The ribald ride became a bit overwhelming for Michele, and she spent less and less time romping in the sexy attic. "As much as I loved being with Steven and was attracted to him physically-and the sex was phenomenal-I realized I just wasn't in love with him. And the drugs didn't help any. In the end, it didn't jibe with my romantic vision of how it was supposed to be. I wasn't even eighteen and just too young to be tied down."
It was just a few weeks later that Michele dolled up in her suede Pocahontas mini to see the Flying Burrito Brothers at the Scene. "Oh my God, I loved their music. I played The Gilded Palace of Sin 'til my ears fell off. It was always the music that got me, and if the guy was gorgeous like Gram was, it certainly didn't hurt! He had just gone through a horrible break up with his fiancee and his heart was battered. He told me I helped him heal, that I was good for him. He was really genuine. Ooh, he had this incredible skin," she gushes, "and those hands-oh my God, the most unbelievable hands I've ever seen."
Which brings us back to that sultry night at the Palomino. After the Burritos gig, Michele came home with me and stayed. It wasn't too long before we had our thumbs out, hitching a ride to the Long Beach Arena to see the bad boys of rock, Led Zeppelin.
"When I met Robert, his album was `number eighty with a bullet.' He wasn't famous yet, but you could see the writing on the wall. I can literally say I met him before the world knew who he was. He was so excited. For a country boy from the Midlands, being on the charts was a very big deal." Michele's time with Robert in New York was all too brief. "He said, `Damn it, why didn't you take me with you when we first got here? We could have had a couple of weeks together!"' The day before he flew back to his little family in England, Robert got Michele high and they focused on a calendar full of fairies and elves. Michele says they "totally clicked."
"Somebody had spilled a cup of coffee on the calendar and ruined it. He was really upset because his aesthetic was, like, the depths of Mordor, Gollum, gnomes, and all that, so we spent the last day looking all over New York, trying to find another calendar. I was thinking, `I really want a boyfriend, but this guy doesn't live in America.' Then I saw a picture of his baby daughter, and thought, just like Scarlett O'Hara, `I'll think about that another day."
When Zep came back to the United States on their second tour, a pal called to tell her she had bumped into "that guy Robert Plant" at the Scene. "He told her that I was the only person in America he wanted to see. Of course, I was flattered." Robert brought his wife to L.A., but her brief presence was only a temporary setback. "Sure enough, as soon as she left, I contacted him and he told me to come over and we started going out. Whenever he was in L.A., he would call me and I was, like, his L.A. chick. The news really got around; everybody knew about us. Sure, I was aware he was married, but was somehow able to compartmentalize that. I just didn't think of the consequences and started to fall in love with him."
I had a similar experience when I tried to avoid Jimmy Page's long-distance advances. And when he had his road manager, Richard Cole, pass me a note requesting my presence at the Hyatt House, I simply tucked it away. But he somehow wrangled my phone number and gallantly invited me to their Long Beach show, and my flimsy resolve deserted me.
"You bought this little gingerbread man dressed up like an astronaut to give to Jimmy as a greeting gift, remember? We hitchhiked down to Long Beach, and Richard Cole put us right on the side of the stage." We were the only girls onstage that night, and Michele and I still savor the remarkable feeling of being welcomed into that irresistible inner sanctum. It was the headiest, swooniest rock and roll experience possible. Jimmy was just about to entertain the surging masses, and when he saw me there, his angelic face lit up. Those were the heaviest heavenly moments in the world. Michele agrees, laughing, "Yeah, and you know what's funny, now that we're talking about all this stuff? You're starting to look just like you did back then! It's true, your face just morphed into this eager twenty-year-old."
Our gushing recollections:
Michele: I remember we got so excited at one point you reached back and grabbed my pussy.
Pamela: I don't remember that!
Michele: After the show, Robert introduced you to Jimmy, and you two were inseparable. He flew you all over the placeRobert never took me anywhere because he was married and had to be discreet.
Pamela: How did it feel to be romantically involved with Robert?
