April Kirkwood Livres

Big Girls Do Cry is the story that Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons fans have been waiting for, a look into the glitz and the glory that was the Jersey Boys' story as witnessed by one of the group's biggest fans. In the tradition of scandalous tell-all's by rock groupie loyalty like Bebe Buell, Pamela des Barres, and Pattie Floyd comes a feisty and fun new voice: April Kirkwood. Our intrepid narrator is a sassy blonde Ohioan, a fun-loving flirt with a love of music and Italian men. And she has one of the craziest stories in Four Seasons history. An innocent childhood friendship with one of music's biggest stars led to a scandalous teenage romance, which soon blossomed into a stormy off-and-on affair for the next few decades. Yet through thick and thin, Kirkwood managed to find time to have a rollercoater love life that you won't soon forget.

When money got tight, as it often did, I fantasized, again, about the life of a rock star's wife. A fit of sadness over some slight at school, work or home, made me remember not the chill of being sent away, but the warmth of being in Frankie's arms. It wasn't sexual, or at least only partly so. It was about life: the one I had, versus the one I thought I wanted. Or at least occasionally thought I wanted. It was about adventure. It was about self-esteem. It was, again, about hope, the hope that I, April Gatta, the little country girl from the little rural town, would face the world as Somebody Special.