Hey, it's Bob Pickett. We're on our way to the legendary Broken Spoke.
Come on, let's get out the truck and head inside. Come on,
let's go inside, getting ready for another tale from the Broken Spoke.
Welcome back. We're in me too. It's time for another great tale,
in fact, more great stories. Tell us the Broken Spoke on. Bob
Pickett, my co host and best friend. Right here, mister Wannie Warden,
and we are we are. We are joined by a rock and roll
Hall of Famer. No, is that crazy? Yeah? Austinite. Yeah.
Kathy Valentine's with us right now. Welcome. It's the book is great.
The book is called All Everyone, and you share a lot of stories.
You mentioned, you know, sitting in and showing up on stage for
Doug. You also talk about Chuck Berry influencing You talk about the stones and
stuff. What a cool life. And we were talking earlier. There's got
to be a sequel to this. There's got to be. Yeah. I
mean, this book the one thing I was asked to do. The University
of Texas Press offered me a book deal. I had the best situation that
any writer could dream of, and that I sat down to write every day
knowing that it was going to get published and be read. Was it therapeutic?
Were you afraid marry? It's the cheapest, most intense therapy ever to
write a memoir. I highly recommend it if you need to work through some
ship. But the main thing is that I knew it was going to get
published. It's it's hard to write and to avoid without knowing. A song
is different because you can sit there by yourself and play your song and be
just happy as can be. But writing is different. You're really giving and
it's it's not that different because you are giving a part of yourself away in
a song. But you can entertain yourself. You can't really entertain yourself reading
your own book. Are you now take your solo and really, you know,
like with your song, you can write your song and you don't really
have to play it on the stage and you don't have to record it.
You can just play that song every day and be pretty happy with yourself.
Wow. But you can't do that with a book. So anyway, um
this, when I sat down and had to write an outline, I saw
real clearly that there was a story arc that started around the age of eleven
that had a natural character at me, growth and change that ended around age
thirty. So that's when the book ends with a little epilogue. Like I
said, it isn't too soon because yeah, I would like to write a
sequel. Now, I would like to get a book deal before I write
it, so I have that same situation where I'm not writing into the void,
but I might have to do it the hard way. Well, and
just because you know, I was one of the you know, prer the
book of course and first in line and all this stuff. But if somebody
wants to get it, announce it's Kathy Valentine's all I ever wanted. Where
would you recommend somebody going to order the book as soon as they listen to
our show? Well, I like to support indie bookstores, but I'm I'm
fine if they wanted to get it from Amazon too, but I always try
to support a local business first. You might have to ask them to order
it. Because thank you for discussing the book right now. It came out
April first, twenty twenty, and what was going on then? That was
just right when the global pandemic was announced. So the eight weeks when a
book comes out is really that's the window where you get your press and your
reviews and you hit you go out and do book tours and appearances. So
I couldn't do any of that, and it did really well considering, but
it's nice that I still get the chance to do some of the stuff now
that I missed out on well. And also it's like one of those things,
it's like until somebody here's it, you don't have any old songs,
you know, and then anybody listening now maybe they've just now heard of the
book, and the book's brand new. The stories are timeless. It's it's
your memoir, so it's a specific time and a place so that it will
never be dated because this is this is your story. Have a long shelf
life. Yeah, and you think you're too honest though, and some of
the chapters, I mean that had to be can't be too long. There's
stuff about me I don't want people to know. And you stripped down a
lot of layers for the book. Yeah. I feel like, um all
I was concerned about when I wrote it was was it well written? And
was was my deadline? Was I on time? That's was my two things?
Is it well written and it wasn't until I actually finished it and it
was going to be published that I was like, oh, oh, everyone's
going to read this thing and read all the stuff I wrote. Oh um,
But I think there's not a way to to be um reliable as a
narrator if you're not honest. I mean, you know, it's you are.
You were first generation American punk, So you can't really do that and
compromise what you're gonna tell about your story. It's all about truth and honesty,
and and there was you know, I don't like the phrase brutal honesty.
