the original Steel Dragon singer. He was also the lead vocals for the cartoon band in Biker Mice From Mars. And yes, I have that god awful album.

Still another section is on all the tribute albums Jeff has appeared on and wow, there are a ton. A handful of them are pictured above. Me, I won’t be buying each and everyone of these. There is a bootleg out there called Cover 2 Cover that has most, if not all, of the ones he has done. Hard one to find.

And the last section is on all the touring he has done with his solo career and appearances with other. It is a lot of touring. One of my favorite sections is the discography which list every album and every song he has appeared on whether he was the singer, songwriter, producer or whatnot. It is an almost exhaustive list, but it does miss a few things like I mentioned earlier. But still a pretty impressive list.

Now, this isn’t the type of biography that is full of details of his life, the good, the bad, the dirty, the mean…nope. It is more a reference guide to his career. Yes, you get some insight in to the bands, but no touring stories or dirt on any of the members. It is more of timing of recordings, tours, albums, song details, and other reviews from the albums. If you want information about all the music, the bands and such then this book will be right up your alley. If your looking for war stories, this isn’t it. My Overall Score is a 4.0 out of 5.0 Stars as it has been very helpful in my tasks. If I was expecting like an autobiography, the score would not be good as there isn’t hardly any of that. But what is here is informative and a great guide on his career and a great reference in what albums you need to buy. For that, I am thankful for this more than generous gift.

Now, back to the music…

UP NEXT: SOTO – ‘INSIDE THE VERTIGO’ (2015)

THE JEFF SCOTT SOTO SERIES:

1. Panther – ‘Panther’ (1986) – recorded in 1984
2. Yngwie Malmsteen’s Rising Force – ‘Rising Force’ (1984)
3. Yngwie Malmsteen’s Rising Force – ‘Marching Out’ (1985)
4. Kuni – ‘Lookin’ For Action’ (1988)
5. Kryst the Conqueror – ‘Deliver Us From Evil’ (1989) / ‘Soldiers of Light: The Complete Recordings (2019)
6. Eyes – ‘Eyes’ (1990)
7. Eyes – “Nobody Said It Was Easy” (1990) – 7″ Single – Bonus Edition
8. Talisman – ‘Talisman’ (1990)
9. Talisman – “I’ll Be Waiting” (1990) – 7″ Single – Bonus Edition
10. Skrapp Mettle – ‘Sensitive’ (1991)
11. Axel Rudi Pell – ‘Eternal Prisoner’ (1992)
12. Bakteria – ‘Deficate! Suffocate! Mutilate! Masturbate!’ (1992 / 2009)
13. Eyes – ‘Windows of the Soul’ (1993)
14. Talisman – ‘Genesis’ (1993)
15. Axel Rudi Pell – ‘The Ballads’ (1993)
16. Biker Mice From Mars – ‘Biker Mice From Mars (Soundtrack)’ (1993)
17. Takara – ‘Eternal Faith’ (1993)
18. Talisman – ‘5 Out Of 5 (Live in Japan)’ (1994)
19. Talisman – ‘Humanimal’ (1994)
20. Axel Rudi Pell – ‘Between the Walls’ (1994)
21. Gary Schutt – ‘Sentimetal’ (1994)
22. Jeff Scott Soto – ‘Love Parade’ (1994)
23. Axel Rudi Pell – ‘Made in Germany (Live)’ (1995)
24. Takara – ‘Taste of Heaven’ (1995)
25. Talisman – ‘Life’ (1995)
26. Axel Rudi Pell – ‘Black Moon Pyramid’ (1996)
27. Human Clay – ‘Human Clay’ (1996)
28. Talisman – ‘Best of’ (1996)
29. Axel Rudi Pell – ‘Magic’ (1997)
30. Human Clay – ‘U4IA’ (1997)
31. Boogie Knights – ‘Welcome to the Jungle Boogie’ (1997)
32. Takara – ‘Blind in Paradise’ (1998)
33. Talisman – ‘Truth’ (1998)
34. ‘Rock Star: Music from the Motion Picture (Soundtrack)’ – Various Artists (2001)
35. Humanimal – ‘Humanimal’ (2002)
36. Humanimal – Find My Way Home: Limited Edition E.P. (2002)
37. Jeff Scott Soto – ‘Holding On E.P.’ (2002)
38. Jeff Scott Soto – ‘Prism’ (2002)
39. Talisman – ‘Live at Sweden Rock Festival’ (2002)
40. Jeff Scott Soto – ‘JSS Live at the Gods 2002’ (2003)
41. Talisman – ‘Cats & Dogs’ (2003)
42. Jeff Scott Soto – ‘Believe in Me E.P.’ (2004
43. Jeff Scott Soto – ‘Lost in the Translation’ (2004)
44. Jeff Scott Soto – ‘Live at the Queen Convention 2003’ (2004)
45. Soul SirkUS – ‘World Play’ (2004/2005)
46. Talisman – ‘Five Men Live’ (2005)
47. Talisman – ‘World’s Best Kept Secret DVD (2005)
48. Jeff Scott Soto – ‘Essential Ballads’ (2006)
49. Journey – ‘Live from Atlanta (Bootleg)’ (2006)
50. Talisman – ‘7’ (2006)
51. Talisman – The Albums Ranked Worst to First
52. Jeff Scott Soto – ‘B-Sides’ (2006)
53. Redlist – ‘Ignorance’ (2007)
54. Jeff Scott Soto – LA Rocks Demo / Vinnie Vincent Demo 1988 (2008)
55. Jeff Scott Soto – ‘Beautiful Mess’ (2009)
56. Jeff Scott Soto – “21st Century” / “Gin & Tonic Sky” CD Single (2009) – Bonus Edition
57. Jeff Scott Soto – ‘One Night in Madrid’ (2009)
58. Trans-Siberian Orchestra – ‘Night Castle’ (2009)
59. W.E.T. – ‘W.E.T.’ (2009)
60. Jeff Scott Soto – ‘Live at Firefest 2008’ (2010)
61. Jeff Scott Soto – ‘Damage Control’ (2012)
62. W.E.T. – ‘Rise Up’ (2013)
63. W.E.T. – ‘One Live in Stockholm’ (2014)
64. Jeff Scott Soto – The Authorized Biography (2014)
65. SOTO – ‘Inside the Vertigo’ (2015)
66. Joel Hoekstra’s 13 – Dying to Live (2015)
67. SOTO – ‘Divak’ (2016)
68. Sons of Apollo – ‘Psychotic Symphony’ (2017)
69. Jeff Scott Soto – ‘Retribution’ (2017)
70. W.E.T. – ‘Earthrage’ (2018)
71. SOTO – ‘Origami’ (2019)
72. Sons of Apollo – ‘Live With the Plovdiv Psychotic Symphony’ (2019)
73. Jeff Scott Soto – ‘Wide Awake (In My Dreamland)’ (2020)
74. Jeff Scott Soto – ‘Live and Loud in Milan 2019’ (2020)
75. Sons of Apollo – ‘MMXX’ (2020)
76. SOTO – ‘Revision’ (2020)
77. Talisman – “Never Say Die (A Song For Marcel)” – 7″ Single (2020)
78. W.E.T. – ‘Retransmission’ (2021)
79. Jeff Scott Soto – ‘The Duets Collection, Vol. 1’ (2021)
80. Jeff Scott Soto – ‘Complicated’ (2022)
81. Ellefson/Soto – ‘Vacation in the Underground’ (2022)
82. Jeff Scott Soto / Jason Bieler – Live In Concert (2022) – Bonus Edition