Byrd had actually begun working on the book two years ago. Initially, his manuscript was merely a series of journal entries he intended to someday pass down to his two sons, Grayson and Colby. At the insistence of a friend, he turned those journals into the book, which will be released Tuesday by Howard Books.

“Rocky Balboa” and “John Rambo” never pulled any punches, and neither does the man who created two of America’s most enduring action heroes. Even when the talk turns to the human growth hormone (HGH) he was convicted of having in Australia last year, Sylvester “Sly” Stallone doesn’t blink.

“I wish it were true that you could take something like that and get in shape,” the movie icon told TODAY co-host Matt Lauer on Friday in New York.

He was in town to pump his new movie, “Rambo IV,” opening in theaters nationwide on Friday, Jan. 25. Outtakes from the film show the action hero with muscles still bulging, his relatively unlined face mocking his 61 years.

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