Let's Spend the Night Together: Backstage Secrets of Rock Muses and Supergroupies (14 page)

Denny was overjoyed when Catherine found out she was pregnant, but the impending love child didn't temper his violent streak. "It was a day-to-day thing. I loved him, or at least I thought I did. I left him several times while I was pregnant, but kept going back." She went all the way to New York, got an apartment, and started modeling, but Denny promised he'd change and convinced Catherine to have the baby in England. "He tricked me. The argument we were having the day I left for New York picked up exactly where it left off. When I was in labor he got annoyed because it went on for so long. He said, `Either we're going to the hospital or we're going to sleep, which is it?" Damian was born exactly on his due date, but the proud papa didn't alter his mean-spirited, jealous ways.

Yet another platonic savior came to the rescue while Catherine contemplated her fate. "My friend Jimmy Webb, the songwriter, was in town producing `MacArthur Park' for Richard Harris. He's always liked me, and when he saw how unhappy I was, he said, `You're coming back to California with me.' For a while I lived in Jimmy's big house next door to Ozzie and Harriet in Hollywood."

Believing she was finished with Denny for good, Catherine eventually got her own Hollywood apartment, sharing it with her friend Linda Lawrence, who had a toddler son by Rolling Stone Brian Jones. The two single rock moms shared babysitting chores and Catherine got a job as hostess at Thee Experience, the crazy club-of-the-moment.

The presence of little Damian didn't seem to stop Catherine's determined admirers. "The boys were even more interested because we were a ready-made family. They saw this girl on her own with a baby and wanted to swoop me and my cherub son into their arms.

One late night at the club, someone arrived just in time for Chuck Berry's encore. "The show was almost over so I told this beautiful boy he could go in for free. He said `What time do you get off?' I still had half an hour to go, but I said `Right now.' There was an instant attraction between us."

Catherine and the appealing young songwriter, Jackson Browne, quickly became an item. "He was a sweetheart. He'd take me to work at Thee Experience and pick me up so I'd be safe. This was before his first record, but he was writing such beautiful songs. I would listen to him sing and play `Doctor My Eyes' and `Jamaica, Say You Will' on the piano. He wanted to write for other people, and we would visit his musician friends and he'd play for them. I remember he was trying to get Rita Coolidge to record his songs. I said, `Jackson, you should sing your own songs, don't give them away."

Catherine says that she and Jackson fell fast in love. "He wrote me a beautiful song called `Under the Falling Sky.' It goes, `I've got lightning in my pocket and thunder in my boots/Have no fear/I've got something here/I want to show you/Our angels wait to take us higher and higher.' Jackson was a sweet and romantic lover, the one I should have stayed with."

She hadn't heard from Denny for over a year when a mutual friend gave him her number. "I was over him, but he started calling me secretly, begging me to come back. He was in a new band, Air Force, with Ginger Baker. He told me about his sprawling house in the country and the Jaguar he'd buy me for my birthday. He finally convinced me when he said he really wanted to have his son with him. So I left Jackson. He was very upset, but such a gentleman. He even took me to the airport."

English country living didn't turn out to be as comfy-cozy as Denny promised. "There was no heat, so I had to stoke coals and bring in the firewood. The bathtubs in England are bigger than usual, and it took fifteen trips carrying buckets of heated water up and down the stairs to get the bath half full. We were getting along quite well, but I was freezing out there so I convinced Denny to get us a little place in London."

One of the backup singers left Air Force and a replacement was needed immediately. Catherine auditioned for Ginger Baker and suddenly she was a singer in a rock and roll band. "We traveled around doing concerts with Cream, Jimi Hendrix, the Animals, and Donovan. It was all wonderful, except Denny and I were starting to battle again, and we couldn't seem to fix it. I walked around with my head down, not making eye contact with anybody because of his bloody jealousy."

Air Force was booked on the QE2 to sail away on an American tour when Ginger Baker abruptly changed his mind. "The night before we were supposed to leave, Ginger Baker decided he was going to go to Nigeria to play drums with the Nigerians, and the tour was canceled. That same day, a friend of Jackson's, Ned Doheny, arrived in London and called to say hello. I was talking to him and Denny asked, `Who is that?' When I told him it was a friend from California, he hauled off and slugged me in the face."

