Gave up LSD as a child, pregnant at 12
Go-Go bassist Kathy Valentine’s new book “All I Ever Wanted: A Rock ‘n’ Roll Memoir” is full of bombshells from the rocker’s time in the spotlight.
The 63-year-old detailed her experiences in the popular girl group, her difficult childhood in Texas and her nights out with Rod Stewart.
She also shockingly revealed that she used LSD and got pregnant as a pre-teen.
Valentine wrote that while she and her band were revered by their male peers, music executives gave them the nickname “pop sweethearts” and refused to take them seriously.
“If ‘pop lovers’ did acid at Graceland, vomited on floors at fancy restaurants, cheated on boyfriends, took mean Polaroids, kissed girls, watched fringe pornography and stayed up all night writing songs and playing guitar, well, maybe their stupid label might fit,” she wrote.
Valentine was born in Austin, Texas and raised by a single mother. Drug dealers often slept at her house, she said.
“It was LSD named like crazy candy: Orange Sunshine, Windowpane, Clear Light,” she wrote of the drugs she used in her youth. “We could pool our lunch money to buy some hits.”
When the musician was only 12 years old, she says, she was found drunk in her neighbour’s garden. That same year, she lost her virginity to a friend’s 14-year-old older brother – and later became pregnant and had an abortion. Just two years later, at age 14, she was raped.
Valentine also described a major moment in her life when she realized she loved music. In 1973, she went to visit her mother’s family in the UK, where she watched “Top Of The Pops” – a British music TV show – broadcast on television. There, she saw “Can the Can” singer Suzi Quatro perform. The “Devil Gate Drive” singer became Valentine’s inspiration.
“I was 14, and there she was: Suzi Quatro, a bass player leading a rock band,” the “We Got the Beat” crooner said.
“Seeing her do what I had only seen men do changed everything,” she continued. “From that moment on, I had one goal: to be part of a badass band with a gang of like-minded girls and claim the life I wanted for myself.”
She then moved to Los Angeles in 1978 to pursue music after learning to play guitar from one of her mother’s boyfriends.
She joined the Go-Go’s in 1980, two years after the group was formed. The original band consisted of Belinda Carlisle, Charlotte Caffey, Jane Wiedlin, Gina Schock and bassist Margot Olavarria. However, after the band grew bored of Olavarria’s “punk” attitude, Valentine was brought in as a replacement.
“Light Years” soloist Valentine left the band in 1985 and later became an alcoholic and fell on hard times. Valentine has been sober for 33 years and has since reunited with the band on several occasions, including for their current international tour.