Michele: Ahhh, I remember he had these gorgeous golden curls at the back of his neck, this perfect row of ringlets, and he had hair on the small of his back. He was so leonine. He is a Leo, a gorgeous lion, a honeypot of a man. There was incredible power and heat that came off his body.
Pamela: He sure had reams of self-confidence.
Michele: Very much a Leo-outgoing, warm, and passionate. Even though he told me years later that he was nervous in those days, he never gave that impression to anybody.
Pamela: Remember those shirts I made for Jimmy?
Michele: Yes, each one was so unique, and I decided to make something for Robert: a hand-embroidered vest of purple felt. I put his initials on each side surrounded by rhinestones, and sewed each sequin one by one, then embroidered Alice in Wonderland holding a bottle with "DRINK ME" on one side, which was my little alter ego. On the other side was a lion, of course. On the back I embroidered the Cheshire cat in a lemon tree-because "The Lemon Song" had just come out. I gave it to you to give Robert because you were going on the road with the band.
Pamela: We went to New York that time.
Michele: I put you on the plane and you went off with Jimmy. I was so thrilled. You brought me a letter from Robert that said, "Dear Alice, My face is too creased from the smile to say much. I'm writing from my place amongst the branches." He went on to say how much he loved the vest, and signed it "Cheshire Cat." He wore that vest at every single concert for that entire tour. I think he wore it until it fell off his back.
Pamela: It was such a blast when we all hung out together.
Michele: Yeah! Remember that time you teased Jimmy? You and I went to Disneyland on mescaline and the lecherous Three Little Pigs chased us. It was like all the characters came alive and we frolicked with them, tripping out of our brains. And when we got home you and I spontaneously started making out ...
Pamela: Was that the first time?
Michele: No, we had kissed before. I wanted to keep going, but you said, "I can't do it," and I said, "Don't stop now!" But you weren't ready, so we didn't go any further.
Pamela: That's the closest I ever came to actual girl-girl sex.
Michele: So you told Jimmy that we had made out, and of course he totally wanted a replay so he could watch, and I thought, "You little vixen, that's why you told him-you knew he was gonna get all hot and bothered!"
Whenever the mighty Zeppelin slammed into town, Michele was installed in Robert's room but sometimes felt like a shameful secret. "He didn't want our relationship to become too pub lic because he was married. He was being interviewed once and they were taking pictures. As usual, I was there, but had to be off to the side. He took my hand and put it on his head so at least some part of me would be in the picture."
There were a lot of married Brits on the road, but the family back home didn't seem to put a dent in their love lives. Robert proudly displayed Michele at the clubs, and one steamy night, he told her he was in love with her. "He only had eyes for me, and it was such a feather in my cap because everybody wanted this guy. Their nose tips were twitching-all the groupies were having a feeding frenzy-but it was ME he wanted."
She could never actually feel secure because the man she adored always went home to his wife and baby, so Michele made sure Robert knew there were other men in her life. "I remember him telling you to take care of me and keep me away from the `Flying Hot Dog Brothers,' because I told him I was in love with Gram Parsons. It was only half a lie, and Robert was married." Did she ever feel guilty about the duplicitous romance? "I was too young to fully realize the actual impact. I was
so naive. When he was with me, he was mine."
Robert thought he should meet Michele's mother, so when Zep played New York, he called Gina, and he and Jimmy took her to dinner. The two rockers and the madwoman from Greenwich Village got along famously, discussing blues and jazz and beat poets. This encounter gave Michele hope that Robert was getting serious about her.
Waiting and pining between tours didn't suit her, so Michele decided to make the daring move across the pond. I was already living in London with my fashionable Granny Takes a Trip clothier boyfriend Marty when she arrived. My adorable girl soon realized that her knight was already entangled in yet another illicit affair. "The whole time I was seeing Robert, he was involved with his wife's sister. How could he have been in love with her and in love with me and ... ?" I remind her that Robert was just a kid back in those glory days. "Yeah, a kid in an ice-cream shop," she agrees, "and with all those flavors. Why not have double-chocolate dip and French vanilla?"
