Book Description:

Fortunately, Des Barres injects humor into these accounts of degradation, which exemplify the subculture of rock music. As a California teenager during the wild 1960s, she attached herself to members of various rock bands and other celebrities. More bragging than confessional, the story explicitly details this particular groupie's sexual exploits with Mick Jagger, the late Brandon de Wilde, Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page (he liked using whips and handcuffs to enhance sex, we're told here), future Miami Vice star Don Johnson and many others. Now in her 30s, Des Barres has recovered from longtime drug abuse as has her husband, Michael, a musician. Though still "making the scene," they have settled down somewhat, as parents of a son. There are profoundly sad, shocking revelations here, and the reader understands why John Lennon glanced at the groupie and her adolescent female gang in 1964, "his face full of contempt and sorrow."


Book Review found on Amazon.com:

After reading other books by other groupies (who adamantly refuse the title of groupie although that's what they were), I wasn't expecting too much but was so sweetly surprised. This is how I always imagined a groupie should be like--star struck, believing that by adoring and being available to these rock idols would somehow make these idols fall hopelessly in love. And no matter how many times she got her heart broken she kept believing, continued to be optimistic and open far longer than most of us would have been. I am glad Miss Pam did find someone to love who loved her back for awhile at least--she deserved it--and hasn't wound up a has-been with nothing of her own to lay claim to (as so many other groupies do). I enjoyed the adventure; she captured a slice of what life could sometimes be like for a flower child with stars in her eyes.

My Review:

Pamela des Barres had quite the hippie/rock and roll lifestyle back in the day! In the book she says she lost her virginity at age 19 to Nick St. Nicholas: best known for playing bass guitar in Steppenwolf.

She also had sex with the following:
Noel Redding: played bass for The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Jimmy Page: founded and played with Led Zeppelin
Waylon Jennings (1937-2002): singer who died from diabetic complications
Chris Hillman: an original member of The Byrds
Mick Jagger: singer for The Rolling Stones
Gram Parsons (1946-1973): a member of The Byrds, who died from a drug overdose
Brandon de Wilde (1942-1972) : an actor, who died in a car accident
Don Johnson: actor, who left Pamela for Melanie Griffith
Howard Kaylan: lead singer in the band The Turtles
Tony Sales: played with Todd Rundgren, Iggy Pop, and Tin Machine with David Bowie
Keith Moon (1946-1978): drummer with The Who, who died from a drug overdose
Lane Caudell: an actor/songwriter
Jim Morrison (1943-1971): singer for the doors, Pamela didn't have sex with him, but she did make out and do drugs with him. He died from a drug overdose.

Okay, I don't think she mentioned him in the book, but according to Wikipedia she also had sex with Michael Richards, the actor who played Kramer on Seinfeld. Not sure if this is true or not...

The men in her life kept her a bit busy, but she was part of not very successful girl band called GTO (Girls Together Outrageously or Orally or anything else starting with O). She also worked as a live-in nanny with Frank Zappa's family, I guess they were more understanding of her rock and roll lifestyle - take drugs, drink, get laid and get home late. She wanted to be an actress. She was in Frank Zappa's movie 200 Motels (1971), also The Carhops (1975), Paradise Alley (1978), Human Feelings (1978) and the soap opera Search for Tomorrow. She also wrote a few more books after this one.

She finally met and married Michael Des Barres who was in a rock band at the time. (anyone surprised by this???) They have a child named Nicholas Dean Des Barres who was born in 1978. Pamela and Michael divorced in 1991 due to his infidelity.

I kind of expected there to be more details, but maybe she was afraid of being sued by the men she was with. If I was writing a tell all book about my famous lovers I would have had to go into more details! It's funny because I had actually read this when I was in high school, so it was interesting to read it with a 38 year old's perspective. Yes, she was naive, yes, she was a slut, yes, she went looking for love in ALL the wrong places, but you have to admit, she did survive without OD'ing, and get married and have a child, which is all she seemed to want in the first place.

My favorite quotes from the book:

"I dig musicians. I feel they have the most to offer me mentally and emotionally because they think basically along the same lines as I do; extremely creative people."

"Groupies in Los Angeles are crass, supercilious, pretentious, beautiful beyond description or reason, freakish, cultish, aggressive, mad and young. Groupies in Los Angeles are extreme. the GTO's epitomize an international groupie type, The Freak."

"I slunk down in my seat transcendental with desire, glancing up at Mick [Jagger], who was all dimples, and I knew I would finally see his trousers down around his ankles." - entry from her diary

"I wish I had someone to cuddle with every night. If only I could settle for some normal groovy guy. Good heavens he'll have to be some super-human person because right now the only people I can see myself being with are (get this...) Mick [Jagger] (how absurd), Jimmy [Page] (useless) or Chris [Hillman] (totally unthinkable). What a pathetic case. Why can't I meet a nice engineer or a CPA? It's too late now." - entry from her diary

"Howard [Kaylan] and I kept our sweet affair going, even after the little stub he imported from Philadelphia started to give me dirty looks at the Mothers' rehearsals and concerts. I couldn't see him as often as I wanted to, however, so I baited my honey-flavored hook and threw out the line in hopes of pulling in a live one."

"I started berating myself for my incorrigible groupie behavior. Something came over me when in the presence of rock idols, something vile and despicable, something wondrous and holy. I couldn't control myself. I couldn't help it." - after cheating on Don Johnson with Keith Moon

"When Chris [Hillman] left town, I got back on the circuit, went to a lot of parties, and hopped onto a merry-go-round of men. I would have preferred to march down the aisle with someone and forget the endless search for Prince Charming, but the need to be in love was always my first priority."

"The rock and roll girls were getting younger, and I was no good at competing. They hated me because I had been there first, and they called me awful names..."old" being the most popular odious declaration of loathing."

Pamela Des Barres - More info

This book is travelling in the Biography/Auto-Biography/Humor Bookbox.

I took this from JennyC1230's Biography/Autobiography/Humor Bookbox. A famous groupie lives in my town (Sweet, Sweet Connie). There is even a Grand Funk Railroad song about Connie. She and Des Barres are both on MTV and VH1 every once in a while.

I've had this one too long--It's ready for a trip to Ohio!

thank you so much for this wishlist tag. It made it here safely in Toledo, ohio today.