In 1994, Go-Go drummer Jenna Shock discovered she had a hole in her heart that required open heart surgery. Naturally, she and her “gang” opted for a party-packed vacation before she went to the operating room.
“[We] I decided to have one big party in case I didn’t make it,” Shock notes in her new illustrated memoir “Made in America: All Access with the Go-Go’s” (Black Dog & Leventhal). The book came out earlier this week, days before Few of the band show Entry into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in a. Saturday.
“We hired Caddy and Jag and went to one of our favorite spots in Palm Springs,” she writes of the getaway. “Of all the party favors we brought with us, I was only allowed to bowl, valium and mushrooms. I was really high, and we were all having fun and doing foolish things. It was all in typical Go-Go style.”
When Shock came out of surgery, Go-Go lead singer Belinda Carlisle jokingly gave her a post-operative Coke bump at the hospital.
“It was very funny,” Shock, 64, told The Post. “It’s very common for someone in a band to say something like that at a time when it’s probably the worst thing that could ever happen. She knew it would make me laugh, and she did. And my chest hurt so bad when she laughed!”
Now, having maintained Go-Go’s rhythm for over 40 years, Schock and the band will have “better late than never” at the rock hall along with fellow 2021 Jay-Z, Foo Fighters, Carole King, Tina Turner and Todd Rundgren . The group will perform three songs at the ceremony, which will be recorded at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland to air November 20 on HBO.
“We at one point gave up on even the thought of getting inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame because that never happened,” Shock said. “And then all of a sudden when you give up, it happens. So we’re excited about that, frankly.”
This honor gives Shock the distinction of being the second female drummer to be honored at RRHOF. Mo Tucker from The Velvet Underground’s preceded her.
“It’s very elegant,” Shock said. “I’m walking in the footsteps of a legend, which is absolutely amazing.”
It’s certainly fitting that Go-Go’s be inserted on the 40th anniversary of their debut album, 1981 “Beauty and the Beat.” With the hit songs “We Got the Beat” And “Our Lips Are Sealed,” set the record number 1 in 1982.
Shock said Go-Go’s “had a blast” making the LP, which became a classic of the ’80s. “We had to go to New York and stay in a hotel for two months during our stay [it]She said. “We were in the studio all day, and we were out all night.
“We were in clubs the size of someone’s bathroom and clubs that were the size of a stadium. We were everywhere, running around and having the time of our lives.”
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