When Michele arrived in England, Robert suggested she stay with Zep's infamous road manager, Richard Cole, at his house in the country. But not wanting to be sequestered, Michele opted to move in with a wild friend in the heart of London. "I loved Jeanette dearly, but she took a lot of pills and hung out at the Speakeasy. Robert wasn't happy I was staying with her, but I was too young to be tied down to a married man. It was unbearably difficult-he wanted to keep me out in the country, but I didn't want that kind of relationship. He was very upset, and said, `That's it, we've lost her. She'll be down at the Speak every night taking Mandrax.' I think that was when he decided to stop seeing me, because he wanted to keep me pure in his mind." Still, when she complained about being lonely, Robert attempted to make his California girl happy.
For a few days, she danced on hallowed ground when he invited her into Led Zeppelin's truly private party. "He took me to Headley Grange where they were recording the third album. It was this big, drafty old barn, totally secluded, where they could make all the noise they wanted. I stayed with him for a few days, listening to all their new songs."
Some of Robert's gorgeous lyrics were written about his wife's younger sister. How in the world did he juggle it all? When Michele had to leave for an appointment in London, Robert waxed romantic. "When I left, he said: `Little girl, I have a feeling you and I are gonna be together for a long time. Don't you ever feel that way?' I said, `No, because I don't want to be disappointed.' I don't know why I said that, but I remember it vividly. In retrospect, maybe I should have stayed and not gone off to that stupid hair appointment. Who knows what might have happened?"
When she complained about being a taboo secret, Robert bristled. "He said, `That's not gonna get you any closer to the altar,' and it was like, fuck you! How dare he be so cruel to me?" The memory still irks Michele. "I was totally devastated. Meanwhile he was writing `What Is and What Never Shall Be' for his wife's sister."
Michele saw her erstwhile rock prince only once more in London. "He took me to visit some people selling jewelry from Morocco and said, `I should buy you something.' I knew it was a parting gift. Then taking me home in the cab, he said, `Hold me. I just want to remember what it was like.' I recall seeing sweet, sorrowful Michele standing at a bus stop on the King's Road in a dismal gray downpour, sobbing her heart out. "I was very, very heartbroken, as you know." Yes, it definitely was a heartbreaker.
Michele eventually headed for Europe where she spent a few years seeing the sights and driving men wild, then wound up back in New York. Her incomparable mother, Gina, who had become "Govinda" due to a spiritual relationship with guru Meher Baba, passed away and Michele was the one to find her, sprawled on the floor of her tiny Greenwich Village walk-up. Michele spiraled downward and even her closest friends didn't know how to find her. But she never lost her faith. Down deep she was still that sanguine flower child I met at the Palomino. "I think God-my higher power-helped a lot, and realizing I didn't want to be a fucking casualty. I still had self-respect and wanted to do something with my life-painting or writing a book. I knew didn't want to die without having contributed anything to the world."
At this tenuous point, Michele met Chris, a restaurateur who took her to Portland, where she still lives. Their relationship lasted several years. Now she's with Evan in the cheery apartment with their beloved pug, Ollie. "My whole life changed when I came here," Michele says as we stroll the shady streets. "I started getting in touch with people I hadn't seen in years-I saw Robert, and Steven, and you-so many people have come back into my life."
Six years ago Aerosmith played Portland and Michele thought it was high time she saw her lusty teen dream again. "I'd seen him in the '80s. I knew his first wife, Cyrinda. We had a mutual friend who said Steven told her I was the best sexual experience of his life, and that's on the record."
Michele was busily painting a mural, listening to the radio, and heard that Aerosmith was playing the Coliseum that very night. "I got the backstage number, left a message, and Steven called me back and said, `Get down here right away!' The concert was great. I hadn't seen him in years and I couldn't believe how energetic he was. I mean, the guy had just turned fifty and he was doing backflips-it was amazing."
While a pack of teenage dolls gave Michele the evil eye, she was escorted backstage just like the good old days. "Steven was really happy to see me, and kept telling me how beautiful I looked. He said, `I can't get over you,' and held my face in his hands. He looked so good and was so sexy, hugging me-his skin was like velvet. We caught up on old times and it was really wonderful."
