Add This To The List!

I love me some Carole King. In fact a few weeks ago when I put out my list for the top ten most influencial women in music history she landed at the respectable number 8 spot. I just think that her career, the longevity, her songwriting skills, her attitude, the way she stands up for what she believes in and how she has never backed down from anything is just some of the reasons why I'll be picking up her new memoir called "Natural Woman".

To know King's impact she was inducted to the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1987, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 followed by the Hit Parade Hall of Fame in 2009. Yet through all this success she was an accidental star who preferred staying home and sewing her kids clothes. 

Here is an excerpt from the book, which is getting stellar reviews. Again the name of the book is "Natural Woman" for anyone who finds themselves in a bookstore in the next few days before I do. It comes out April 10th.

"I didn't want to be a star... Everyone around me thought I was out of my mind. I was being offered an opportunity for which so many people had been praying their whole life and all I could say was "Please believe me. I don't want to be a star". My rationale was that I viewed success and stardom as two different things. Successful recording artists were played on the radio, were respected by the public, and had longevity. The songs they sang moved and inspired people. Stars were hounded and mobbed, their privacy was nonexistent, and they were under constant pressure to reach #1 and stay there....

I didn't realize that I was expressing a guiding principal of my career. I was hoping for career longevity and to my utter amazement and eternal gratitude I achieved it. And if that weren't enough, one of my albums would actually reach #1 and stay there for a very long time. But Danny Kortchmar and I engaged in such conversations before Tapestry was released, when I had no way of knowing what my future held. I just wrote songs, worked hard, created each day's blueprint from scratch and hoped to high heaven that I was doing all the right things to give my daughters and myself a good life."