The Go-Go’s Kathy Valentine: “When I was asked if I could play the bass, I didn’t even hesitate. I thought, ‘How hard can it be?’”

Kathy Valentine
(Image credit: Daniel Knighton/Getty Images)

Kathy Valentine’s autobiography All I Ever Wanted is a great book, but not an easy one to read. Although its author is now much healthier and happier in 2022 than the young musician described in its early chapters, the traumas she suffered as a child – betrayal, rape, and abortion among them – and the subsequent addictions that she battled in later life are hard to absorb.

Fortunately, Valentine is easy to talk to. Now 63 and sober for more than half her life, she looks back on the events described so vividly in her book with a clear eye. This is just as well, because even aside from the low points of her personal life, she’s been on a rocky journey. 

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Joel McIver

Joel McIver was the Editor of Bass Player magazine from 2018 to 2022, having spent six years before that editing Bass Guitar magazine. A journalist with 25 years' experience in the music field, he's also the author of 35 books, a couple of bestsellers among them. He regularly appears on podcasts, radio and TV.