I don't think you're being brutal. I think you're either being brutal or
you're being honest. But whatever, brutality towards the honesty, it's just towards
yourself. Yeah, you know, and I know I tried to not tell
anyone else's story, right, Yeah, you told your story. Yeah what
about You're just beautiful reading it? Were you? I mean, was that
tough? Well? She hasn't. Actually she's read parts of it. I
mean she was pretty young when I started it, because I started twenty sixteen,
so she would have been around fourteen, And she overheard me talk think
about a certain part. And she was appalled and said, I heard you
talking and that doesn't happen, and you can't put that, you can't write
that, And and I just said, you know, let's see how you
feel in a few years, you know. And why would anyone want to
do this? That's what she said. Why would anybody want to write a
memoir? Yeah? And I had to go well, and that actually became
part of my introduction, was her asking me that. And I was like,
well, a lot of people, it gives them hope and makes them
feel like if somebody can mess up and make mistakes and do things that they
are ashamed of and yet still go on and be loved and have relationships and
a family and a career, that can do a lot of healing for somebody,
that can heal someone else. So it's a way. It's being of
service, not ever, And I said, not everyone can write a memoir.
Yours would be boring, right. I think it takes but it takes
time. But I mean by yours, I meant hers. Because she was
a fourteen year old kid with a well adjusted life. Well, I mean
that was a whole thing. I didn't have that. No, you know,
because brainy and I. Our son Brooks is nineteen, and you know,
and I and I talked to him about you know, I was raised
by not only wolves, but kind of cruel wolves. You know, I
go with you know, I started, you know, I started a I
guess I'd moved in with my first check when I was fifteen, you know.
And I'm telling him, you know, an eyes, his eyes,
just go, Daddy, that you were a kid. I went, well,
you were a kid at fifteen, you know. But it was just
different. It was thanks for different. It was like, you need to
write a book. Oh yeah, it sounds I'm getting interested already. I
want to hear about Well, it's this young man from West Austin became a
big Go Ghost fan and wanted to write a bunch of songs. A lot
of a lot of my book was about my relationship with my mom. And
it took me a long time to come to terms with my relationship. And
it was a very healing thing because I had a lot of resentment towards my
mom. She didn't parent me, she didn't give me guidance. And when
I became a mom, it became really clear to me. And but writing
the book was very healing because it made me realize that she might have dropped
the ball in a lot of places. But I always felt loved and I
always felt supported. And I know people that had the most traditional, you
know, leave it to beaver or whatever family, and yet they didn't feel
loved, right. I didn't feel if they had said to their mom,
hey, I want to play guitar and start a rock and roll band,
they would have gotten laughed at. And I didn't have that. But I
think your mom gave you the drive, and that was writing the book gave
me a whole new lens to see her and to see my relationship, and
it was incredibly valuable. And even in the book, I would say to
her mom, I'm going to write about this. I'm gonna write about when
you did that. Is that okay with you? Because I don't have to
I can leave it out because my mom did some crazy stuff. And she'd
be like, no, this is your story. You write what you want
to write. And I was like, that's support. Yeah. Well,
and it was either in the book or it was either it might have been
shortly after your mother passed and she's been going about a year. Yeah.
June June twenty nine, so sorry and something else that Kathy has going.
I highly recommend everybody, and it is available. There's free and then there's
also subscribers, but Kathy uh is on the sub stack. It's a writing
platform that a lot of writers fantastics to get their writing out to an audience.
And you're sure, thank you, thank you so much. I love
it. Um. I don't want it to get in the way of writing
a book, because they do take a lot of effort and commitment and time.
