Photo by Debra Schneider Kathy Valentine has had a storied career playing bass, although it came entirely unexpectedly. In 1980 she was asked to sub for budding Lost Angeles band the Go-Go’s for a New Years Eve show at Whisky A Go Go.  The only two problems were that she had only two rehearsals to work up all of the songs, and she was a guitarist who had never played bass before. Luckily, it came naturally to her — and not only did she nail the show, but the Go-Go’s asked her to stay on as a permanent member. The band signed a record deal three months later.  Selling millions of records worldwide, being inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame in 2021, and being part of the most successful all-female rock band of all time, Valentine is thankful for the events that led her to her lifetime of low end and her place in the Go-Go’s. In 2020 she penned a book about her life, All I Ever Wanted: A Rock ’n’ Roll Memoir, and she’s remained busy writing, traveling the world, and performing with her band the Blue Bonnets. We spoke with Valentine while she took a pause in England to ask her our 10 Questions.  Photo by Arnold Niemanis 1. What music have you been listening to lately?  Let me check my streaming of most recent plays…it’s Chet Baker, Thelonius Monk, Howlin’ Wolf, Oasis, Last Dinner Party, and Yasiin Bey. I listen to a lot of hip-hop and jazz.  2. What’s one element of your playing that you’ve been working on? I don’t practice unless I have gigs coming up. Then I floor it! I do play guitar a lot, mainly to write songs, and bass when I record stuff. So keeping creative is my main practice. What I’d like to be better at is knowing the neck more for improvisational skills. But usually the only band I play bass in is the Go-Go’s, and my parts are form-fitted for the songs and often end up as hooks identified within the songs. So, I never really needed that skill to do my job well.  3. What was the first concert you ever attended? A festival outside Austin in 1972 with ZZ Top and Stevie Ray Vaughan’s first band, called Phoenix. 4. What’s the best concert you’ve ever attended? Probably every Rolling Stones concert I’ve been to, starting with the It’s Only Rock And Roll Tour in 1976. And every Ramones concert, too. 5. If you could have lunch with any bass player today, alive or dead, who would it be? I’d like to hang out with Flea. He seems like he’d be really fun to be friends with.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8r1NqjXyYk 6. If you could sub for any bass player in any band, who would it be?  I’ve always wanted to play bass in Blondie. But I’d also be down to sub for Mike Dirnt in Green Day.  7. What was your first bass?  My very first bass was a Gibson EB-O, which I traded in to get my ’62 Strat, which cost $300 in 1976. When I joined the Go-Go’s, I was new to being a ba