PAMELA DES BARRES
Name: Pamela Ann Miller
Born: September 9, 1948
Pamela Des Barres aka Miss Pamela (born Pamela Ann Miller on September 9, 1948)
is a former rock and roll groupie, author, and magazine writer.
Des Barres was born in Reseda, California. Her mother was a housewife and
her father worked for Anheuser-Busch and occasionally worked as a gold miner.
She idolized the Beatles and Elvis Presley as a child, and fantasized about
meeting and dating her favorite Beatle, Paul McCartney.
A high school acquaintaince introduced Pamela to Don Van Vliet, better known as
Captain Beefheart, a musician and friend of Frank Zappa. Vliet in turn
introduced her to Charlie Watts and Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones, which drew
her to the rock music scene on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles. She started to
spend her time with The Byrds and other bands, and when she graduated from high
school in 1966, she took various jobs that would allow her to live near the
Sunset Strip and pursue relationships with rock musicians. She famously paired
up with Jim Morrison, Mick Jagger, Jimmy Page, Keith Moon Nick St. Nicholas,
Noel Redding, Chris Hillman, Gram Parsons, and actors Brandon de Wilde and Don
Johnson.
She was also a member of The GTOs, an all-girl singing group formed by Zappa.
The group started out as the Laurel Canyon Ballet Company, and began performing
as an opening act for Zappa and the Mothers of Invention. The group's act was
performance art, a mix of music and spoken word, since none of its members could
sing or play an instrument. They released an album, Permanent Damage in 1969,
backed by Zappa and Jeff Beck. The group dissolved a month after the album's
release because some of its members were arrested for drug possession.
In the 1970s Des Barres decided to pursue a career as an actress, and acted in a
few movies, including Zappa's 200 Motels, commercials, and a year acting on the
soap opera Search for Tomorrow in 1974. After a downturn in her acting career
she went to work as a nanny for Zappa's children, Dweezil and Moon Unit.
On October 29, 1977, she married Michael Des Barres who had been lead singer for
Detective (the first band signed to Led Zeppelin's Swan Song Records label),
Silverhead, and, briefly, for Power Station. They have a son, Nicholas Dean Des
Barres (GameFan magazine's Nick Rox), who was born on September 30, 1978. The
couple divorced in the summer of 1991, due to Michael Des Barres' alleged
infidelities.
Des Barres wrote two memoirs about her experience as a groupie, I'm with the
Band (1987) and Take Another Little Piece of My Heart: A Groupie Grows Up (1993),
as well as two other non-fiction books, Rock Bottom: Dark Moments in Music
Babylon and Let's Spend the Night Together: Backstage Secrets of Rock Muses and
Supergroupies (Chicago Review Press, 2007).
Des Barres currently writes articles for online and print publications. She has
also become an ordained minister and performs weddings. She is a breast cancer
survivor.
Name: Pamela Ann Miller
Born: September 9, 1948
Pamela Des Barres aka Miss Pamela (born Pamela Ann Miller on September 9, 1948)
is a former rock and roll groupie, author, and magazine writer.
Des Barres was born in Reseda, California. Her mother was a housewife and
her father worked for Anheuser-Busch and occasionally worked as a gold miner.
She idolized the Beatles and Elvis Presley as a child, and fantasized about
meeting and dating her favorite Beatle, Paul McCartney.
A high school acquaintaince introduced Pamela to Don Van Vliet, better known as
Captain Beefheart, a musician and friend of Frank Zappa. Vliet in turn
introduced her to Charlie Watts and Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones, which drew
her to the rock music scene on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles. She started to
spend her time with The Byrds and other bands, and when she graduated from high
school in 1966, she took various jobs that would allow her to live near the
Sunset Strip and pursue relationships with rock musicians. She famously paired
up with Jim Morrison, Mick Jagger, Jimmy Page, Keith Moon Nick St. Nicholas,
Noel Redding, Chris Hillman, Gram Parsons, and actors Brandon de Wilde and Don
Johnson.
She was also a member of The GTOs, an all-girl singing group formed by Zappa.
The group started out as the Laurel Canyon Ballet Company, and began performing
as an opening act for Zappa and the Mothers of Invention. The group's act was
performance art, a mix of music and spoken word, since none of its members could
sing or play an instrument. They released an album, Permanent Damage in 1969,
backed by Zappa and Jeff Beck. The group dissolved a month after the album's
release because some of its members were arrested for drug possession.
In the 1970s Des Barres decided to pursue a career as an actress, and acted in a
few movies, including Zappa's 200 Motels, commercials, and a year acting on the
soap opera Search for Tomorrow in 1974. After a downturn in her acting career
she went to work as a nanny for Zappa's children, Dweezil and Moon Unit.
On October 29, 1977, she married Michael Des Barres who had been lead singer for
Detective (the first band signed to Led Zeppelin's Swan Song Records label),
Silverhead, and, briefly, for Power Station. They have a son, Nicholas Dean Des
Barres (GameFan magazine's Nick Rox), who was born on September 30, 1978. The
couple divorced in the summer of 1991, due to Michael Des Barres' alleged
infidelities.
Des Barres wrote two memoirs about her experience as a groupie, I'm with the
Band (1987) and Take Another Little Piece of My Heart: A Groupie Grows Up (1993),
as well as two other non-fiction books, Rock Bottom: Dark Moments in Music
Babylon and Let's Spend the Night Together: Backstage Secrets of Rock Muses and
Supergroupies (Chicago Review Press, 2007).
Des Barres currently writes articles for online and print publications. She has
also become an ordained minister and performs weddings. She is a breast cancer
survivor.