I'm With the Band: Confessions of a Groupie

Book excerpt: First published in 1987, New York Times bestseller, I’m With The Band has been reprinted throughout the years, all over the world. This is the stylish, exuberant and sweetly innocent tale of one of the most famous groupies of the 1960s and 70s. Beginning with Pamela Des Barres’ early obsession with Elvis, her own Beatlemania madness, and her fierce determination to meet the musicians who rocked her world, I’m With The Band illuminates the glory days of scintillating encounters with musical gods including Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Mick Jagger and Keith Moon. A girl just wanting to have fun, Des Barres immersed herself in the drugs, danger and ecstasy of the freewheeling 1960s. As a member of The GTOs (Girls Together Outrageously), an all-female group masterminded by Frank Zappa, Des Barres was in the thick of the most revolutionary renaissance in the history of modern popular music. She travelled 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 and Ray Davies. She had affairs with Mick Jagger, Jimmy Page, Keith Moon, Waylon Jennings, Chris Hillman, Noel Redding, and Jim Morrison, among others. A woman in possession of her own destiny, Des Barres blazed a trail for women’s life-writing, standing up for female voices and experience everywhere. From original diaries, told with great warmth, chutzpah and joie de vivre, this is a frank memoir that wears its heart on its sleeve, and recalls one of rock ’n’ roll’s most thrilling eras. This edition contains new material from the author, including her response to the vitriolic shaming of groupies, and a foreword by Roisin O’Connor, rock journalist and music correspondent for the Independent.