One day before Elvis Presley would have turned 74, Go-Go and rocker Kathy Valentine celebrated her 50th birthday. For music lovers of a certain vintage the fact that a member of the Go-Go’s turned 50 gives pause. In this case, have no fear. Kathy Valentine is proof that 50 is indeed the new 30 and her birthday was a cause for celebration. Not only is Kathy Valentine still rocking, she has come to appreciate and celebrate the times and the loves of her life. She has survived addiction, failed love affairs and band break-ups, not to mention a recent harrowing journey with her mother who battled a rare brain tumor, emerging grounded, happily married with a beautiful daughter and looking forward to a life in music for years to come.
A journey that began on January 7th, 1959 in Austin, TX has come full circle. Living in her “dream home,” a wooded sanctuary in Westlake Hills, she balances the roles of mother, wife and caregiver to her mother, music producer, businesswoman and songwriter. Valentine returned to Austin three years ago a far different woman from the determined yet naive teenager who left Austin and headed to Los Angeles with nothing but making music on her mind.
Valentine always knew that she was different. Dropping out of Reagan High School as a freshman she attended Greenbriar, an alternative school near Bastrop. “Public school just was not for me. I did not fit in and I never felt comfortable. I loved music from the first time I picked up a guitar.” Valentine’s parents divorced when she was young and her mother worked on her degree in psychology at UT while raising Kathy alone. “I always felt loved and supported. I place a great value on the love and support she gave me. As a child I felt that I could accomplish anything I set out to do.”
Though influenced by the music of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, it was the music scene in Austin that paved the way for Valentine to dream of a life as a musician. “Austin influenced me completely! I would not have become a musician if I had not grown up in Austin. Even before Austin was touting itself as the ‘Live Music Capital of the World,’ there was a great scene here. I loved the mix in Austin – outlaw country, rock, blues – even as a teenager I would go from The Broken Spoke to Soap Creek Saloon, then downtown to the Lamplighter and Mother Earth. In the clubs there were hippies and rednecks, but everyone got along. It was about the music. There were no cliques. I loved John Lee Hooker. Doug Sahm let me get up on stage and play with him. I remember seeing Jimmie Vaughan and thinking, ‘I want to play like that.’ Just recently as I was thinking about turning 50, I realized that my longest relationship with a musician is with Jimmie. We’re still close and we’re still in Austin.”
Valentine may have been hooked on music in Austin, but it would take a return to her mother’s English roots and a trip across the pond for her to set her sights on becoming a female rocker. “When I was 16, we went to England and I saw Suzi Quatro. Before that trip, it had never occurred to me that I could be a rocker, but in her I saw a woman who was a rock star and I came back pretty determined to be in a band.”
On her return, Valentine formed the Violators, the first punk band in Austin that consisted of one guy and three girls. They played regular gigs at Raul’s before she decided that Los Angeles had more promise for her style of punk rock. Valentine and fellow band member Carla Olson journeyed to LA where they cofounded the Textones. With differing sounds and songs, the pair eventually split and Valentine found herself unemployed. A life-changing opportunity fell into her lap when the bass guitarist from the all-girl group, the Go-Go’s, fell ill. “I had four days to learn all of their songs and the bass guitar. When I joined them, we played four sold-out nights at the Whiskey A Go Go. I liked them and I liked the music. I remember saying to myself, ‘This is what I came to LA for,’ and I made it my business to see that I would be asked to stay in the band. That bass player wasn’t coming back if I had anything to do with it.”
