There aren’t many artists out there that can stake the claim that they are having a “big” 2020. However, Kathy Valentine of the Go-Go’s is having one of the biggest years of her career! Earlier this spring she released her first book, an autobiography of her early years, leading up to the Go-Go’s mid-’90s reunion, All I Ever Wanted. In addition to the book, she released a solo record to accompany the book, also called All I Ever Wanted, providing a soundtrack to that book. This Friday, July 31st brings us the first new single by the Go-Go’s since 2001, “Club Zero.” Once you have given the new single a few dozen spins, that very same night brings us the premiere of the Go-Go’s on Showtime, a documentary film about the life and times of the most successful all female rock band of all time at 9/8c!
Spinning Platters had the opportunity to chat on the phone with Kathy Valentine, and in between a few fanboy moments of excitement, I managed to ask a few questions.
Spinning Platters: My first question is — and you do not have to answer this one because I do not know if you do not want to answer — what is going on with the Go-Go’s tour? Do you know if that is still in the cards or not?
Kathy Valentine: It is not up to us to decide. Each promoter of each venue: It is their choice. I do not even know if it is a choice, but it is up to them to make announcements. We are just waiting to hear what they say. But I do not see any other artist doing tours, so I do not see why ours would be an exception. (Editor’s Note: Since the date of this interview, the tour, in fact, was postponed, with 2021 dates slowly trickling out here.)
SP: Are you still rehearsing at this point?
KV: Oh, we live in five different cities. We would not be rehearsing at this point even if it was on. We live in five different cities, and we would have met in Los Angeles about a week before the tour started to rehearse. Even if there was not a pandemic we would not be rehearsing yet.
SP: That is crazy. You only get together for a week before hitting the road?
KV: Yes, I mean we have been together for over 40 years. We are not reinventing anything. It is just to spruce up and get tight playing together again.
SP: Yes, okay, so enough Go-Go’s specific stuff! The record that came alongside the book, which came first? Were you thinking you wanted to do sort of an autobiographical album or was the book that—which was the inspiration for the other?
KV: I wrote the book for almost three years, and as I was writing the book, towards the end of it I just really missed making music and writing songs. I had been so focused on writing the book that I thought it would be a cool idea to keep going and express musically, in songs, the way I traditionally have dealt with life stuff in the past, but I thought I have a whole book to draw from it. I thought a lot of the chapters sounded like book titles and I thought there were certainly more than enough topics to write songs about. I would say that the book inspired me to do a soundtrack. I also did not think that I had seen too many writers that were musicians do that, and I thought it was interesting that more musicians who wrote books had not wanted to accompany them with their music.
SP: Excellent, yes. My favorite passage on the album is when you list off names for acid and make fun of the different names that people have for acid. I do not actually really have a question there. It is just I really was tickled because I have always thought the way drugs were marketed was so absurd and silly.
KV: I took that from the book, the chapter when I was taking hallucinogens in Texas. It just sounded like it was candy or something. So I just took that. A lot of the stuff for the soundtrack, I just took out of the book and maybe rework it so it was more lyrical or more rhythmic to fit into a sound, a musical format.
SP: So the book stops at the first Go-Go’s reunion. What made you think to stop there? I mean, it feels like there is a lot of story left.
KV: As someone that was concerned primarily with getting on the map as a writer and writing a well-crafted story, that was my goal. My goal was not to tell the Go-Go’s history or to be the Go-Go’s historian. My goal was not to spill the dirt or tell every little thing about the band. My goal was to write a very good book and open the door so that I could be accepted and recognized as an author and writer with some good capability. So, I chose to pick a story arc that had a beginning and an ending, and a protagonist that was me, that came out a changed person after a series of obstacles and getting everything, losing everything. That is a very conventional story arc. To keep going on and on would destroy it. I was much more concerned with writing a well-crafted book than I was being the Go-Go’s historian and telling everything that ever happened to us. If I want to write another book that is in the memoir genre, I certainly do have a lot more stories to tell and a lot more to my journey, and people that have read the first book will feel like that is a continuation. But hopefully, the second book would stand on its own anyway. But yes, my intention was to do a well-crafted book, not to document everything that the Go-Go’s ever did.
