Wonder what happened to the Hell’s Angel that was accused of murdering Meredith Hunter at Altamont? I have posted the newspaper article that will tell you..and I also have page 2 of that article.
Hell’s Angel Allan Passaro
August 18th, 2010
Albert Maysles
August 18th, 2010
I just met with Albert Maysles while he was in LA for the Emmy’s. Grey Gardens tied the record for most nominations for a TV movie (17)and won 6 Emmy’s including Best TV Movie. After the success of GIMME SHELTER, in the ’70′s, Albert expressed his artistic side when he said that even though GIMME SHELTER was a commercial success for he and his brother, David, he would have preferred that people saw the documentary art that was exhibited in their earlier films, SALESMAN and GREY GARDENS. It took forty years for people to see..but better late than never..
Ondines after Ed Sullivan
August 18th, 2010An investigation into the death of Brian Jones has been reopened in the UK. In light of that I wanted to highlight a picture of Brian in happier times. You will note that Brian’s hand is bandaged. This happened as we were going to the Ed Sullivan Show to record their appearance where we battled over the words to “Let’s Spend the Night Together”. Our limo took us to the stage door in back of the theater, unfortunately, it was locked and as the fans came rushing to where we were, we ran to the front of the theater. The front doors were glass and locked as well. In moments before the guards could get us in, the mob pushed forward and pushed Brian through a glass panel where his hand was cut. The photo was taken my Tom Monaster and it is all of us at Ondine’s in NY. Ondine’s was a great club where we watched Jimi Hendrix perform. Mick is observing one of our road managers prepare something that was cool then….and it isn’t coke..I’ll leave you to ponder and guess..
European Tour 1970
August 18th, 2010
For another first – a European Tour experience: When we were in Paris, we had a few days rest period while we were staying at the George V Hotel. The wives / girlfriends spent a lot of time shopping and found out that you could buy things at the designers and have it sent to the hotel where the consierge would pay for them and add them to the hotel bill. I believe the bill was over $50,000 (a billion dollars in today’s money) and we had to come up with a way to pay for it. At the time, the Stones record deal with Decca was coming to an end and there were rumors that the Stones were leaving. I contacted Decca and said that it would be nice if they picked up our Paris hotel bill. They did 
but it didn’t help as the Stones went to Atlantic..
and here is the Rolling Stones office European Tour letterhead …for those that care..
Karate Kid?
August 18th, 2010When people get a hit of adrenaline, they get super powers. You have no idea of how strong a teenage girl can get with that adrenaline. An airport tarmac comes to mind.. after a wild, mad chase to the airport, we got out of the limo, when a girl that had been with a group that was chasing us, ran over and grabbed the middle post between the front and rear door–she did this to avoid being pulled away from us..it took 5 big men to pull her hands off that post.
One of these times, as we got to our charter airplane, a large group of fans (mostly girls) that had followed us to the small airport, grabbed Mick prior to climbing up the drop down stairway to the airplane. We kept screaming at Mick to protect himself as we battled thru the fans…It was humorous (Mick kept assuming karate poses–flailing the air and as he wouldn’t hurt a flea as he was trying to intimidate to no avail). Security finally pulled the girls off Mick and he did lose some clothes and hair..
A few times, as we exited slowly from a garage, a fan would jump onto the back of the limo trunk and grab on for dear life..they would basically spread eagle and grab the two sides of the back window and hang on.. the driver would try and drive away before we were ascended upon by the mobs..sometimes they picked up speed to get away and the fan would still be hanging on at 40 miles an hour…by the way, these were female fans…..never had an accident with them but it was scary for many reasons..
This will be the first time.
August 18th, 2010Going through my files I found this Polaroid that was taken aboard a press junket for the Rolling Stones. We cruised around Manhattan and the image is of the front of the boat with Mick, Keith and I conversing..
A SEX story..
August 18th, 2010Forty years ago Denmark was branded the country with the most liberated society on Earth as there was no censorship. We were in Copenhagen for awhile, using that location as our base for touring Scandinavia. I had this idillyc idea that we were in a place were sex was beautiful without guilt and the judgement of society and with that thought in mind we, in this instance meaning the married couples and not the Stones, went to a ‘sex’ club. It was like any nightclub, people dancing, drinking, sitting at tables and then the announcement that the show would begin and to all look to the center of the dance floor. A bed dropped down from the ceiling onto the middle of the dance floor. An announcement was made, which we would learn later to be–’tonight was Thursday and it was S & M night’.. A woman came out in a little ‘nighty’, jumped on the bed and shortly began playing with various vibratrors and herself. A man in an black outfit and mask came out and I noticed that a lot of the women that were walking around as hostesses disappeared. He pulled out a cat of nine tails and began whipping her. The first thing that all of us thought was that it was a fake and even when we saw blood, we figured it was fake as well. After awhile we realized that even if it was fake..it had to hurt. They had sex and then the man carried the woman off and as they passed, we saw the welts on her and realized, it wasn’t fake. (So much for love, beauty, romance and the lack of Victorian rules–it was hardcore, for money). After they left, the hostesses came back and I asked one of them what was going on.. she said that a lot of the hostesses couldn’t stand to watch but that the woman featured, loved it and was pissed that she had to wait a week between shows. She was forced to wait until her bruises healed.. So much for all our beautiful ain’t sex grand illusions.. At the sex club I found that they did a traveling show . As a surprise for Mick, I hired an act to go to his room at the hotel one night (not S &M). I remember this because at about 1:30AM there was a knock on my hotel room door and it was Mick..he wanted some money to keep the show going..!!
