BAND AIDES: SABLE STARR AND LORI MADDOX!

Amy Haben·September 7, 2015

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By Amy Haben

While I was searching for videos of the famous 70’s groupies, Sable Starr and Lori Maddox, I noticed that all the comments under the videos from men were things like, “Disgusting slut.”, “Just another whore!”, or “I wonder how many venereal diseases she has?”

On the contrary, the women’s responses ranged from, “The gorgeous Sable Starr!” to “Lori must have had an amazing time!”

Obviously, the guys who left the shitty comments are insecure of sexually empowered women who go out and get what they want. Essentially, Lori and Sable adopted certain acceptable male traits– that are quite common for women these days. (About time!)

I’ll let you in on a secret. My mother was a 15-year-old groupie in 1966. She would squeeze on her tightest mini shirt, throw on those white, knee-high boots and stand in front of the local rock & roll radio station in Los Angeles urgently waiting for the band to show up. Her best friend would join her and their efforts paid off. Always humble, she would remember, “Their mouths would just drop open when they got a load of me!” In no time, David Crosby became her regular date. She also “got to know” The Turtles, The Byrds, and Paul Revere And The Raiders.

I always loved that my mom wasn’t shy about this or ashamed. She voiced that they were all just really good friends and it was a fun time of her life. Society and pop culture were changing and my mother was part of a group of friends that didn’t slut-shame, but instead believed in the grand idea of love and freedom. Curiously, I looked into David Crosby’s past and discovered that the love of his life, Christine Hinton, was tragically killed in an auto accident while they were together. Christine could have been my mother’s twin sister. (I guess he had a “type.”)

I, on the other hand, love music and hung out with rock stars, but never hooked up with them — my closest friends were always around to play that role. Unlike mom, I wasn’t trying. I was more into watching the band from the side stage at a 5,000 seat theater. (Oh and there was always drugs around that dealers would give freely to the musicians– and sometimes I would get my own bag if it wasn’t their choice narcotic.) Free drinks and rooms at the Continental Riot House were also a bonus. You know, this stuff is very fabulous when you’re 21. Which reminds me of the adage, “Youth is wasted on the young,” Ha, ha, ha! I mean, when else do you get to act so fashionably retarded?

When Sable Starr was a young girl she was known as being sexually aggressive, especially with David Bowie. She turned musicians on with her body and her enthusiasm for their music, in exchange for rides in limos, being flown in private jets, and some memorable sex. Maybe not an even trade, but a fun one, nonetheless.

Lori Maddox was a 14-year-old model when Jimmy Page noticed her pictures and asked his tour manager to bring her to his show. Now of course, many people have a problem with the age thing. I get it, and he shouldn’t have gone after her. I guess the happy part of the story is that in the interview below, obviously well past her 20’s, Lori states that Page was the sweetest man she ever met and that she fell in love with him instantly.

Lori and Sable were two girls who were ahead of their time and probably paid a heavy price for it. But whenever I hear Bowie’s “Rebel, Rebel,” and the line, “Hot tramp, I love her so,” comes on, I think of Sable Starr sashaying through a hotel lobby, dressed in pink hot pants and a scarf for a halter top, on her way to her next tryst.

I mean, these girls helped put the “Sex” in “Sex and Drugs and Rock & Roll,” and there hasn’t been anyone yet that comes close to equaling their legendary status!

As Bebe Buell said, “Every rock star that came to LA wanted to meet them, it wasn’t the other way around. It was like, ‘We’ve got to meet Sable Starr and Lori Maddox…’ There was a certain crowd you had to meet when you were in LA.”