SP: Yes. It is a captivating narrative. What is your next writing project? Would you consider attacking fiction? Would you consider writing a biography of another artist?
KV: I would consider writing about another artist, but given how much work and time goes into a book, and even after you finished a book it takes quite a while to get it out published, and then it takes quite a while to promote it. I do not know, at my age, if I want to devote years and years of my life to writing about other people. I mean, it is possible. I am open to it. I do not know if I would do it as well as I did my story because my story is one that only I could tell. But I would definitely be interested in writing fiction. I have written short stories and I have got the interest and definitely writing a lot more.
SP: With these short stories that you have written in the past, will they see the light of day outside of your archives at some point?
KV: Oh yes, I would love to do a collection of short stories and I would love to do musical soundtracks to them as well. That is definitely one of my goals. I just would like to think of it as a collection, so I would need to write enough stories that had some kind of overreaching umbrella theme to them. I am not really sure. I am just writing now. I do not know what form it is going to take, but I am just trying to make sure that I keep writing every day and see where it leads. But I am not sure yet where all that will happen.
SP: To jump into the future. What is next for the Bluebonnets? After the solo record are you still working with them? Are they going to still put out material?
KV: I do not know. We have not put out a record since 2015, and I would love to still play in the Bluebonnets. It is a great band—great musicians, great band. We have a lot of fun. But I am going to put my focus and energy into being me for a while. I have spent 45 years playing in bands, and the focus of all my effort and energy and creativity for pretty much my entire career has been about for the good of a band. I feel like I want to put my focus and energy on being Kathy Valentine and the things I want to do, and that does not mean I cannot show up and play a show. I love playing in a band, but I do not think I am going to be driving that. I am not going to be organizing, “Okay, time to make an album.” I am not going to do that. Somebody else wants to do it, I will show up but no. We are not breaking up; we will still play. We get offers when it is not a pandemic. We have a show scheduled for September, and we actually still have one scheduled for September. I hope it happens. But yes, it is a great band. No reason not to do it.
SP: Would you consider doing some Kathy Valentine solo shows once all this is over?
KV: I do not want to put a band together, and I do not really relish the idea of just sitting there with an acoustic guitar. That was never really my trip, like just being a singer-songwriter. But if I can work out an entertaining set where I can go somewhere and talk, maybe talk about the book, maybe talk about other stuff, maybe bring in some song or music to illustrate and tie things together, I would be interested in doing that and speaking, doing more speaking engagements, doing women’s conferences, working in different capacities to put out a mentoring and inspiring message. So, yes, I am interested in doing things as “me.” But I do not know <pauses> I do not think I want to put a band together and go on tour as a solo artist. That has never really been my goal either.
SP: Excellent. So, are you writing music right now?
KV: No, I really want to get some more other writing done and I was very satisfied with my soundtrack, which is basically a solo album. I was very very satisfied with that, and I feel like I worked on it very intensely and just going to bounce back to the writing for a little while. But it is always there. I mean, if I get an idea for a song, I have every capability to sit down and record it, and I am always ready. I have not done it since my soundtrack, but it could happen tonight. I do not know. Whenever that urge strikes, I am ready to do it.
SP: Excellent. Well, I feel like I am good here with questions. Yes, I also just want to say thank you not just for sitting and talking to me, but the Go-Go’s meant a lot to me from a very early age. Like my first memory of TV is the “Our Lips Are Sealed” video.
KV: Oh, wow.
SP: Yes, you were part of something that helped get me excited about music in general and help me forge the career path that I took. So without you, I do not know if my life would be the same. I just wanted to say thank you.
KV: I love that. You know, a guy approached me. I was eating in a Greek cafe in New York in December, and a guy approached me and said a very similar thing. He said, “I do not think I would be in New York City pursuing the career I have if it was not for the Go-Go’s and for seeing you and seeing the band, and the music.” It was a very similar thing to what you just said. Along the way, all the people that have said other types of things like inspire them to start a band, male, female, got them through a tough time, this and that. It is just probably the most meaningful and profound part of the legacy that I enjoy. So thank you for sharing that. It is much more important to me than being the first all-girl band that did this or that; it really is. So thank you for telling me that. It really makes my day.
