Decades before The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and the current crop of Reality TV stars, an enterprising California girl could earn her fifteen minutes of fame on the Sunset Strip. Her options?
A. billboard celebrity
B. hooker
C. rock & roll groupie
Llana Lloyd chose groupie. And in 1974, that meant Glam Rock groupie. And partying with people like David Bowie, Alice Cooper, Iggy Pop and members of The New York Dolls.
"I had a fame addiction," says Lloyd.
"And to be attractive enough, to have them choose you over all these other women... it's a crown on your head. And all these people who were just fans... they'll never know what it feels like."
Lloyd shared her groupie experiences in the docu-drama Glitter Goddess: Queen of the Sunset Strip. And not only played herself and her mother, but incorporated home movie footage, and clips from talk shows (including an interview by a young Oprah Winfrey). And despite its low budget, this cult classic might come closer to portraying this era than anything Hollywood has yet to offer.
"I saw The Banger Sisters a few years back. Goldie Hawn and Susan Sarandon were supposed to be ex-groupies. But I thought it was a poor portrayal of groupie-ism. I didn't see any true escapades. No competitiveness. It was like two groupies who talked like groupies, but never were groupies."
One part of the movie that Lloyd can relate to, though, is how they depicted the gentrification of the Sunset Strip. In the movie, Hawn's character works at the Whisky A Go-Go, and gets fired for drinking on the job. Which wouldn't have been a deal breaker forty years ago.
"All these places, Whiskey A Go-Go, The Roxy, The Rainbow Room... they're totally corporate now. Like the Hard Rock Cafe. But back then, the owners of the clubs allowed us to take drugs inside. I mean, the parking lots... a bunch of druggies waiting to get laid after closing time, or looking for the next party. We called it Sleaze & Disease on the Sunset Strip."
And back then, the music meant something too.
"Whiskey A Go-Go... a lot of the great bands got their start there. It was Iggy Pop slicing himself with broken glass. Everyone trying to create a new gimmick. That's also where I met the keyboardist from The Doors, Ray Manzarek."
According to Lloyd, one person who did get it right is Pamela Des Barres, author of I'm With The Band.
"Of course, I'm several years younger, but yeah, I have a lot of respect for her. She was a groupie addict. She was hardcore. And she puts the dirt in her books. She kept her diaries."
Lloyd kept diaries too. And still has all but one of them.
"I was making a call. In a phone booth. And got robbed. Some guys came in and took my purse. It contained the diary covering my time with John Lennon. Fortunately, it's all still in my mind. I remember everything."
One night in the '70s, Lloyd went home with John Lennon, expecting a night of bliss. And while she did end up sleeping with his friend, Lennon himself watched from the sidelines.
"He took my goddamn picture. Actually, he orchestrated the entire event. Told us what positions to get into. Posed us. But never laid a hand on me. The man turned out to be a real voyeur. Not that I was complaining. After all, I was still in a room with a Beatles superstar. But you'd think that the man who wrote and performed Jealous Guy would have wanted a bigger part of the bedroom action."