warwick’s presents Holly Knight discussing “I AM THE WARRIOR”

On Tuesday, August 8th at 7:30pm Warwick’s will host Holly Knight as she discusses and signs her new book, I Am the Warrior: My Crazy Life Writing the Hits and Rocking the MTV Eighties, in conversation. Throughout the 1980s, singer/songwriter Holly Knight composed anthems that became the soundtrack for millions of people’s lives. She created and crafted empowering odes to independence, liberation, and equality. 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. Her songs have also appeared in countless films, TV shows, and commercials.

Reserved Seating is available when I Am the Warrior is pre-ordered from Warwick’s through the linked green “Reserve Seats Here” button above. Only books purchased from Warwick’s will be signed. Please call the Warwick’s Book Dept. (858) 454-0347 for details.

“If you love music like I do, this is a must-read!” ~Cassandra Peterson (AKA Elvira, Mistress of the Dark)

Holly Knight’s singular music career included crafting a good part of the soundtrack to the MTV eighties with mega-hits for Tina Turner (“The Best”), Pat Benatar (“Love Is A Battlefield”), and Patty Smyth (“The Warrior”)—songs that celebrated female empowerment and shaped pop and rock for years to come.

As a writer and musician, Holly Knight worked hard and played hard with the likes of KISS, Rod Stewart, Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, and Heart. She showed the boys how it was done when many women were still struggling to get a foot in the door. Starting in the late 1970s in post-punk New York, Knight, a gifted keyboardist, joined the band Spider—which quickly ascended to buzzworthy status before things began to disintegrate. Fortunately, her song “Better Be Good to Me” found its way to Tina Turner and became the second single on her landmark solo album, Private Dancer, launching Holly into rarified air. Soon she was being sought out to write for other artists in search of the big hit or their lead single. Coinciding with the birth of MTV, Knight’s powerful lyrics, hooks, and melodies became a staple on the channel as it exploded into a cultural force.

But it was an often lonely journey to success. Not only was Holly a woman in a male-dominated industry that didn’t welcome women warmly into the inner sanctum, she carried with her the baggage of a difficult childhood and a fraught relationship with her mother, the substance of which informed the themes that made her songs so anthemic. I Am the Warrior is a story of survival, perseverance, and triumph laced with ample amounts of sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll. Backstage, onstage, in the studio, and on the road, this book is a revealing, bang-bang tale that welcomes you along for a look back at one of the most adventurous and colorful periods in music history.