2012 KICKING & DREAMING

Memoir: Kicking & Dreaming: A Story of Heart, Soul and Rock and Roll (pre order here)

HarperCollins: ISBN: 9780062101679; ISBN10: 0062101676; Imprint: It Books ; On Sale: 9/18/2012; Format: Hardcover; Trimsize: 6 x 9; Pages: 288; $27.99; Ages: 18 and Up; BISAC1:BIO005000; BISAC2:BIO026000; BISAC3:BIO004000

Audio book!

Update October 13th 2012: Controversy as Def Leppard responds to certain parts of the books. Aren’t they friendly lads? (Thanx Danie!). A new booksigning has been announced in Seattle on October 27th! Barnes and Noble, Northgate Mall, Saturday 10/27, 2pm, in conversation with Charles R. Cross, followed by signing. The book is no longer in the NY Times list. Also, Stevie Nicks has responded to the book (at the 55 minute and 55 seconds mark).

Update September 29th 2012: the book has entered the NYC times bestsellers list on # 19 (hardcover non fiction). the track in the enhance eBook is called “Trash Bag Slippers (Trust Me).

Update September 20th: check this post to view the media appearances of A&N for this book.

Update August 25th: the audio book will be read by the authors! Link to iTunes. Link to Amazon.

Update August 23rd: an enhanced Ebook will be released with exclusive video content and an original song! Link to iTunes. Link to Amazon.

Update August 3rd: here’s more about “Kicking & Dreaming” from the publisher:  In these pages, readers will learn the truth about the relationship that inspired “Magic Man” and “Crazy On You,” the turmoil of inter-band romances gone awry, the reality of life on the road as single women and then as mothers of small children, and the thrill of performing and in some cases partying with the likes of the Rolling Stones, Stevie Nicks, Van Halen, Def Leppard, and other rock legends. It has not always been an easy path. Ann struggled with and triumphed over a childhood stutter, body image, and alcoholism; Nancy suffered the pain and disappointment of fertility issues and a failed marriage but ultimately found love again and happiness as a mom. Through it all, the sisters drew from the strength of a family bond that trumps everything else, as told in this intimate, honest, and uniquely female take on the rock and roll life.

Enhanced Ebook

Here are some bits of Heart’s new info-page on their Facebook! Click here the read the entire pieceKicking & Dreaming: “When you’re pushing sixty you know what you want and you go for it,” Nancy says. “You’re not going to test it out for five or ten years, you’re going to get in the car and drive.” […] In 2010 the band returned to the Billboard Top 10 with the release of Red Velvet Car and a Top 5 DVD Night at Sky Church. The subsequent tour reinvigorated the sister’s taste for live performance and life on the road but as they looked forward to recording another record, something seemed to be in the way: their past. For years friends and colleagues had been asking the sisters to do a book about Heart and it just didn’t feel right. “They always came to us with a real lascivious tabloid-y type idea,” Ann says. “You know – think of the ugliness and the dirtiness – but that’s so one dimensional. We’ve had moments of failure and vulnerability and humiliation, sure, but ours is also the story of women who are being told there are rules to follow and just won’t do it.” […]Once they knew the book was happening, in typical Wilson sister fashion they didn’t hold back. “There’s really no point in going through all of this if you’re going to write a white wash – we really hung ourselves out there,” Ann says. Nancy agrees “I started talking about the book with Charley while I was going through a divorce, which was really hard, but later I was able to have the objectivity to come at the entire book from a healed sort of place. We don’t leave much unsaid.”

Update July 31st: Thanx to Davidmonger all three dates of the booktour have now been confirmed: Barnes & Noble, NYC Times Square, Sept 17th / Book Revue, Huntington NY, Sept 18th / Barnes & Noble, The Grove LA, Sept 27th.

Update July 22nd: Ann Wilson in the Miami Herald: “It’s sort of mind-boggling,” she said on the phone from Los Angeles. “I have a telescopic sense of time. I just kicked off this thing in my own life way back in ’76, and I haven’t ever stopped. It’s very amazing to have a retrospective and memoir coming out. That’s one of the most intense parts for us.” The original philosophy for the book was easy, Wilson says: Tell it like it is. “If we’re going to write a whitewash and leave everything out, what’s the point? It’s a pretty wide open story of growing up, dealing with some pretty hard issues, vulnerability, triumph, failure, love, pain, all those things. It’s all in there.
Ann Wilson in WNYpapers.com: “There have been people coming up to us wanting to do Heart books since, I don’t know, since the early ’80s,” Wilson says. “But I think what made us really decide to do one now is the author, Charles Cross – who we both have been fans of for a long, long time; from Seattle – became available to do it, and got excited about doing it with us. “He is a guy from Seattle – a journalist in Seattle during the so-called grunge time. He is so knowledgeable, and has such a complete understanding of the Seattle music scene, that we thought if anybody can really do it, it would be Charles. “So, we entrusted him with the thing. We have been working with him for over a year-and-a-half on it now.” Ann promises the book will be the definitive behind-the-scenes story of Heart. “When you write a book like this with somebody, you bury your soul,” she says. “It’s like being in therapy with them. You tell them everything. It’s a big deal. “It took us a while to get here, to the point where we could be so open and honest and proud about it.”