But it's been good for me. It's made me more accountable and like
it's me. It's kept me writing, which if you're a writer, just
like if you're a songwriter, if you're a musician, artist, you got
to keep doing it. You you had said one of those things where you
said a lot better than this, But that is when when you realize that
your mom just even though it might have been awful, not your words,
but she always did the best she could. And that's such a I was
like, yeah, wow, if you if you use all the tools in
your tool chest, but your tools, you know, it's a sack of
balloons, but you do the best you can. And what a what a
great healing thing for other people to read. But yeah, it is a
substack dot com is it just Yeah, it's just Kathy Valentine's substack. And
I know Michael the first uh local cat, Michael Calchrane's on there and I
can't wait for you turned me on to substack. Yeah, yeah, it's
a lot of writers are using it. Yeah, and I love yours,
Thank you so much. I'm enjoying doing it, and it is free to
subscribe. I don't withhold, and I take readers along what it's like to
write a song. You know, I started a song and like, here's
how I got the chords, Here's how I got the lyrics, Here's okay,
now I'm going to figure out the tempo. I'm going to do a
click track. And they love that. People love when you pull the curtain
back and stuff. But with the parents, I mean, I think I
think people you know, and it doesn't just have to be parental. It
can be in a relationship. Is so many of us keep going to the
person expecting something that they can't give, and you're you set yourself up over
and over to be disappointed and let down, going back and to get to
a place where you realize that a person's capabilities might not be like maybe just
like even in my book, I said to my mom, like, what
were you thinking? What were you thinking? Back then? I could have
been putting foster care, you could have gone to jail. I could have
been completely without a parent. What were you thinking? And she was sitting
there and I'm fifty seven years old, and she's going, oh, I
was scared, but she didn't admit that until then to you asked her,
Yeah, but it's still like I'm like, so you were scared, but
you didn't you didn't stop. You still did it. And I realized at
that moment, I'm like, what am I doing. I'm wanting her to
go. I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, and she just couldn't.
And it was this realization like, don't keep going to someone wanting them to
give you something if they're not going to do it, you know, just
see what they can give. But I think that all I think, all
three of us are parents. I've got a twenty year old son. Yeah,
his birthday was but but our eyes don't really open up until we become
a parent. And suddenly we realized the responsibility and how we've got to guide
that child. So and that's what I wanted in the book too. How
much becoming a mother changed your life and influenced you even more, that's to
me that that's that's a great story that I would love to hear. Yeah,
well, I think like you're since we're all parents, we all know
that number one. You know it's I had. I was always like not
very nurturing of a person. I was a tough cookie. I was just
like, you know, you got a problem, take care of it,
damn it, you know, just like I just wasn't. I was harsh.
I was like a hard and I think becoming a parent made me soft
and made me open and made me nurturing and compassionate. It made me such
a better It's made me who I am, Right, it's who I was.
But I had built up so many that's how to me weakness, vulnerability
and needing help or any It just felt weak. And if you're weak,
you're like an injured animal that's going to get eaten. So you always act
strong. You always be that. And that's all tied into the drinking and
the addiction and the fronting. So getting sober was a big step, but
becoming a mom finished the job off where I could be who I really am,
you know, and I love that I love and and plus just not
knowing what it kind of love your you're capable of. I think so much
of it is, you know, particularly when you have all of our jobs,
you know, with so much focus on self. Is you know I'm
doing this? What is what are people going to think about me? What
does my new song sound like? What is how well is my record doing?