The Go-Go’s liked her style and in 1980, at age 21, Valentine joined the iconic all-female band permanently. Valentine would go on to write several of the band’s hits – Can’t Stop the World, Vacation and Head Over Heels. The band became a fixture on MTV while Kathy and the Go-Go’s lived life in the fast lane on the road. After five years of hard living and constant touring, the band broke up. “It was a case of too young and too much too soon. Throw in egos and issues with royalties for songwriting mixed with substance abuse and nonstop touring and you have a recipe for disaster. We simply imploded. I don’t think people realize how much the music business takes out of you. It is so much more than being up there on stage. It is constant promotions, appearances and signings. When we broke-up, I was devastated … profoundly lost. My identity was wrapped up in being a Go-Go.” Valentine received support from her boyfriend, a drummer for Blondie, who knew firsthand what it was like to watch a band disintegrate. The pair traveled and Valentine continued with her songwriting. She bankrolled and formed a new band that almost made it, but went nowhere. Eventually, the Go-Go’s set aside their differences and reunited in 1990, releasing a compilation of their greatest hits followed by more infighting and another split only to come back together to record God Bless the Go-Go’s in 2001.
The group continues limited touring – picking and choosing interesting and lucrative venues and audiences such as corporate appearances in Las Vegas and Maui, serving as Grand Marshalls for the Endymion parade at Mardi Gras in New Orleans and performing at a birthday bash for Muhammad Ali. Royalties from commercial use of Go-Go’s hits including Vacation are an added bonus. “We get amazing opportunities and the schedule is manageable. I have time at home and for me it is ideal.”
Valentine reflects on the Go-Go’s place in music history. “The first time I became aware that we had something special, we were playing Madison Square Garden and they brought up the house lights. The entire crowd was on its feet dancing. It was an extraordinary moment and I will never forget it. We were the first all-woman band that wrote our own songs and played our own instruments that made it to #1. Every time we would approach a label they would tell us, ‘There has never been an all-female band that has been successful,’ so we signed with a small label and proved them wrong. We hoped that our success would lead the way for more female bands, but that did not happen. We are still the only ones with that kind of sound.”
In an effort to help young women know the career success she experienced and send the next all-girl band on their way, Valentine pitched a reality television show to search for her successors. Although the idea appealed to several cable networks, the show never made it to air and Valentine moved on to producing as a way to get promising female musicians out there. “My experience with the television show was so frustrating. Just when it seemed to be coming together, something would happen and we would be at square one again. I realized that I did not have to do the show. I found a band to produce – Adrian and the Sickness – a kickass rock band and it is incredibly rewarding. Right now we are a few songs away from finishing an album and I am putting most of my creativity into them. Of course I am always writing songs and collecting ideas and concepts.”
Songwriting and a desire to experience the freedom of creating away from the Go-Go’s led to Valentine’s solo debut with Light Years. Critically acclaimed, Valentine wrote all but one of the 12 tracks and experimented with a wide variety of tempos, sounds and styles. The result is a recording that reveals much about the artist herself through lyrics that resonate punctuated by Valentine’s signature guitar. “Writing for a band, everything must filter through the group and often ideas are modified or diluted. This was very freeing. I could do whatever I wanted. I wasn’t trying to write hits or trying to please a label. I could say what I wanted to say in the exact way I wanted it said. Now I am working on a remake of blues classics. I want to rework the traditionally male songs in an edgy, modern way with a feminine voice. So far I’ve done Spoonful and I Just Want To Make Love To You. It intrigues me to take the classic blues songs and expand them. I would like to put that one out to benefit a woman’s charity or cause.”
As for the other loves of her life, 2002 proved to be a pivotal year. “I had always wanted to be a wife and a mother, but for me being in a band was kind of like being married. I was putting everything into it. I walked into a Guitar Center in Los Angeles and this nice guy came up to me and asked if I was single. He gave me his card and said, ‘I really am a nice guy. I would like to take you to dinner.’ He was a lawyer at a prestigious boutique firm, but he was also a musician. We always say that Steven is the academic with a musical/creative side and I am the musician with an academic bent. We complement each other perfectly.” A whirlwind romance was followed shortly by marriage and the arrival of daughter Audrey. Becoming a wife and a mother at age 44 shifted Valentine’s beliefs and perceptions about family and herself. “When my daughter was born, she added a dimension and depth to my life that I had never known before. I experienced that innate ability to nurture and care for another unconditionally. She lights up my life. We make up songs together. She sings in a non-stop stream of consciousness about whatever strikes her. She loves words and writes countless stories. I wouldn’t mind if Audrey wants to become a musician, but I would insist that she get an education first. The business has completely changed. It was always an elusive dream, but now you definitely need a back-up plan. You don’t just go out and cut record deals now. Steven and I often talk about Audrey’s future and one of our greatest joys is that we can provide her with the financial security to pursue whatever she wants to do. Our success came from having to succeed. Steven worked three jobs to put himself through Stanford Law [School]. We want her to know what it is to work for something you really feel passionate about.”
