Took a long time to read this, largely because for some reason, Keith Richards' intro really put me off.
However, the memoir itself shows a woman with lots self esteem and fear of poverty and failure became, unfortunately, attracted to the power and confidence of one Mr Phil Spector. The world is more aware now of what an absolute piece of work he was, but poor Ronnie dealing with some of his behavior recalled in this book.
All that aside, she was the ultimate female rock and roll singer and I loved reading that she really just loved that life (and had some pretty hot hook-ups, friendships with the likes of Cher and John Lennon and fun too).
Recalling her alcoholism, which began when she was terrorised by Phil Spector, is a sad read but am glad she found her second husband and appeared to have found some peace in her life in the few decades before she died.

3.5 stars

I was more interested in the start of Ronnie's career than the last half or so. It's a bit weird to critique a memoir. Usually, I base my review on whether the voice sounded like the author and whether it feels like they were told to stretch out short periods of their story into longer ones. Ronnie is very honest throughout the book and the name dropping never felt over the top. And considering the people she met, it very well could've been.

This covers the very start of her love for singing, goes through her meeting, marrying, and ultimately fleeing Phil Spector before ending on her life in the 2000s. There's an added statement at the end made post the worst of the pandemic to talk about how she's still performing, even in her 70s. Mostly, I feel it was added to give insight into how Phil Spector's passing didn't bear heavily on her, so that was nice to hear.

I liked that this book contradicts people who pretend segregation was so long ago. Ronnie talks about the Ronnettes traveling to Florida at the start of their career and having trouble getting served at restaurants because the rules were different down there. There's a lot of insight into how the music business worked back then where most of the money was made from records, not necessarily touring. Now, it's pretty much shifted because streaming services don't pay as much, neither do CDs, and most artists make the majority of their money from touring. It was nice reading about a time where you had to be able to sing to be famous; we don't really have that same standard anymore.

I liked learning about all the different celebrities that crossed paths with Ronnie. It really made Spector's attempts to ruin her career all the harder to read. I also really hate that 3 children were adopted into such an awful situation. I hope they've managed to heal since being caught in the middle of Spector's reign of terror.

Honestly, the biggest thing I felt coming out of this was severe disgust for that mindset of separating the art from the artist. Several famous musicians knew Phil Spector was a monster, but they continued to work with him and make him money because they liked the music he made. If someone, literally any one of those famous people, had used their platform to speak out about him, who knows if he would've been shut down before he went on to murder someone.

Spoiler

I also feel really sad that Ronnie put up with it for so long before her mother got her out of there barefoot.

**audiobook**
Whoever decided that Rosie Perez should narrate this book deserves a bonus and/or promotion. I can't think of a better person to "be" Ronnie to the reader's ears.

Ronnie's heyday was well before my time, but it was really interesting to see through her eyes into such a unprecedented time in popular music. She was right there as legends like The Beatles & The Rolling Stones were early in their careers. I mostly became aware of her in relation to her ex husband Phil Spector when they both made the news with their respective passings about a year apart. After listening to her life story, Phil's crazy fro hairpiece ended up being the least frightening and disturbing thing about him. The way Ronnie just kinda plowed right past all those red flags everywhere around him from the very beginning was torturous to read - even knowing she eventually broke free. Still, a really good story of the ups and downs of a life in the spotlight and Ronnie's resilience. Recommend.