And then you then you have a young and it's just like, oh,
there's something so much bigger than I am. And I think that that's
how God gets in our lives. You know. I got sober when Brooks
was nine months old, so he doesn't know a dad strung out, you
know, he just knows sober me. And where you're able to let go
of so much self and then through the gift of parenting, where you go
there is something so much bigger than anything I would want. I just want
my child to be safe and happy. And it's scary too. It's scary
to love that much because you know the thought will creep in your mind,
what would I do if something happened? Right? You know? And you
know that people tragedies do happen, and people do and it's it's it's so
terrifying, you know, to love completely as also the other side of it
is the terror of having it taken away from you, and that just kind
of puts you right in the moment where you just have to be present and
grateful, which is being you know, living and God's light or however you
want to look at it or think of it. That that being in present
and the moment and grateful that's set. Yeah, humility of knowing that you
don't have to you don't get to say, you don't get to decide,
well, that just so great. Well, I think one of the main
things about parenthood is it's one of the greatest vehicles to present as as sometimes
it's said in the Twelve Steps, you know, to to no humility,
with no humiliation, and that's what parenting will do for you, you know,
and just bring about a patience that yeah, I'm a hard asked son
of a bitch bandleader and a you know, watching a three year old put
on your their shoes will make you patient a little bit. Yeah, but
then you get older and then you turn into a grumpy old man, you
know, Yeah, I really enjoyed in the book where you talked about how
you became sober and how you started attending meetings, but all the people that
Carlene Carter big influence and you were worried how she would feel about you when
you when you turn the corner, became sober. No, actually she was
sober for or me, so she inspired me. I wasn't worried about what
a great story though. Yeah, And we were just together in Nashville,
and it was really nice to still have that friendship, you know there And
yeah, I mean there's there's usually there's usually somewhere, somehow someone will pierce
through the denial, you know, and we're just reading your mail and your
bullshit doesn't work when when there's somebody in recovery and you sit and you explain
to them why you don't yet need to go and recovery or this, you
know whatever. Every there's a great thing in Uh. The way it works
is the eleven tradition says we must always maintain personal anonymity, love of press,
radio on film. So how it works is Kathy and I can tell
you we're in a twelve step program. We can't tell you what twelve step
program. We are because we don't want to have anything we do adversely effect
or influence one way or the other. A twelve step program. But I'm
a member of a couple of different twelve step programs. And uh, there's
a thing that that says that that we drunks and alcoholics have to practice rigorous
honesty. Well, see, you're not a drunk piggot. You don't have
to practice rigorous homes. You practice honesty, Brandy, practice is honesty.
But only a junkie could find a loophole in the word honesty. Oh sure,
I'm honest. I mean, but I don't hurt your feelings, you
know, are you rigorously honest? Oh no, yeah, no, not
at all. Well, and it's true, Like I'm amazed how many,
how many times my first reflex is to tell a lie, sure, a
white lie, or just get out of something, or that's my always my
first reflex. And I'm like, don't do it. It's not right,
rewired different, you're always fighting it all the time. Not fighting, it's
just a it's a it's not a fight, it's just an impulse. And
to me, it's interesting because if I if that's my impulse. I can't
even imagine what your basic asshole is doing all day long, you know.
Or for me, it's like, well, this is how I am eighteen
years sober. Fuck I guess eighteen minutes sober. I was pretty awful to
be a run you know. But but the thing is about the thing about
the Steps is because we all have these people in our lives, and by
the grace of God and the Twelfth Steps, I've been able to be one
of those people in other people's lives. Of the you know, past eighteen
years is there's just that one or two or three people that are already in
the program that just call you on all your ship and they just they see
that you're just lying through your teeth and how miserable you are, and they
and the facade that you're you know, putting through, putting other people through,
and and they just call you on all of it. And then they'll
go, how about you have a way of life that has none of that
in it? And they sound like crazy people, or you assume I did
anyway this drunk assumed they were lying to me. Yeah, you know,
when I first came in the program, I was like someone said, well,
yeah, we'll get you off dope. But what if you don't want
to take the dope? Now? Went, well, that's just a fucking
lie. Of course, I'll always want to take dope. And then you
