Simply the best: Holly Knight on writing songs for Tina Turner and rocking the MTV '80s

There’s a testimonial on the jacket of Holly Knight's memoir from no less an authority than Martha Quinn, an original MTV VJ, who writes, “If you know what a VJ is, Holly Knight’s songs are woven into your DNA.”

She wrote “Love Is a Battlefield” for Pat Benatar, “The Warrior” for Scandal featuring Patty Smyth and several Tina Turner classics, from "Better Be Good to Me" to "The Best."

There’s a foreword from Turner in “I Am the Warrior: My Crazy Life Writing the Hits and Rocking the MTV Eighties,” in which she writes, “Those songs have something special — a connection that deeply resonated with people around the globe.”

Knight was “floored” by Turner’s words, she recalls in advance of a July 13 book event at Changing Hands in Tempe.

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Holly Knight says she and Tina Turner were 'very simpatico'

“She was a rocker and I was a rocker,” Knight said of why she and Turner worked so well together. “I also think more than that, just the lyrical content. We were very simpatico."

Knight learned of the legend’s abuse at the hands of Ike Turner while reading “I, Tina,” the memoir that became the basis for the biopic “What's Love Got to Do With It.” And Knight never discussed the abuse she endured at the hands of her own mother with Turner.

“It was inside of us, but we didn’t talk about it,” Knight said. “What we did focus on was positivity and, without saying it, empowerment. The home life I had made me stronger. And I think what she went through made her stronger. So we had that.”

Writing songs for Turner “always came from a place of strength and being fierce and just true to oneself."

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Memoir is dedicated 'to anyone who ever had a dream and was told "no"'

The book is dedicated “to anyone who ever had a dream and was told ‘no.’” And she chose that lyric from “The Warrior” as a title because she's had to fight to make her own way in this world.

Knight “kind of stumbled into songwriting” while playing in a band called Spider, whose members figured writing songs would be their ticket to a record deal.

“So I thought I would give it a shot," she said. "And as it turns out, it came very naturally to me, like it was oozing out of every pore.”

It did require breaking into what she calls the “man cave” of the music industry.

“A lot of times, I sort of had to earn their trust,” she said. “So I would sneak into a corner and start to play Beethoven or something. People would listen and go, ‘Huh ... well, she can play.’”

She also dressed the part.

“I’m not gonna lie,” she said. “I really went out of my way to sort of dress rock ‘n’ roll and look good. Because I knew that it was easier to navigate that world when you look good.”

'I Am the Warrior' is a love letter to the '80s

Writing a memoir has been good for Knight.

“I was able to let go of some of the leftover crap from my childhood,” she said. “It was very cathartic."

She's hoping people come away from "I Am the Warrior" understanding that “you don't get through this world without your own self-belief.”

It’s also a bit of a love letter to the era her songs helped define.

"I mean, the '80s was great for everybody,” she said. "But some of the things that I experienced were like, 'How did I get here?'"

"I wanted to be a songwriter," Knight said. "And here I am on the road with Tina Turner and she's teasing my hair because I told her I liked her hair.”

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Holly Knight author event

When: 7 p.m. Thursday, July 13.

Where: Changing Hands Bookstore, 6428 S. McClintock Drive, Tempe.

Admission: $32.43 (includes a book); limited free admission (does not include a book).

Details: 480-730-0205, eventbrite.com.

Reach the reporter at ed.masley@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4495. Follow him on Twitter @EdMasley.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Holly Knight on songwriting for Tina Turner, Pat Benatar, '80s MTV