In her new book Let’s Talk About Pep, Sandy Denton, best known as the peppery half of the hip-hop pioneering group Salt-N-Pepa, speaks honestly about her tale from rags to riches and string of bad romances along the way.

The very thing that got me into Salt-N-Pepa — going with the flow and doing what I was told — was the same thing that got me in a lot of bad situations. Being a chameleon or just going with whatever wasn’t good for me. It allowed me to put up with things I shouldn’t have put up with. It allowed me to be with people I should not have been with because I wasn’t able to just be myself and say no or walk away. It never let me ask, “What do I want out of life?” It never allowed me to really think about me and my needs first…..

Sandy says she was in a decade-long abusive relationship with a man she calls “Brad.”

“I had the hot iron in my hand and he had a handful of my hair. He grabbed the hand with the iron in it and was pushing [it] toward my face. … He ended up pressing that hot iron against my other arm. I heard my flesh sizzling, and the smell was sickening. I started screaming from the pain. He dropped the iron and I turned to run, and his nail swiped across my eyeball and shredded my cornea.” The incident left her with deep scars and an eye patch.”