realize very shortly, Wow, what if there's a life where you don't want
to take dope? What is that life? It's the greatest thing I've ever
known. Today, you think the environment's better in Austin than it was at
in La the West coast for you especially, what do you mean? I
mean, do you do you really enjoy living here as much as the city
has changed? Somebody not very regionally loyal to and the things I enjoy doing
I can pretty much do anywhere. YEA. To me, it's about like
finances now. I mean, if I wanted to live back in La I'd
be I'd be living in like Cathedral City or something. I just couldn't afford
to live there. And the same as with Austin. Now. If you
get out of Austin now, you're not coming back unless you want to live,
you know, out of town. So so I like, I mean,
I had my twenties and my thirties there, and those are the friends
that you grow up with and you're in the bars with then you you know,
you get high with and then you stop getting high. And like,
I have really good friendships. I love visiting there, and Austin is okay,
I mean, I don't It's all right. I can't say that I'm
crazy about it, but I'm not not crazy about It's just kind of where
I am. But it's home, it feels like right now, But I
don't know if it's gonna always be home. Well, I know from your
substate you talked about after your mother passed that you're thinking about because she had
dual citizenship. Correct, No, she was English, she wasn't, so
that gives you dual citizenship. All right. I'm going to my citizens ceremony
on Saturday. So in Houston they're combining it with the coronation celebration. I'll
be a dual citizen. And I just says, as I got older,
I want to be around family more and my mom's family in England is who
I would like to spend more time with, so I'll I'll go to I'm
not going to cut ties with Austin. You know, I raised my daughter
here, but but i'd probably go live there for a couple of years while
my daughter's in college finishing up. Have you ever written over there? I
started my sub stack there. I mean, I'm sorry, songs written,
Yeah, I mean I kind of am always. I just I write and
I don't know why, but I write differently there. Just whatever it is,
it's just it's just everything feels different. And you know, because everything's
so damp, they're all the pianos or their own variety of out of tune
and it's just it's just Brandy and I have found that we write different.
And we're in Europe. I'll check that out. Yeah, it's really could
in the past. I'm there just visiting or holidays or something. So if
I'm living there, I'll get a chance to experience that. That's so cool.
I can't wait to see the stuff at Jill. I mean, you
know this summer with the musical Zach Skinn head over Kathy Valentine, the musical
director, and in the band, and apparently we're on the stage. We're
not in the pit. Really, we're on the stage in costumes, interacting,
singing backups. How many pieces are in the band, It's gonna be
four piece, just your basic two guitar, bass and drum I'm just gonna
be I got Emily gimbal It's gonna play piano. Nobody good ve Eve is
gonna play good drummer. Yeah, okay, once again, Christy McInnis the
drummers. So I couldn't think of anybody that could do the job better than
three. I mean, two of them are in my band, but I
didn't pick them because they're in my band. I just thought they're just great.
They're just the best people I could think of. And you know,
Eve, it's just a phenomenal Eve month sys because another one of Kathy's projects
is the Blue Bonnets. We hadn't even talked about the blue Bonnets. Fantastic
band, great just straight up great songs, catchy rock and roll songs,
great songs. We just played Saturday at Sea Boys and it was just a
great show and it was packed. And you know what it's like, Sometimes
you just look out and you just see people and the jaws are dropped and
you're just like they've got the look. They're just like, how the hell
are these women up here rocking so hard? And sometimes I think that like
it never seems to go beyond like elevate the stature we don't headline bigger places,
we don't get offer us to do this and that, and for a
while it would like frustrate me. But I've kind of gotten to this place
where it's like, what is given, Let what's given be enough. And
on that night, just Saturday night, we're all still high from it,
you know, and it doesn't have to mean that, oh, well,
now we should be able to do this. It was just on a great
night. And that's another lesson, and I think that comes with getting older
and wiser, like, let what has given be enough? Well, amen,
I out just as a picker, you know, been blessed to write
some hit songs and all this and stuff. But really my whole life since
I was four I had the same job since I was fourteen, and that's
how I played guitar in front of people. And the two years where those
lockdowns took that away forever have given me a gratitude that, by the grace
good, even in all my darkest days in addiction, I never had.
I never took any gigs for granted, But I also didn't really realize what
a privilege was until every single you know, because usually history of the world,
if work goes away, you can migrate to where work is well.
