No Holds Barred: Autobiography of Country Music's Legendary Bad Girl

Country-and-western singer Tucker wholeheartedly envies the role of the full-time country songwriter. She takes the title of her book from one of her favorite country songs, and in three separate passages she boasts of the night on which songwriting great Harlan Howard called her a ""songwriter hidden in a singer's body."" Because Tucker is so forthcoming about her desire to write her own material, she lets readers of her autobiography delight in finding that desire eventually fulfilled. Name-dropping abounds--Garth Brooks, Don Johnson, Cher, Christie Brinkley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Michael Keaton and Burt Reynolds all make appearances--but the emphasis here is less on tattling (though she does tell on perceived saints like crooner Johnny Rodriguez and songwriter Dean Dillon) than on relating a good anecdote. Tucker spends more time recalling life with family than she spends glorifying her encounters with such superstars as Merle Haggard and Elvis. Her adored, domineering father (and manager since she hit the road at age 13) stands at the center of the book, and often seems to stand in for her wavering inhibitions. Tucker has always liked to party and has grown into the image of a kind-hearted hell-raiser, which lets her move, in just two paragraphs, from a religious epiphany in the Holy Land to a drunken New Year's Eve party. This unrepentant joie de vivre makes for an adroit, secular and only minimally malicious response to former lover Glen Campbell's recent finger-pointing, redemption tale-cum-memoir, Rhinestone Cowboy. This is gentle gossip for fans, a pleasant barroom reunion with an old friend. Photos not seen by PW. (Apr.)