Desmond Child Announces 'Livin' on a Prayer' Memoir

Veteran songwriter Desmond Child, who's penned hits for Kiss, Aerosmith, Bon Jovi and more, will release his memoir, Livin' on a Prayer: Big Songs Big Life, later this year.

Livin' on a Prayer will hit shelves on Sept. 19 and is available to preorder now. It includes a foreword from Paul Stanley, who co-wrote Kiss' disco-rock smash "I Was Made for Lovin' You" with Child and Vini Poncia. The book will detail Child's tumultuous childhood (his family fled revolutionary Cuba for Florida in the '60s), his tribulations navigating the rock world as a gay man and his multidecade career as one of the genre's most dependable hitmakers.

"The process of writing the book has been more than cathartic. It has been revelatory," Child said in a statement. "Not until I went through the deep and sometimes painful experience of writing this book did I realize the great adventure I'd been living — an adventure I'm thrilled to share with the world."

Child co-wrote Livin' on a Prayer with David Ritz, who's also collaborated on books by Ray Charles, Lenny Kravitz, Janet Jackson, Joe Perry and more. "We spent five years making this book. It's going to be a lot of fun," Child recently told UCR. "There are a hundred pictures woven through, so [whatever] I'm talking about, you see the picture in the book."

After making a name for himself with "I Was Made for Lovin' You," Child amassed a treasure trove of hard-rock hits, including Aerosmith's "Angel," Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a Prayer" and "You Give Love a Bad Name," Joan Jett's "I Hate Myself for Loving You" and Alice Cooper's "Poison." Despite earning "a No. 1 song in five decades, one way or another," Child was quick to acknowledge that good fortune played a crucial role in his career alongside his prodigious talent.

"I've been a very, very lucky person," he told UCR. "Things that could have gone terrible and sometimes did, all of a sudden, they would turn around and go my way. That's the special thing about my life."