We musicians there was no other fucking stage to go to every venue on the
face of the Earth's shut down. And when the gigs have come back,
I have noticed an appreciation from the audience. I have noticed an appreciation from
the band. There is something so wonderful with If the Wagoneers are here at
the Spoke like we are on Friday Friday, last Friday of the month,
there'd be eight hundred people here and all of them. All the people here
are so appreciative, The band is so appreciative, And I think what y'all
got to experience Saturday is just a subconscious collective of just gratitude a week and
go out and see the blue bonnets where we couldn't for two years. Back
of the Broken Spoke, Kathy Valentine has just entered. You just came back
from the George Straight bathroom, the world famous. Yeah. I was like,
Okay, this is all the same guy. Okay, is it comfortable
to sit there and do your business with George Straight looking at you? Sure's
the way Kevy has it at home, you think. People that just reminded
me of when I was like a little adolescent, like with my pictures of
my rings, Bobby Sherman all over the walls, you know, saying cute.
You think somebody's got a go Goes bathroom or can't pictures that people have
entire rooms filled with every space on the wall. Are you okay with that?
Well? Yeah, I mean fucking great okay with it? I don't
know, man, I just man, That's why I like doing radio where
nobody can see what the hell I look like? You know, well,
I mean I wouldn't want to do it. I mean I wouldn't want that
in my house for any man. I mean, I love even your own,
right, I don't want I don't want a Stone's room. Are you
really going to give him your guitar when you pass away? And he's I
don't think. I think I'll outlive them. I would hope. Yeah.
I mean somewhere I don't think it's legal, but somewhere I have it written
down. But I forgot I was gonna say, oh yeah, I was
a I've done a couple of these comic cons where you it's a real fan
culture and people are there and they're meeting actors from different films and comic book
artists huge conventions, and some of them are more pop culture oriented and they
have musicians. So Gina and I have done a couple together and they're really
fun. But there was this one amazing fan. She came. She asked
me to sign her arm, and I signed her arm, and damn of
three hours later she sent me a picture and she tattooed it. Wow.
Three hours later, I was like, I've done a little neater? Have
I known? I got a mispelled running? What's the I mean, I'm
sure do you get recognized a lot in Austin? No, really, very
very rarely. I mean my look changes a lot. I mean, what
would I get recognized for. I don't look like you know, I'm not
wearing a two two like on the Vacation album. I'm not wearing a towel
around my head like on Beauty and the Beat. I had red, spiky
hair in the eighties, you know, and then I had short, choppy
hair in the nineties, and then I had long So it's like, I
don't know how anyone would record I knew you were the men you walked in
the door here, though, Well, I'm sure there's something. I mean,
it has happened. It's just rare. It happened in Randalls. One
day, somebody came up and said, I'm like such a big fan.
It happened in New York City. A guy came running up and just said,
I was a school kid in Nebraska and the Go Goes made me realize
that my life could be anything. And I live in New York City and
I work and production on a TV show and it's because of you guys,
And I'm just like, this just happened, you know, it's crazy.
Well, and I was. I was telling our boy Brooks, I said
that you know thing about the Go Gos. You know, they're in the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And they were the first all girl group
that wrote their own songs, played their own songs, that had had a
number one album. I think the first girl group that had their number one
album. I think, yeah, no, the only yeah, only one
still. But there was a lot of female bands that played and that wrote
songs, but we had hit songs and the number one remember, so that's
that's the distinction. I try to make sure, like I know that there
was a lot of bands before us that were women, but there was no
MTV for them, there was no and there might not have been the songs
either. As another thing, there wasn't the talent or the songs. But
the thing is that what you know, what drew me to The Go Goes
had nothing to do, but they were all chicks would just they were just
great records, these records, I think we could have been guys in I'm
still in the Hall of Fame. I think so too, because like if
I'm if I'm fourteen and I'm listening to every Day by Buddy Holly and the
Crickets and I ain't living along like this by Wayland Jennings and we got the
beat by the Go Gos. What I'm listening to are three great songs.
That That's what it is. That these are well written, well produced,
well played, well song great records. That's the continuum. It's not that,
oh wow, you had such an eclectic taste. No I didn't.
