Kenny G‘s memoir, Life in the Key of G, in stores now, reveals how the Grammy-winning saxophonist went from being plain ol’ Kenny Gorelick from Seattle to a multi-Platinum global phenomenon. But Kenny says initially he was surprised anyone would want to hear his life story.
“I said, ‘OK, well, I’m not old enough to do this,’ and they said, ‘No, no … people are doing it,'” says Kenny, 68. “And I started looking and researching and, oh, yeah, people are doing it that are younger. And so it’s not like you’re writing it and your career is over and … now you’re in retirement.”
Kenny tells ABC Audio that writing the book was “much harder than making an album,” but says people who read it will gain insight into how he became successful. In fact, his own sons did.
“They just grew up with me being me, selling millions of records … they don’t know all of the things that happened to get me to that point,” Kenny says of his kids, noting that there was “definitely more respect from my oldest” after he read the book.
He adds, “I think a lot of my friends … when they read it, they’re going to go, ‘Wow. I didn’t realize that it took all of that for you to be you.'”
Life in the Key of G is light on salacious tales, but there’s plenty of info about Kenny’s hair, and his love of playing golf and flying planes, plus parenting advice and encounters with celebs like Whitney Houston, Toni Braxton, Bill Clinton and Michael Bolton. But most of all, Kenny says, the book “shows what happened to get me to this point.”
As he notes, “There was a lot of work and a lot of hard decisions that could have easily backfired.”
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