Sable Starr
Sable Starr (born Sable Hay Shields) (August 15, 1957 – April 18, 2009) was a noted American groupie, often described as "queen of the groupie scene" in Los Angeles during the early 1970s. She admitted during an interview published in the June 1973 edition of Star Magazine that she was closely acquainted with Robert Plant, Mick Jagger, Rod Stewart, Alice Cooper, David Bowie, and Marc Bolan.[1] She also had love affairs with Iggy Pop, Richard Hell, and Johnny Thunders of the New York Dolls.[2][3][4]
Iggy Pop wrote a song "Look Away" about Sable and her romance with Thunders as well as his own affair with her. It appears on his 1996 album Naughty Little Doggie.
Life as a groupie
Sable was born in the affluent Los Angeles County, California suburb of Palos Verdes on 15 August 1957.[2][5] She had an older sister, Corel, who also dated Iggy Pop.[3] She became one of the first "baby groupies" who in the early 1970s frequented the Rainbow Bar and Grill, the Whiskey A Go Go, and Rodney Bingenheimer's English Disco; these were trendy nightclubs on West Hollywood's Sunset Strip. The Continental Hyatt House hotel was another popular spot for Sable and her fellow groupies as many touring rock musicians regularly stayed there during their stops in Los Angeles.
The girls were named as such because of their young age. She got started after a friend invited her to the Whiskey A Go Go at the age of 14.[4] Sable later described herself at that period as having been "nuts to begin with. I always liked getting into trouble".[4] She had considered herself unattractive so had her nose fixed when she was 15.[4] During the time Sable was carrying on with her groupie antics, she continued to live at home with her family and attended Palos Verdes High School to placate her parents.[6][7]
In 1973 she gave a candid interview for the short-lived Los Angeles-based Star Magazine, and boasted to the journalist that she considered herself to be "the best" of all the local groupies.[6] She also claimed that she was closely acquainted with some of rock music's leading musicians such as Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, Mick Jagger, Rod Stewart, Marc Bolan, and Alice Cooper, adding that her favourite rock star acquaintance was Led Zeppelin's lead singer, Robert Plant.[1] When asked how she attracted the attention of the musicians, she maintained it was because of the outrageous glam rock clothing she habitually wore.[8] Sable was often photographed alongside well-known rock musicians; these photos appeared in American rock magazines such as Creem, Phonograph Record and Rock Scene.
Sable admitted to having got into fights with rival groupies and she allegedly had a confrontation with Bianca Jagger, who at the time was married to Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger. According to Sable, she knocked on Bianca's hotel room and when the latter opened the door she was told "in a few four-letter words to 'get lost'".[1] Her closest friends in Los Angeles were fellow groupies, Lori Maddox and "Queenie",[9] whilst established groupie Pamela Des Barres lovingly referred to Sable as a "hideous tartlet", who "thought she invented nipples and pubic hair".[10] Model Bebe Buell described Sable as having been one of the two top Los Angeles groupies of the era adding that "every rock star who came to Los Angeles wanted to meet her".[4]
She ran away from home when she was 16 after meeting Johnny Thunders, guitarist in the glam rock band, the New York Dolls.[5] She went to live with him in New York City; however their relationship didn't last, mainly due to his violent jealousy and drug addiction.[11] He had wanted to marry her after she became pregnant with his child, but she refused and instead had an abortion.[12] Tired of the physical abuse Thunders often inflicted upon her, and unable to adjust to the New York lifestyle, Sable moved back to Los Angeles. She claimed that "He [Thunders] tried to destroy my personality. After I was with him, I just wasn't Sable Starr anymore. He really destroyed the Sable Starr thing".[12] She often made frequent visits to New York where she had an affair with Richard Hell and participated in the local burgeoning punk rock scene; however, by the early 1980s, she was no longer part of the groupie milieu.[11]
Later years and death
She later transferred to Reno, Nevada where she worked for a number of years as a blackjack dealer at a casino. She married and had two children, Christian and Donnay.[2]
Iggy Pop wrote a song about her and Thunders entitled Look Away. It appears on his 1996 album Naughty Little Doggie, and also refers to his own love affair with Sable.[2]
Sable died at her home in Nevada on April 18, 2009 of brain cancer at the age of 51. [2]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Sunset Strip Groupies". Star Magazine. #5 June 1973. Los Angeles: Petersen Publishing. p.61
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Thompson, Elise (21 April 2011). "Sable Starr has Left the Scene 1958-2009". LAist. Retrieved 18 July 2011.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Ambrose, Joe (2002). Gimme Danger: the story of Iggy Pop. Omnibus Press. Chapter 12
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 McNeil, Legs, McCain, Gillian (1996). Please Kill Me: the Uncensored Oral History of Punk. New York: Grove Press. p.137
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 McNeil, Legs, McCain, Gillian (1996). Please Kill Me: the Uncensored Oral History of Punk. New York: Grove Press. p.150-151
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Sunset Strip Groupies". Star Magazine. #5 June 1973. p.60
- ↑ McNeil, Legs, McCain, Gillian (1996). Please Kill Me: the Uncensored Oral History of Punk. New York: Grove Press.p.139
- ↑ "Sunset Strip Groupies". Star Magazine. #5 June 1973 pp.60-61
- ↑ "Sunset Strip Groupies". Star Magazine. #5 June 1973. pp.59-61.
- ↑ Des Barres, Pamela (1987). I'm With the Band: Confessions of a Groupie. New York: Beech Tree Books (William Morrow and Company). p.287
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 McNeil, Legs, NcCain, Gillian (1996). Please Kill Me: the Uncensored History of Punk. New York. Grove Press. pp.151-154
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 McNeil, Legs, McCain, Gillian (1996). Please Kill Me: the Uncensored Oral History of Punk. New York: Grove Press. p.153