I just love stuff that was fucking great, is what that is. Well,
I'm the same. I like a good song, right, I don't
necessarily like an entire career of any artist or an entire album, but a
good song it kills you, right, and it it doesn't matter what it
isn't like I was. I was shocked. I didn't and I mean I'm
talking about first chair go gos fan, But I didn't realize until I read
your book All I Ever Wanted, written by Valentine, available wherever books are
sold, that Beauty and the Beat only had two singles off of it.
I was shocked because to me and so many of my friends, it takes
four singles. No, but yeah, but all eleven songs on the record
were like hits. You know, it was a stupid move. You know,
I'm right about that. I think a lot of people enjoy that in
the book where I really show the mistakes that bands can make and the you
know, put showing what it's like and the regret like I have giving a
lot of my writing credit away on vacation and just like describing a lot of
the stuff about the business and why the songwriting issue can be a band breaker,
you know, and there's a there's not a manual, there's not a
right way to do it. It's not a black and white issue that both
sides are valid. But if you're a band and everybody's getting up and hauling
their butts across the country, and a crappy van. You know, it's
like, so if someone stayed home and wrote a song. You know,
that's the way I look at it now. But all of y'all wrote,
right, I mean Belinda, but but yeah, but you, uh,
you and and Charlotte and Jane wrote and uh and Gina has I really encourage
Gina to write songs. And you know, not all, not all of
our songs were suitable for the band. I mean, I write a lot
of songs that I know when I've written a song that's a good go go
song that like every band I've ever been and I'm the only writer, you
know, like the bands are vehicles for Yeah, that's a different it's a
totally different bag than a band writing all these you know, all these songs.
And I just think just so many of the of the songs that you
and Charlotte wrote just they don't sound like anything else, and they're just brilliantly
written pop songs. Yeah, and yeah, I think, I mean,
I think Charlotte and Jane had the had the uh they weren't the only writers,
and that they didn't have enough songs to sustain the whole career. They
needed me. But I think as a t writing team that they really exemplified
the sound, you know. And there was a the one heavy guitar song
that's on talk show damn It You and Danny wrote it. I'm the only
one. I'm the only one, man. What a great song. Carlene
and I wrote that too, Carlin. I didn't know if Carlen was on
that really Yeah, And she and I played that together in Nashville. Wow,
it's a great song. Yeah, she sounds great on it. Fantastic
song. It didn't really suit the go goes that well, but I thought
if it well on talk show, I was surprised they wanted to do it.
I didn't think they would be. You know, looking back, you
think that maybe if you guys have been opened to more than one lead singer
in the band, the band would have sustained and lasted a few more years.
And it's original in formation. No, I don't think that. I
think Belinda is the singer of the band. I don't think having another lead
singer would have done anything. I think the band didn't grow. You know,
we got more mileage than anybody really deserves to get out of and I'll
say little output. And it was I'm not taking it away, but you
know, the band has has not been a functioning, productive band for that
much, you know. Well, and I just think that sound, you
know, uh, Belinda Carlisle as the lead singer of the Go Goes is
how the Go Go sound. And I think she's part of the sound,
right and and and I uh as much a huge fan as as I've been
of her uh solo records and having is a Place on Earth and all that
stuff, I think the best she sounds even today is a member of y'all's
quintet. I just think that's that's how it comes to get to, you
know, beforming out there in sed Parker. Oh yeah, yeah. But
one of her best vocal performances is on World's Away, which is your song.