A few years ago, Masters Page and Plant graced Portland and Michele got up to some old-fashioned mischief. "I marched up to will call and said there were tickets waiting for me, because if Robert knew I was there, he would want to see me. She took my name and came back five minutes later with two tickets and two all-access passes! The band did a great set and Robert said somebody special was in the audience and it was bringing back incredible memories from long ago." Michele looks dreamy eyed. "To be spoken about from the stage was really a trip after so many years. I never thought I'd get that kind of high again, but it happened."
Before Michele left that night, Robert made sure she wouldn't forget their time together. "He said he couldn't understand why we had stopped seeing each other, the years we wasted, the fun we could have had. It was amazing how he remembered everything-how we met, that my mother was a Meher Baba lover, the Alice-in-Wonderland vest. He actually remembered the line he used to pick me up: `Come up to see my etchings.'"
The two passionflowers reignited their specialness again last autumn when Robert hit Portland with his groovy new band, Strange Sensation. "When I saw him backstage, we were totally focused on each other. He was holding me and said, `So this is what we felt like together.' I laughed and told him, `I've gotten a little shorter since then,' and he said, `I have too!' He told me he was talking with his assistant, and she asked if he'd ever been in love with no boundaries to his passion. He said, `Yes, one time-and that was with you.' I didn't know what to say. He told me he sang `Going to California' to me that night, that I was the epitome of that era for him, and represented the whole '60s hippie love thing. Then he said we never stop loving somebody, we just paint it a different color. I told him that if I didn't have a mirror or a memory I'd think I was fifteen, because I didn't feel any different. Losing a love relationship when you're that young forms a neural pathway in your brain that never goes away. That old love stays with you and will always be there." Michele smiles, "Especially if your old love happens to be Robert Plant."
As we get closer to Michele's pad I ask how she came to be such a music lover and eternal rock muse. "It couldn't have been a cultural influence, or peer pressure, because there was no peer pressure then; we were making it all up as we went along. We paved the way for a lot of freedom women take for granted and don't appreciate. We were the first generation of women openly expressing our love for music; and the music, obviously, was extremely sexual. But more than that, it was mag
ical, and the magic was actually larger than the groups that played it."
I remind her that some people saw groupies as oppressed and exploited. "But we were doing exactly what we wanted to be doing! We were in love with the music-these guys were the answer to our prayers. They wanted us there, and they treated us like goddesses."
"Made up my mind, make a new start Goin' to California with an achin' in my heart Someone told me there's a girl out there with love in her eyes and flowers in her hair. . .
The Virgin Groupie
knew my friend Cassandra Peterson for a decade before discovering we had such profoundly kindred rock and roll hearts. Not too many Elvira fans have a clue that the rib-tickling multimedia Mistress of the Dark was once an unabashed groupie maiden.
I met Cassandra at a swinging '80s soiree for Ringo Starr. Manic-eyed Phil Spector roamed the palatial grounds along with Roseanne Barr, my old label mate Alice Cooper, ubergroupie Britt Ekland, and the pouty-lipped dead ringer for her daddy Lisa Marie Presley. I recall that Cassandra was equally intrigued with the King's ravishing offspring and commented on her facial expressions and familiar half-lidded gaze as we gobbled down skewers of jumbo shrimp.
Pinning the hardworking mistress down has been quite a challenge, since we're both such busy little beavers. She fits our interview in between a personal appearance at a comic book convention and an Elvira calendar shoot. I've seen the vivacious redhead in action several times, wriggling around in her sultry Elvira drag, captivating crowds with her combo of crass sass and clever quips. Above all, Cassandra is a quintessential comedienne, and I'm jazzed at the prospect of capturing her droll, knowing nuances on paper. As we enjoy a meat-free, dairy-free lunch at the scrumptious nouvelle Real Food Daily on La Cienega, we hearken back and wax nostalgic.
Let's Spend the Night Together: Backstage Secrets of Rock Muses and Supergroupies Page 16
