I Am the Warrior

My Crazy Life Writing the Hits and Rocking the MTV Eighties

By: Holly Knight

Narrated by: Holly Knight, Allyson Johnson - Foreword

Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

Holly Knight’s singular music career included crafting a good part of the soundtrack to the MTV '80s 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.

“Holly Knight wrote some of the best and toughest songs for female artists. Her songs helped pave the way for women in rock. Not to mention a few dudes.” (Patty Smyth)

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.

“People who grew up in the eighties tell me that MTV was the soundtrack to their lives. Holly Knight deserves much of the credit. Few songwriters have written such a diverse collection of songs for such a broad range of superstars.” (Alan Hunter)

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.

“I Am the Warrior takes readers on a wild ride through the eighties world of rock ’n’ roll from a strong female’s perspective. Songwriters Hall of Fame-inductee Holly Knight delivers the goods and stands out as a creative, gutsy woman who made her way through a field dominated by men, ultimately coming out on top. If you love music like I do, this is a must-read!” (Cassandra Peterson (a.k.a. Elvira, Mistress of the Dark))

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2022 Holly Knight (P)2022 Audible, Inc.

Must read for rock music fans

Great stories and insight on the rock music biz from the song writers perspective. Frank and funny

Wow she’s cool

The woman who write some of the most recognizable songs in the 1980’s. Holly Knight is simply the best!

Rock and roll fun!

Holly gives such an honest and open recounting of the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and 90’s music zaniness. Music lovers will appreciate her life’s experiences climbing to the top of the charts in an era when women were still needing to be taken seriously. A book by a talented, experienced songwriter.

Essential for 80’s Music Fans

Heartfelt, funny, bawdy. Holly Knights spills tea and writes from the heart. A thoroughly enjoyable memoir from a great songwriter and person.

Bang bang

Shooting and hitting the walls of heartache. The best book on a song writer. No need for to change anything. Holly wins in victories. Glad you stuck to your gun Knight. You’re no rag doll. You took the night and day.

Simply the best 👍

If any of you remember when the moon man touchdown to our cable networks in August 1981, you’ll remember the soundtrack of the 80s. Holly was one of its sublime architects, creating a soundtrack that is still is as vibrant as it was 40 years ago.
Her memoir tells the story behind the songs, The people that shaped them, and her extraordinary life from legs dangling over piano bench, too small to even touch the floor, to her historic induction into the songwriters Hall of Fame.
This is a must listen.

Read it instead!

This was a great memoir of the 80's and I loved getting an inside look into the MTV glory days. Unfortunately, the narration is terrible. The phrasing is awful, some words are mispronounced (banquettes is not pronounced banquets) and it's tough to imagine that the author has ever seen her own words before. It's really awful. On the story side, there's quite a bit of bragging: it isn't necessary to tell us, "I climbed into my Maserati" when "car" would do. We know you're rich and famous. The one plus to an audio version is the demo recordings played at the end of each chapter. But it's still not enough to sit through the rest of it.

Detailed past of 80’s rock

I loved it along with all the deep trivia of 80’s rock and roll. The only negative I give it is even though Holly herself is reading it to us it sounds like the reader is someone reading it to us for the first time that does not know the story.

Excellent! For songwriters and story lovers!

My favorite part was she just wanted to be recognized for being a good musician songwriter, not because she was a girl.
Inspiring and honest.

Excellent storytelling of Rock N Roll and the 80s.

What a book.

I really Really enjoyed this book. What a incredible lady Holly is and what a crazy awesome life. Loved it and the narrator did a great job