Yeah, I mean, you know, so it's just just wrote for
her, you know, right, I was writing except for the songs I
brought in that we're already written. But when I'm in a band working with
a singer, I try to I try to get in their head and write
something tay for her voice. Yeah, well, job well done. That's
what it's always I mean. Because I'm not the lead singer, so I
want to write something that they can really get behind because you're you know,
a lot of it's just self preservation too. You want tracks, you know,
when you're not splitting everything up equally, and you're a writer, you
want your song Pitt. It's just the way it is, you know,
And so it just makes sense, you know, to write something that the
singer wants to sing well. But I also think, you know, just
in our in my own songwriting, blade Chip, I've written songs my whole
life, but I write a lot of material with Brandy. Brandy. Brandy's
to be an A and R. You know, she was a and Art
Decca, so she knows the best the way a singer's boys should sound even
better than I do as a songwriter, because I just want to write,
Oh, I was listening to the Beatles this week. I want to write
something off Revolver. I was listening to the Buddy Holly this week. I'll
write something from Clovis. You know, but she knows, Oh, your
voice has this little wheelhouse and you as a writer, because Blenda is not
a writer, particularly on World's Way and that was an album cut. But
I just encourage go bost fans, go revisit that that is I think probably
Belinda's best vocal performance. Well, she's singing really well. Now. We
did a bunch of shows, probably the last shows we're gonna do last year,
and uh, she'd never sounded better. Yeah, that's so cool.
She had never sounded better. Yeah, we appreciate you coming to visit with
us. Back that we didn't tell the story. This is the Willie Nelson.
This is where Willie Nelson proposed to one of his wives. So that's
why it's a special one of us wives to his wife Annie. We haven't
confirmed that. No it is Annie. No, no, no, okay,
it is Okay. We're waiting for Willy to come and tell us the
real story behind it. That's why I say that romantic booth. You've you've
been to the Spoke before though, right have? Yeah, And this is
where I always like to bring someone that's visiting Austin because it's just it's the
real thing. Yeah, it looks like Texas threw up. It's the real
thing. And you know, nobody anywhere else is going to have anything like
this. That's true, that's true. You ever been on stage before me
here at this time, I have not known I've never done a dance.
I'm a terrible dancer. Terrible terrible dancer. A two step well, no,
no line dance two step. No, I can't dance. I don't
know how. Well here's the scene. I look even. I mean,
my daughter laughs at me when I try. Laughs. Well, Kathy,
if you ever come to a wagon Ear show every last Friday of every month,
including this Friday, you can come join the wagon Ears and we can
We'll play whatever you want. Well that I'd be more comfortable with that than
two stepping on the floor. Oh yeah, thank you so much, And
please write another one, two or three volumes and everybody goes and sign up
for your substack. Yeah, the second order the book, and it's called
The Direction of Motion. That's the name of the sub stack. But you
took a class at ACC Is that right? Is that where you got interested
in becoming an I got my degree in English when I was sixty two in
twenty twenty one. It's not something you wanted to rush into. I was
kind of busy, yeah, popped up understand, kind of took classes here
and there. I like to learn. I think. I think the thing
that keeps people young is to keep an open, curious mind a man.
Yeah, and so I'm and we have it's easy to do. You know,
we've got Google, we have the Internet. You know, you don't
have to be going down holes of of of nastiness, and hey you can.
There's a lot of learning on there. Good for you, it's true,
it's true. Well, God love you, and thank you for stopping
and visiting with us again. The book is all I ever wanted rock and
remember from Kathy Valentine. Read it. You will love it. And if
you're in the area, go see Hit over Heels at Zach Scott and the
Dates again in August. Do you know they dropped the Scott now why I
don't know. But for those of us that have lived here a long time,
it's like the Walter Crest, right, you know, it's he was
a guy, he was an actor. You know, he was from here.
There's a hotel on the river that's been four different things. To me,
it's always still Walter Crest. It's always, you know, and you
know I still look for the Villa Capri, the old timers here, you
know, we're like at least top notch there. Really, as long as
there's a Mattsale Rancho, I'll be held as long as there's a broken spoke.
Amen back, So then we're going to close on that. Thank you
again, More Tales soon. Tales from the Broken Spoke is recorded live at
The Broken Spoke in Austin, Texas, hosted by Country Radio Hall of Fame
broadcaster Bob Pickett and Monty Warden, recorded mixed down and produced by Mike Rivera