Let's Spend the Night Together: Backstage Secrets of Rock Muses and Supergroupies (58 page)

"When I first met you at the Continental Hyatt, Robert and Jimmy had been talking about you and how important the GTO's were. So when you showed up and were so nice and appreciative of the same things I loved as a fan, it was like, `Here's royalty.' You were a rock star in your own way, but so approachable and so much about loving the music. And you cannot discount the fact that they set the tone about how to view you. Pennie Lane in Portland was another person who treated me like a mascot and had a group of girls around her she called Band Aids. She had a blow job club, which was, `We don't sleep with the guys. We only give 'em blow jobs. That way we have mystery, yet we're still serving the cause.'"

It sounds as if Cameron had respect for the dolls he met while interviewing musicians on the road. "I did admire groupies. Some of the guys mistreated them and that always hurt to watch. I dug them because they were friendly to me. My mom skipped me grades, and the girls at school were very cruel about me being younger. Later on, when I met musicians I'd written about over the years, the coin of the currency seemed to be, `Have you spoken to so-and-so? How's Michelle?' They wouldn't even ask about the guys in their own band. They'd ask, `Have you spoken to her?' It would be the girl who'd been there when I was interviewing them."

He had long wanted to tell his tale of traveling with the bands, but it took the massive success of Jerry Maguire to convince the moguls to let Cameron make his very personal movie. "I think they assumed that the next thing I did might be more overtly commercial, but I truly believed that the story could be universal-because it was about a family."

For some people, the term "groupie" has become synonymous with "whore" or "gold digger." The girls I've met love the Penny Lane character because she expresses the qualities of groupiedom they relate to-purity and love of music. They see her as the real thing. Almost Famous has certainly struck a major chord with groupies, and it's done well on DVD, but it flopped at the box office. "That's OK," Cameron insists. "When you tell me how it's captured a feeling for real people-the groupies and rockers-that's why I did it. To capture that amazing feeling."

Cameron seems surprised when I tell him that many modern groupies call themselves Band Aids. "If that term empow ers someone, whether she calls herself a groupie-which to me doesn't have a stigma-or a Band Aid, then fire any arrow you want at the movie, and I'll regard it with amusement. I love that the opportunity wasn't missed to create a hero of the muse."

I understand why the Penny character insisted she had "retired." I felt the same way when the pubescent upstart groupies descended on the scene. "I remember reading about that in your first book," Cameron says. "The newer wave of groupies who had sharp teeth, and a 'GI Jills at war' thing going on. They didn't love the music as much as the spotlight and the trappings. And they were tough with each other."

Since I've been talking to groupies who are hanging out with bands right now, Cameron is curious, "Is there still the ethic of the blow job being safer than having actual intercourse sex?" I remember how differently Tina and Sarah felt about giving head and tell Cameron it still seems to be an individual choice. "One of them wouldn't give a blow job and the other one, that's all she'd do!"

In between my Almost Famous inquiries, Cameron and I have been reminiscing about old Hollywood friends, like the late Michele Myer who once said, "We know our limits-and there are none." We also speak fondly of our favorite male groupie, Rodney Bingenheimer.

When I ask if he liked the documentary Mayor of the Sunset Strip, Cameron shakes his head, "I never got Rodney's love of music in that film. I get it from your books. I get it from an Al Green documentary, just Al sitting in a studio with a guitar, telling stories. But in that solemn portrait of a lonely man being used by the girlfriend? Sure, it's true, but what about the joy? To me, Rodney's not somebody to be used to inspire sympathy. He's a hero for not trying to get money for all the bands he broke. He's a hero. He never took the stupid job and tried to capitalize on what he'd done. He did it out of true fandom. And that's the spirit of Penny Lane. She's not in a crumpled heap by the side of the road. She's more rock than the band, and that was always the point. There's a scene in the director's cut of Almost Famous where Billy Crudup talks about, `When you get a little bit of success, your career becomes about maintaining the lifestyle.' So many of those guys trail off into the world of lifestyle maintenance. And who's left knowing what it's truly about?"

I know the answer: "The girl on the side of the stage!" Cameron smiles, "Exactly. That girl. She is still there. And she'll always be there. I wanted the whole movie to be about that feeling, and the celebration of that feeling. The girl off to the side of the stage is the keeper of the flame."

"I need to see you face to face because I'm never as good as when you're there, and I can see myself the way you look at me."

-RUSSELL HAMMOND TO PENNY LANE IN ALMOST FAMOUS