Pamela Des Barres - I’m With the Band

The stylish, exuberant, and remarkably sweet confession of one of the most famous groupies of the 1960s and 70s.

As soon as she graduated from high school, Pamela Des Barres headed for the Sunset Strip, where she knocked on rock stars backstage doors and immersed herself in the drugs, danger, and ecstasy of the freewheeling 1960s. Over the next 10 years she had affairs with Mick Jagger, Jimmy Page, Keith Moon, Waylon Jennings, Chris Hillman, Noel Redding, and Jim Morrison, among others. She traveled with Led Zeppelin; lived in sin with Don Johnson; turned down a date with Elvis Presley; and was close friends with Robert Plant, Gram Parsons, Ray Davies, and Frank Zappa. As a member of the GTOs, a girl group masterminded by Frank Zappa, she was in the thick of the most revolutionary renaissance in the history of modern popular music.

Warm, witty, and sexy, this kiss-and-tellall stands out as the perfect chronicle of one of rock n rolls most thrilling eras.

Pamela Des Barres

Confessions of a groupie

ePub r1.0

Titivillus 07.08.17

Ttulo original: Im With the Band

Pamela Des Barres, 1987

Ilustrations: Michael Craven, Richard Creamer, Jasper Dailey, Michael Des Barres, Frank Edwards, Sam Emerson, Phil Franks, Steve Goldman, Earl Leaf, Margaret Miller, Barry Peake, Raeanne Rubenstein, Hunt Sales, Jackie Sallow, Calvin Schenkel, Shepard Sherbell, Randee St. Nicholas, Julian Wasser

Editor digital: Titivillus

ePub base r1.2

To my darling son Nicky Dean Des Barres

PAMELA DES BARRES (aka Miss Pamela (born Pamela Ann Miller on September 9, 1948) is a former rock and roll groupie, author, and magazine writer.

Des Barres was born in Reseda, California. Her mother was a housewife and her father worked for Anheuser-Busch and occasionally worked as a gold miner. She idolized the Beatles and Elvis Presley as a child, and fantasized about meeting and dating her favorite Beatle, Paul McCartney.

A high school acquaintaince introduced Pamela to Don Van Vliet, better known as Captain Beefheart, a musician and friend of Frank Zappa. Vliet in turn introduced her to Charlie Watts and Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones, which drew her to the rock music scene on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles. She started to spend her time with The Byrds and other bands, and when she graduated from high school in 1966, she took various jobs that would allow her to live near the Sunset Strip and pursue relationships with rock musicians. She famously paired up with Nick St. Nicholas, Mick Jagger, Keith Moon, Jim Morrison, Jimmy Page, Chris Hillman, Noel Redding, Jimi Hendrix, Waylon Jennings, Ray Davies, David Gilmour, Frank Zappa and actor Don Johnson.

She was also a member of The GTOs, an all-girl singing group formed by Zappa. The group started out as the Laurel Canyon Ballet Company, and began performing as an opening act for Zappa and the Mothers of Invention. The group's act was performance art, a mix of music and spoken word, since none of its members could sing or play an instrument. They released an album, Permanent Damage in 1969, backed by Zappa and Jeff Beck. The group dissolved a month after the album's release because some of its members were arrested for drug possession.

In the 1970s Des Barres decided to pursue a career as an actress, and acted in a few movies, including Zappa's 200 Motels, commercials, and a year acting on the soap opera Search For Tomorrow in 1974. After a downturn in her acting career she went to work as a nanny for Zappa's children, Dweezil and Moon Unit.

On October 29, 1977, she married Michael Des Barres who had been lead singer for the first band signed to Led Zeppelin's Swan Song label, Detective, Silverhead and, briefly, for Power Station. They have a son, Nicholas Dean Des Barres, born on September 30, 1978. The couple divorced in the summer of 1991, due to Michael Des Barres' alleged infidelities.

Des Barres wrote two books about her experience as a groupie, Im With The Band (1987) and Take Another Little Piece of My Heart: A Groupie Grows Up (1993), as well as two non-fiction books, Rock Bottom: Dark Moments in Music Babylon and Lets Spend the Night Together: Backstage Secrets of Rock Muses and Supergroupies (2007). She currently writes articles for online and print publications.

HEARTFELT THANK YOUS to my sweet mom for having the love and patience of a saint, and for not squelching my soul; and to my dear departed daddy for inspiring me always to dig for the gold.

Intense appreciation goes out to C. Thomas (my Cleveland High School creative writing teacher), Don Van Vliet, Vito Paulekas, Bob Dylan, The Fab Four, the late Gram Parsons, the late Brandon de Wilde, Frank and Gail Zappa, and Chuck Wein for altering my priorities.

Adoration abounds for my divine girlfriends who hold me up and calm me down: Melanie Griffith, Joyce Hyser, Catherine James, Denise Kaye, Rona Levitan, Mercy, Sheri Rivera, Iva Turner, and the ever-present Mrs. Zappa.

Merci beaucoup to my darling Patti DArbanville for the perfect title.

Special love to Michele Myer.

Beyond space and time Danny Goldberg.

Thank you, Stephen Davis, for the encouragement; and thanks to Ron Bernstein, Bill Dana, Ben Edmonds, and Mel Berger.

A massive and abundant thankyouthankyouthankyou to Jim Landis and Jane Meara for being here now.