After more than fifty years in the spotlight, Sylvester Stallone is finally releasing a full autobiography. Titled The Steps, the book is set for release on May 5, 2026 and is already available for preorder from Harper Collins.
“This is a story about heart, energy, humor and learning how to get up when you get knocked down. Going on when you don’t think you can, and eventually climbing that one mountain that you once thought was out of reach.” (Sylvester Stallone)
For longtime fans, this announcement hits with a mix of excitement and curiosity. Stallone has never been shy in interviews. He’s told stories about his early struggles, his writing process, the making of Rocky, and just about every behind-the-scenes detail a fan could want. So now that we’re getting an official Sylvester Stallone autobiography, the real question is: what’s left to reveal?
We’ve Heard All the Stories. Now What?
From late-night interviews to magazine profiles to his own social media, Stallone has shared so much over the years that parts of his life feel like public record. His rise from obscurity. Allegedly selling his dog to survive. Writing the Rocky script in a fury. Refusing to sell it unless he could star. It’s the stuff of Hollywood legend, and he’s told it dozens and dozens of times.
So what’s going to make this book different?
That’s the hope — that this Sylvester Stallone book will go deeper than the usual anecdotes and actually show us parts of Sly we haven’t seen. In a recent social post, Stallone hinted that this one is more personal than anything he’s done before. He described it as “a story about heart, energy, humor and learning how to get up when you get knocked down.” And if you’re a fan who’s been following his career closely, that might mean we’re finally going to hear more about the chapters of his life he’s kept quiet, the ones that never made it into press tours.
Will The Steps Reveal the Private Side of Stallone — His Family, His Sons, and the Pain He’s Never Shared?
If Stallone’s really ready to tell the whole story, there are a few parts of his life that fans have waited decades to hear more about, and none of ’em are easy.
We’ve heard about the fights for creative control, the behind-the-scenes battles on set, the Hollywood politics. That’s all been covered. What hasn’t been? Some of the really personal stuff. The real-life pain that doesn’t get edited into a montage.
For starters, there’s his father. Stallone’s relationship with Frank Sr. has always been complicated. He’s dropped bits and pieces in interviews, but never given a full picture. There was tension there — and maybe more — and you can feel it in the way he talks about discipline, toughness, and proving people wrong. His daughters went furthest with this subject on their Unwaxed podcast, and it was clear: there’s a deeper story that’s never been told.
But what a lot of fans really want to know, and what this autobiography could finally deliver, is the truth about his two sons.
Sage Stallone was the oldest. He acted with Sly in Rocky V, ran his own film company, and showed real promise as a director. In 2012, he died tragically and unexpectedly at 36. Stallone said a few things publicly, but you could see it crushed him. He didn’t do the talk show circuit. He didn’t turn it into a headline. He shut it down. And fans respected that. But we always wondered — what did that loss really do to him?
Then there’s Seargeoh. Diagnosed with autism as a child, he’s lived a totally private life, and Stallone has kept it that way. He’s only mentioned him in passing, back in the 80s, when People or Time would ask. But there’s never been a deep conversation about what that experience was like. Raising a son with autism while building a global movie career? That’s not small stuff. And if he’s ready to talk about it now, his memoir could finally show us that side of Stallone — the father, not the fighter.
The Netflix documentary Sly scratched the surface, but it didn’t go there. Maybe it wasn’t the place for it. But this book might be. Sly’s nearly 80. He’s done playing it safe. And if The Steps is going to stand out from all the other stories we’ve heard a hundred times, it needs to go past the usual quotes and get into the parts of his life that have stayed off camera.
How Preorders Shape the Release of the Sylvester Stallone Book
Right now, Stallone’s autobiography is available for preorder through all the usual channels: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Bookshop, and more. Publishers tend to open up preorders this far in advance not just for hype, but because preorders help determine how many copies to print, how wide the release should be, and how much marketing muscle to put behind the launch.
In other words, the more fans who order early, the more likely this becomes a major book event rather than just another churned-out celebrity memoir. That could potentially push The Steps onto bestseller lists right out of the gate, which we all know is a badge of honor Sly would appreciate.
Not Sly’s First Book — But Maybe His Most Personal
While this is being promoted as his first autobiography, it’s not the first time Sly has put something down on paper. Fans will remember The Official Rocky Scrapbook, released shortly after the original film in 1976. The Scrapbook was a nostalgic, photo-heavy piece that gave some early insight into the making of the first movie. And then there’s Sly Moves, his 2005 fitness and mindset book that laid out his personal training regimens and life philosophy.
Both were solid entries for fans, but neither went as deep as The Steps promises to.
Counting Down to The Steps
So now we wait. Stallone says The Steps will be a story of heart, resilience, and the uphill battle of life. And after five decades of fame, one thing’s clear: we’ve seen the myth, the icon, the fighter. Now let’s see the man.
Hopefully, this is the one where he finally takes us all the way up those steps.