Catherine escaped out the bathroom window, scaled the wall, and hailed a cab. She was bleeding so badly the kindly cabbie gave her a free ride to the hospital, where she got five stitches over her left eye. Since her bags were conveniently packed, she grabbed Damian and left Denny for the last time. An innocent flirtation she'd been having with Gene Krell from Granny Takes a Trip instantly changed course, and that night she moved into his house on Carlyle Square. A month later, I arrived from California, and for a couple of months, we were one big, well-dressed, wacky family.

The romance with Gene didn't last long because Denny, still obsessed with Catherine, began following her around London, shouting threats and obscenities. I remember vividly the day we were strolling along the King's Road and he tried to snatch Damian out of her arms. "Denny was with his father in the Bentley, and we were running down the street with them on our tail," Catherine recalls. "I was going to take Damian back to America and wanted one last night at the Speakeasy before I left. They sat me across from Eric Clapton, and when he saw the black stitches in my pale white skin, he said, `What happened to you?' I told him about Denny and that I was moving back to America. And he said, `Come to Hertswoood Edge and stay with me instead.' He had my trunks picked up from Kensington and taken to his estate in Surrey, and I spent the summer as his chef and trusted friend."

There was no hanky-panky between Catherine and the guitar god because he was gaga over another music muse. She was not only Clapton's cook; Catherine also became his confidant. "Eric was in love with Pattie Boyd Harrison, but it was still a big secret. I got to listen to him write `Layla,' and I was the only person who knew it was for Pattie. Not even the band members knew."

She's told me about the delicious meals she created for Derek and the Dominoes, who were all living at the house. How did she learn to cook so well at the tender age of nineteen? "I had a cookbook from Alice's Restaurant," she laughs. "Everybody enjoyed my cooking, and I loved it in the country-all that amazing music! Damian toddled around the manor, coloring on Eric's walls. The dogs frolicked, and I was the lady in residence. Denny kept trying to woo me back, and I started letting him take Damian for a day or two." It was during one of Damian's visits with his father that Catherine had a dreamy, steamy encounter.

"Eric was throwing a big party for the drummer, Jim Gordon. It was his birthday, and everybody was coming, including George Harrison and Pattie. I was glad when Mick Jagger arrived. He'd been to visit Eric before, and even though we'd never really interacted, we knew about each other. He knew there was a girl at Eric's that he liked. That night somebody spiked the punch with mescaline, and before we knew it, we were all lost in ecstasy. It was getting late so I thought I'd better call Damian at Denny's to say good night. I went into the study and could still hear the music. I heard George Harrison say, `Here's my new song,' and he started playing `My Sweet Lord' for Eric, then everyone joined in. It was unbelievable. That gorgeous song could be heard all over the entire village at full volume. As I was talking to Denny on the phone, somebody walked into the study. I heard the door close, and he walked right up close to me. The mescaline was coming on, and I looked over and saw houndstooth trousers. The black and white fabric was undulating with psychedelia, and when I looked up, Mick was standing there. He knew exactly where I was; he had found me in that little room. The vibe was so intense. I told Denny I had to hang up and he said, `Why?' I said, `I just have to get off the phone,' and he said, `No, I don't want you to hang up.' I said, `I have to go now ... good-bye!' Music was filling the whole house, and when I hung up the phone, Mick just picked me up, pressed me against the wall, and started kissing me passionately."

While the band played on and the Eric/Pattie/George/Layla drama played itself out in the other room, Catherine was literally swept off her feet.

"Mick was unbelievably gorgeous, and I was instantly smitten. He kissed me hard as we slid down the wall, then we were on the floor, passionately making out. We went outside and walked around Eric's garden and found a little path that led to a trellis with a seat just big enough for the two of us, and we kissed for ages. We must have been gone a long time because when we got back to the house, a lot of people had left or gone to sleep. We went up to my room and made out until the sun came up.