A growing restlessness and desire to raise Aud-rey away from Los Angeles led the couple to relocate to Austin and return to Valentine’s roots. “I love it here. The air is clean and you can breathe. I love that music is such a big part of this town … it’s everywhere … the grocery store, the dry cleaner, the bank. I am hooked on The Daily Juice and I love to walk or run at Town [Lady Bird] Lake. I volunteer at my daughter’s school and I am part of the community. Living in Austin is all about the quality of life for us.”
Recent events regarding the health of her mother, Margaret, have also given Valentine reason for reflection and celebration. “For years, my mother seemed to be slipping away. She was unfocused, unmotivated and lethargic. She seemed incapable of taking care of herself and in my belief, was becoming lazy and entitled. After I found her living in a state of chaos in Austin, we moved her to Los Angeles to live near us. Over the years, she had been diagnosed with everything from depression to anxiety disorder to diabetes to dementia. This summer I was desperate and begged her doctor to help me find a place that could help us. Before they could diagnose her with dementia, the doctor ordered a brain scan and that is when they found the tumor. It was the last thing I expected to hear.”
Margaret was suffering the symptoms of meningioma, a slow-growing tumor that is usually benign and can go for years undetected. The tumor had grown so large that it was pressing Margaret’s brain into her skull and surgery was planned. When the first doctor detected the extent of the vascular problem, he backed off surgery, saying that the tumor was inoperable. Knowing that her mother could face loss of vision and brain damage, Kathy began extensive research. Doctors at M.D. Anderson indicated that immediate surgery was necessary and a chance remark about the problem made at the open house for parents at Audrey’s school led to Dr. Kit Fox of Saint David’s. Dr. Fox was able to complete the harrowing surgery that successfully removed the tumor.
Margaret is now awaiting radiation treatment and recovering under the patient and caring eye of her daughter. “Once I learned the reason for Mother’s behavior, I felt so guilty because of all the times I had been angry with her. I am an only child and I hated that I had been critical and judgmental, but I also realized that beating myself up wasn’t going to help anyone. The lesson I learned was that your perception and beliefs can be a mere pixel in a hi-resolution picture … the entire picture is so much larger that you can imagine. I am not the most religious person, but I had to put it in God’s hands. I prayed for her constantly.” Because the tumors are usually benign, research is underfunded and scarce. Both Margaret and Kathy hope to raise awareness of this prevalent and often undiagnosed tumor as well as the need for research and education to the public.
With roots and friends in LA and Austin, Kathy celebrated her birthday in both cities with a dinner party at home in Austin and a party at the Bel-Air Hotel in Los Angeles hosted by Steven. “At first, when I thought about turning 50 I was not in a good place. I am very visual and 50 seemed to me to be on the downside of the arc of my life. In light of recent events, I began to feel open and hopeful about my life and what is to come. I was able to appreciate my family and friends and be grateful for my life. I decided to write a letter to each person I was lucky to have in my life. It took a long time and I covered a wide spectrum of my life. I went through each person quietly and focused on them and the things we shared. I got down to specifics. It was very cool and I used the letters as party favors. For other people attending that I did not know as well, I wrote a list things I had learned along the way entitled ‘What I Have Learned in Fifty Years.’ I am more than happy to share it with you.”
One look at that list and time spent with the woman who wrote it reassured me that at 50, Kathy Valentine is far from the downward arc of her life. Keeping the loves of her life close to her heart, she is still rocking, albeit in a mature and balanced way. Without a doubt, she’s got the beat.