Quotes from Gina Schock

Mick Jagger visited us backstage and told us how much he liked our show. Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts came back too, and they wanted to get their pictures taken with us. Bill Wyman knew our chart positions. I couldn't believe it.

Commercial success certainly helps pay the bills.

When I was much younger I tried to play guitar and bass first. Drums were just the easiest thing for me to play. I picked it up really quickly.

When I was in Baltimore, I played in several different bands, doing four sets a night, two sets of originals, two sets of covers, that kind of thing.

Money, ego and drugs - that's what caused the demise of our band.

So I had an operation. So what? If I die, I die. I'm more interested in my music.

Everything happened relatively quickly in our rise to the top. But we were like robots. We were told what to do and we just did it. We didn't have time to look inside ourselves. It was all just a constant whirlwind.

We used to be such prima donnas.

The fun image is what we project onstage, because our music is dance music. But it's not what the group is about We're very serious about our music and the band and producing good quality songs.

We got a thumbs-down from every label. But you gotta keep the faith, man. You gotta hang in there and be tenacious.

When we play live, we go back to our punk roots.

First of all, The Go-Go's have always had pop melodies, OK? And the punk aspect was just at the root of it.

I had decided on L.A. because I felt like I could handle the cost of living out there. It was just too difficult in San Francisco and New York.

I'd keep the bay windows open, and neighbors would walk by and say, 'Oh, that's Gina playing music.' They were fascinated.

For us, gender didn't come up. We were friends who happened to play together. We never said, 'Gee, we're an all-girl band!'

We were constantly together. Anybody who had a boyfriend had to go through the Go-Go's first. It was a little too close for comfort after a while.

To influence people to do something they love, it's a wonderful thing.

One thing I did inject was a different work ethic: Guys, no, we don't rehearse once or twice a month, we rehearse every day after work and on weekends, and that's how we're gonna get better. And everybody adopted that work ethic, and it did pay off.

We were so poor. Every item of clothing came from a thrift store.

In the beginning, we'd walk off stage and burst into tears, 'cause we were getting bottles thrown at us, and boys were spitting all over us.

Sometimes the recognition gets weird.

We showed record companies that they shouldn't be scared just because it's an all-girl band. We could play just as well as the boys.

I don't want someone taking up half my time. I don't need to get my heart broken.

We may have broken up at the height of our fame, but it was not the height of our success.