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Kathy Valentine

Kathy Valentine has been a working musician and songwriter for over 40 years, ever since she started her first band at age 16 in her hometown of Austin, Texas. After moving to Los Angeles, Kathy joined a band that would go on to make music history: The Go-Go’s. In this group, Kathy wrote or co-wrote some of the bands most renowned tunes, including the hits “Vacation” and “Head Over Heels.” She returned to Austin in 2006 and began finding new creative pursuits and career opportunities as a public speaker, spokesperson, producer, actor and author.

Signing with the esteemed University of Texas Press, her memoir All I Ever Wanted was released in Spring 2020. She put an academic degree plan on hold while finishing and promoting her book, and still finds time to play guitar with the Bluebonnets the all-female rock & roll band she started in Austin.

Kathy’s greatest loves are her daughter, writing, music, and travel. Her hobbies are reading, computer graphics, digital recording, social media, politics, and natural based health protocols.

Ronnie Spector is Woven into the Soundtrack of Kathy Valentine’s Life

The Go-Go's bassist on the late rock icon's lasting legacy.

March 15, 2022

Kathy Valentine (the Bluebonnets, the Go-Go’s) Talks Brandi Carlile’s The Firewatcher’s Daughter

Brandi Carlile’s new album radiates quiet celebration but also reminds us that human frailty can throw shade on whatever lightness we find.

March 5, 2015

Kathy Valentine (the Bluebonnets, the Go-Go’s) Talks Guided by Voices’ Motivational Jumpsuit

Taking into account the nearly 30 Guided by Voices records and his equally extensive solo work, one can safely assume that Robert Pollard has...

February 18, 2014

Kathy Valentine (the Go-Go’s, the BlueBonnets) Talks Haim’s Days Are Gone

Full disclosure: I am partial to the female musician. I don’t qualify for “GBG” status — those individuals known to us in lady bands as the...

October 1, 2013

Kathy Valentine (the Go-Go’s, the BlueBonnets) Talks Blue October’s Sway

The first time music made me cry, it was because of the sheer melodic and soulful beauty of what I was listening to, not because the lyrics were...

August 13, 2013

Kathy Valentine (the BlueBonnets, Go-Go’s) Talks Queens of the Stone Age’s …Like Clockwork

Summer of 1968, I’m a kid visiting my dad’s family in west Texas. One day, my 16-year-old cousin KJ holed up in his room for hours listening to...

June 4, 2013