Hugh Hefner- Owes Me
August 16th, 2010
As I was recently walking in Holmby Hills and passed the Playboy mansion, I recalled that according to Hef’s assistant in 1969, he owed me! During the 1969 Rolling Stones tour, I got an ‘emergency’ phone call from Playboy. I was begged for 4 tickets to the Stones concert for Hef, as all dates were sold out. I was able to deliver and was told at that time that “Hef owes you big”. I never bothered to collect but was tempted to ask him if he remembered any of it when I was at a restaurant in LA (they have a bucking bull ride). Hugh and the girls were surrounded by security at the table and I thought better about approaching and having to go into the story.
Horse back riding with Keith
August 9th, 2010When I first met the Stones (there is a polaroid on my site of the first time we got together), I was living with a roommate in a studio apartment next to Weequahic Park in New Jersey. It was close to the Newark Airport and all the ‘stewardesses’ stayed there. Keith came out to visit with his girlfriend (I think it was Linda Keith) and swam at the apartment swimming pool (he had the longest hair that anyone there had ever seen) and came up to the top of the building to hang out and watch the sunset. Keith was and I would assume, very cool. I had many great, exciting, scary, funny, etc. experiences with him.. He was someone that you want on your side.
When we were in Dallas, he said that he wanted to go horseback riding.. We had this image of just going up the road a bit and going riding.. well, we had to drive quite awhile out of Dallas before we got to a real ranch and spent the day riding..when we arrived for a date in Phoenix, we went horseback riding there as well. It was great to go from the grassy fields, to the desert with the cactus and then up mountains that seemed to be made from black sharp rocks. The stable insisted that we go with a guide and sent a girl with us..:-) We only wanted to gallop and race each other, which she did not like. At one point she insisted that we ‘stay put’ as she had to go to the bathroom, she rode a distance from us, got off her horse and squatted in the desert. When we saw her disappear, that seemed to be the starter’s pistol we needed to charge our horses in her direction. Scared the piss out of her or boy was she pissed.. She made us walk our horses to cool them down when we got back to the stable and was glad to see us go.. which leads me to
.After the last date in California, our pilot said that he was dead heading the plane back to the east coast and if we wanted a ‘lift’ he would take us and drop us off anywhere along the return route. Keith said he had made some calls and he wanted to go to Scottsdale, Arizona where he had set up an overnight ride and he invited me and Gered Mankowitz (our photographer for that tour). There are a lot of pics of this on my site..from a bobcat stealing bacon at the camp, waking up to him being shot at, my horse deciding to roll over in the water while I was on him, us wearing chaps, having Winchester rifles, I think Keith had a custom made 45 revolver that Lou Adler loaned him to play with, shooting our hats, wearing these outfits with the rifles to the airport..they kept the guns outside the pilots cabin…and did I mention that the cowboy in the pics that went with us was John Wayne’s guide for his westerns…I believe he also worked with John Ford..
That was the kind of guy the Keith I knew was..also..he loved and collected derringers and once shot one that came thru my motel room wall, as he said …ron, it was floor lever by the base board, sorry didn’t think it would go thru…
Yikes, where are my guns?
John Lennon/Yoko Ono and the Montreal Bed In
August 5th, 2010While in a discussion about John and the bed in-I found this on wikipedia…:
During the Vietnam War, in 1969, John Lennon and Yoko Ono held two week-long Bed-Ins for Peace in Amsterdam and Montreal, which were their non-violent ways of protesting wars and promoting peace.
Montreal Bed-in
Their second Bed-In was planned to take place in New York, but John was not allowed into the country because of his 1968 cannabis conviction. Instead they held the event in the Bahamas at the Sheraton Oceanus Hotel, flying there on May 24, 1969, but after spending one night in the heat, they decided to move to Montreal. Setting the record straight: I couldn’t go with them to the Bahamas and sent a friend of mine from Miami to go with them. I thought all was going well until I contacted my friend who came back the next day from the Bahamas. He said that John and Yoko had set up a bed at the foot of the stairs in the room but didn’t like the looks they were getting from the staff at the hotel. Based on the weird vibe they felt..they left for Canada…
Had nothing to do with the heat..they had air conditioning..