Update July 19th: another unconfirmed book signing date in NY for September 18th 2012 and here are two versions for the artwork of the new book:

Left: cover from Heart-music.com, Right: cover from HarperCollins.com

Update July 2nd: rumor has it that there will be a book signing in LA on September 27th (thanx kristenxoxo!).

Update June 29th: Nancy: “The book is a wild ride. And it’s a true story and you cannot beat reality for good material. If you’re in a rock band, you’re never too tame. Although a few other bands we knew put us to shame as far as the super party life is concerned. But it’s a lot of romantic turmoil, and there’s a lot of spirituality and humanity to grapple with. And survival, and stuff we had to sacrifice as women to try to have a career where we travel, work with men and be artists. So it’s a rich and I think real exciting page-turner.”
Seems like there will be an audiobook! “Kicking and Dreaming Unabridged

Update June 28th: The NYC book signing has been confirmed by management. Heads up for an LA signing as well! Plus a couple of lines from an interview: Heart is also looking back with the book “Kicking and Dreaming,” which Wilson says is definitely not a story of “some good little girls who never did anything wrong. We’re not the Carpenters. But it’s not a salacious, tabloidy, sleazy thing either. We have children, and a lot of people in the book are still living.” Still, the book had to go through a legal department, and they went as far as they could go without getting sued. “It’s the real story as it happened, the ups and downs, the blues and the triumphs,” she says. Wilson wants fans’ take-away from “Kicking and Dreaming” to be that this is much more than a women’s story. It’s a musicians’ story. “It’s the story of two women just saying, ‘Why can’t we do this like anyone else? Why do we have to be different?’ There are different rules,” says Wilson. “It’s the story of how hard it has been and our struggles doing that, being objectified as sex objects and lots of interesting things about the music business and our two genders in general.”

Update June 24th: Looks like there’s gonna be at least one book signing: NYC September 17th

Update June 24th: “Kicking and Dreaming: A Story of Heart, Soul and Rock and Roll,” The Revelatory Memoir by Ann & Nancy Wilson On Sale Tuesday, September 18
Tuesday, September 18 marks the publication of the HarperCollins hardcover edition of Kicking and Dreaming: A Story of Heart, Soul and Rock and Roll, the avidly-awaited insider’s memoir penned by Ann & Nancy Wilson with noted Seattle-based author Charles R. Cross (“Room Full of Mirrors – A Biography of Jimi Hendrix”; “Heavier Than Heaven” – a biography of Kurt Cobain).
Since finding their love of music and performing as teenagers in Seattle, Washington, Ann Wilson and Nancy Wilson have been an influential part of the rock music landscape. From 70s classics like “Magic Man” and “Barracuda” to chart- topping 80s ballads like “Alone” up to 2012’s Fanatic, Heart continues as an ongoing force in pop culture, inspiring women and men alike with the power and beauty of their music.

Despite their massive success, Ann and Nancy have always faced a different kind of scrutiny than their male counterparts in hard-rock and metal band, and had to face questions that no male rock star ever would be asked. Kicking and Dreaming allows Ann and Nancy to communicate as directly with the reader as their songs do with fans. A first-hand chronicle of tumultuous inter-band relationships, thirty years of roller-coaster fame and continual reinvention, and, of course, the kind of excess that can comes from the surreal, and hyper-real demands of life on the road, Kicking and Dreaming is an intimate, honest, and a uniquely female take on rock and roll life.

Update June 24th: from Amazon: The story of Heart is a story of heart and soul and rock ’n’ roll. Since finding their love of music and performing as teenagers in Seattle, Washington, Ann Wilson and Nancy Wilson, have been part of the American rock music landscape. From 70s classics like “Magic Man” and “Barracuda” to chart- topping 80s ballads like “Alone,” and all the way up to 2012, when they will release their latest studio album, Fanatic, Heart has been thrilling their fans and producing hit after hit. In Kicking and Dreaming, the Wilsons recount their story as two sisters who have a shared over three decades on the stage, as songwriters, as musicians, and as the leaders of one of our most beloved rock bands. An intimate, honest, and a uniquely female take on the rock and roll life, readers of bestselling music memoirs like Life by Keith Richards and Steven Tyler’s Does the Noise in My Head Bother You? will love this quintessential music story finally told from a female perspective.
Originally from Seattle, Washington, ANN and NANCY WILSON are the leaders of the rock band Heart. Heart have released more than a dozen albums, selling 35 million records worldwide. They continue to tour all over the world, most recently with Def Leppard in the summer of 2011. Their next album release is planned for late 2012. CHARLES R. CROSS is the author of seven books, including Heavier than Heaven, a New York Times bestselling biography of Kurt Cobain, Room Full of Mirrors, a biography of Jimi Hendrix, and two titles on Led Zeppelin. He lives in Seattle, Washington.

Update April 30th: The publisher HarperCollins has released the title for the upcoming biography/memoir! Kicking and Dreaming: A Story of Heart, Soul, and Rock and Roll

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