I Am the Warrior: My Crazy Life Writing the Hits and Rocking the MTV Eighties

Product Information

What strikes me is the humble tone and apparent joy as she rises to the ranks of ace songwriter. Despite the 1980s being seen as a decade of decadence, Holly Knight keeps the reader focused not only on her songwriting collaborations and meetings with artists, but her own life beyond that. The book does not have a braggadocio tone of someone who relished the decadence of the 1980s, neither is it negative. In 1988, Knight was listed in the "Best Songwriter Category/Readers Poll" of Rolling Stone along with Bruce Springsteen, Phil Collins, Paul Simon, and Billy Joel. Read by the author, I Am The Warrior, takes you on a wild ride from an apartment in New York City to the canyons in LA and leaves no stone unturned and no story untold in the journey of arguably the most successful female songwriter in the MTV 80’s. A must read for anyone interested in the music business and especially American Pop Music of that era. I was able to let go of some of the leftover crap from my childhood,” she said. “It was very cathartic." This is the story of a young girl with a dream and the story of the music scene of an iconic decade. Holly dedicates the book “to anyone who ever had a dream and was told ‘No’.”

Holly Knight - Wikipedia

Tina Turner documentary: A survivor's tale of 'She wanted to just tell it and forget it' Holly Knight says she and Tina Turner were 'very simpatico' Defiant, purposeful, and ultimately triumphant, her work with Tina Turner, Pat Benatar, and Heart, among others, also helped pave the way for the next generation of defining female musical masters including Amy Winehouse, Adele, and Lady Gaga. It was the music and words she wrote. But it was also the visual representations on MTV that helped define Holly's work for the masses. She was inducted in the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2013, standing side by side with the likes of Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, and Foreigner. The inside dish was...dishy and fun. Rod Stewart is lazy and will throw you under the bus? Honey he lives in Palm Beach, we all know that! It's hard to be woman in the music industry in any capacity, I think we all know that. One could say Holly makes too big a deal of meeting other famous musicians and not being introduced as an A-list songwriter by whatever man she's with. However, I think ANY woman will know that some men (especially in the cutthroat entertainment industry) are threatened by a woman's success. Gee, in any other industry as well. Holly Knight already signed copies of this title on a live-stream event, but you can watch a recording of the event to see them sign copies, tell stories and answer fan questions. Watch Video In 1980, Knight's first big break came when she played keyboards (uncredited) on Kiss' Unmasked album. [3] In the early 1980s, she helped form Spider (featuring Anton Fig of Late Show with David Letterman). Managed by Bill Aucoin ( Kiss and Billy Idol), they signed a recording contract with Dreamland Records, an RSO-distributed label. They released two albums: Spider (self-titled; 1980) and Between the Lines (1981).Full of sex and drugs and so much fun name-dropping, this is a breezy, readable look at an era that simultaneously seems distant and not that long ago. The name dropping isn't terribly gratuitous, in that there really were so many connections among people in the industry, and she clearly explains her relationships to them and each other. Her relationship to three members of KISS was of particular note! I mean, the '80s was great for everybody,” she said. "But some of the things that I experienced were like, 'How did I get here?'"

I Am the Warrior: My Crazy Life Writing the Hits and Rocking

I loved how she constructed the book too --almost as if it were one of her songs. It had all of the elements such as a good intro, excellent lyrics (the words) and the build up and crescendos that are all hallmarks of HollySongs. Spider - " Better Be Good to Me"; "New Romance (It's a Mystery)"; "Change"; "Everything Is Alright"; "Little Darlin"; "Go and Run"; "It Didn't Take Long"; "Can't Live This Way Anymore" Holly’s story is inspiring. She went from a 14-year-old girl working at a Sam Ash Music Store to one of songwriting’s elite – in a time when being a woman in the industry was a true anomaly. She has written some of the most recognizable hit songs and has worked with well-known artists, such as Pat Benatar, Heart, Rod Stewart, KISS, Bon Jovi, Steven Tyler and Tina Turner, just to name a few. In her story, you get a behind-the-scenes look at the music scene of the 1980s and some of the world’s biggest stars.Holly Knight - "Heart Don't Fail Me Now"; "Howling at the Moon"; " Love Is a Battlefield"; "Sexy Boy"; "Nature of the Beast" "Palace of Pleasure"; "Howling At The Moon"; "It's Only Me"; "Why Don't You Love Me Like You Used To" So I thought I would give it a shot," she said. "And as it turns out, it came very naturally to me, like it was oozing out of every pore.”

The Woman Behind Tina Turner’s “The Best” and Many More

Knight has written hits for some of the most successful artists in music, both on her own and in collaboration with others. For Pat Benatar, in addition to "Love Is a Battlefield", she wrote " Invincible". " The Best"—first recorded by Bonnie Tyler—became an international No. 1 single for Tina Turner. Knight wrote songs with Heart, Aerosmith, Rod Stewart, Bon Jovi, and many more. Tina Turner has recorded nine of her tunes, including "The Best", "Better Be Good to Me", and " In Your Wildest Dreams" (1996). Holly Knight was voted the Best Songwriter in Rolling Stone magazine's 11th annual poll, along with Phil Collins, Paul Simon, Billy Joel, and Bruce Springsteen. Asked by an interviewer once why so many of her songs are about fighting or going into battle, Holly, realizing he was right, reflected: “…my songs were more about fighting for something, rather than with someone.” A lot of times, I sort of had to earn their trust,” she said. “So I would sneak into a corner and start to play Beethoven or something. People would listen and go, ‘Huh ... well, she can play.’”

She has been married three times, and dated Anton Fig and Paul Stanley in the 1980s. [3] Discography [ edit ] Studio albums [ edit ] Find sources: "Holly Knight"– news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR ( August 2017) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) Writing songs for Turner “always came from a place of strength and being fierce and just true to oneself."