"Mick called later that day and asked Eric and I to go see Stevie Wonder's concert with him. I dressed in my finest silk velvet and wore my silver platform boots covered in crescent moons and stars." After that night, they had several sweet latenight phone chats. "I started taking the train into London to see Mick. After a few dates I was finally going to spend the night at his house. It was his twenty-fifth birthday, and he had a huge party. Believe it or not, we were both nervous, and chatted in bed for half an hour before we even did anything. I thought `Oh my God, this is finally going to happen.' And of course, we had incredible sex."

Catherine gets up and mixes us another round of lime martinis. "I've been so lucky to experience this amazing life," she says with a giggle. "I know what the possibilities are." She takes a slow sip of her cocktail. "After about our fifth date, Mick asked me to move in."

Catherine transferred all her earthly possessions, including her adored toddler, from one rock god's estate to another. "Damian was about two years old and Mick loved him. He was so sweet with him. He'd show him magic tricks and say, `Where did you find Damian anyway? You must have found him under a mulberry bush!"

I imagine life must have been particularly sweet living with the most coveted rock star on the planet. "We walked around Chelsea, and he'd tell me about the architecture, the carriage houses, who once lived in this house or when that home was built. He taught me all about the Pre-Raphaelites. We'd go to fancy little restaurants for dinner that weren't on the map, places that nobody knew about. We'd stay home and listen to music, get high, and drink champagne. He'd put on a James Brown record and do his Mick Jagger dance for me. We listened to Stephen Stills, Gram Parsons, Clifton Chenier, and all those fabulous blues artists he loved."

But how long could this kind of ultimate rock and roll bliss last? "Two months after I moved in, the Stones were going on a European tour, starting in Brussels. While Mick was away, I decided to use my ticket to California that I'd had since I saw Eric at the Speakeasy. Before we left, Mick asked me to go to Paris for a little vacation, and we stayed at Johnny Halliday's house-he's the French Elvis-and we had a perfect time. Really, it was so lovely. Johnny had this beautiful house in the French countryside and we'd go out in the forest and search for rare truffles. At nighttime, we'd go to fabulous country inns and eat carpaccio. After our holiday, we were only at Cheyne Walk for one night, and when he kissed me good-bye to leave for the Stones' tour, I didn't even wake up all the way. I just stayed in bed and fell back asleep."

During what she thought was a brief stay in Los Angeles, Catherine started seeing disconcerting photos of Mick in the newspapers alongside a dusky, dark-haired dame who looked very much like the Stone himself. "At first, he called me a lot, then the calls came less, then they stopped altogether. I tried calling him to see if the tabloids were right, and she answered, `Hallooo.' I just put the phone down. I didn't take it that hard because we never really broke up. We didn't argue or anything. There was no discussion; it was just over." Bianca's presence certainly curtailed Mick's extracurricular activities, because the same thing happened to me when I called him right around that time. Bianca answered the phone and growled, "Don't you ever call here again."

If you don't count Catherine's occasional tete-a-tetes with Jimmy Page, she hasn't dated a musician since 1971. By then, she had experienced enough rock and roll to last several lifetimes. She decided to disappear to the country, taking Damian to live in a cottage in Connecticut where they spent the next seven years. "I've seen Jimmy, I've seen Denny, I've seen Jackson, but I haven't lived that rock and roll lifestyle since I was nineteen. I had smoked a ton of hash and did my share of LSD. I probably would have dropped dead if I'd kept it up. I moved to the middle of nowhere so I wouldn't get sidetracked. I gave things up for Damian because I wanted him to have a good life. I was asked to go to Paris to model but couldn't afford a nanny. I became a model with Wilhelmina in Manhattan out of necessity. I took the train into town and my son came with me." Amazingly, Catherine is now a grandma to Damian's son, sixteen-year-old John. "I speak to Damian every day. He's thirty-eight and still likes to talk about his unique childhood."

Jimmy Page took a couple of limo trips to Catherine's Brookfield hideaway, and in 1975, when I was doing the soap opera Search for Tomorrow in New York, I paid her a visit, bringing along a fellow from my acting class who later became her hus band. "Yes, thank you for ruining my life," she says wryly. "I spent six years with Joe, then five more with Steven, my very interesting British husband." Today she happily juggles her quartet of suitors with ingenuity and finesse. Catherine just isn't herself unless she has a couple of besotted swains dangling on the line.