Rock Stars: Bowie, Page and Iggy’s Baby Groupies

To many fans David Bowie was more than a musical icon. His influence is felt throughout the arts and there is a general agreement that despite his immense fame and wealth he was a very good man who did not fit the model of celebrities hiding vain and spiteful personalities.

However, what should we think of the many reports of his time with the famous “Baby Groupies” of the rock heartland in Los Angeles’ Sunset Strip? These teenage girls passed into music legend for partying with the rock gods of the ’70s when barely out of school.

Now in her mid-50s, Lori Mattix was one of the scene’s biggest names along with her late friend Sable Starr, the “Queen of the Baby Groupies” Pop Stars In 2015 Mattix gave an interview to Thrillest with a title that few people could lay claim to. “I lost my virginity to David Bowie”

She was 14 at the time, she said.

While her account has not been legally tested there is no doubt of her role among the “Baby Groupies”, who partied with ’70s stars like Led Zeppelin and Bowie’s later musical collaborator Iggy Pop. The real question is how society can treat these stars as heroes while being well aware of these apparent cases of statutory rape, where a sexual partner is under the age of consent regardless of whether “consent” was given.

Lori Mattix’s Story

In her interview Mattix justified her 10-year involvement with Bowie when asked what her mother thought. “My older sister was fucking lowriders and surfers. My dad was deceased. I was with rock stars.”

While this account is nearly impossible to verify it is widely known that other stars did have illegal relationships in the Sunset Strip, including well documented encounters with the most famous Baby Groupie, Sable Starr.

In the lyrics to his song “Look Away” Iggy Pop paid homage to Starr as late as 1996. “I slept with Sable when she was 13, her parents were too rich to do anything, she rocked her way around L.A, ’til a New York Doll carried her away…”

(Image from left to right: Sable Starr, Iggy Pop and Lori Mattix)

Weeks after her alleged encounter with Bowie, Mattix became acquainted with the Hounslow-born guitarist Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, which was then deemed the greatest rock band in the world. He was so infatuated with her he even asked Mattix’s mother for consent to be with her daughter.

Nevertheless, the pressure on the band and management to keep the relationship secret meant Mattix was apparently frequently locked in whatever hotel the band was using. This relationship is far better documented with photographs of Page with the extremely young-looking teenager (left).

The Questions

The overall argument of Lori Mattix’s account is that statutory rape shouldn’t apply to two consenting individuals. She repeatedly contrasts Bowie’s courtesy to her with the unhappy relationships she believes she would have faced before reaching the age of consent in a more normal life.

It is not clear just when Bowie, who as then 26, would have become aware of her age as there were few ID checks at gig after-parties. Nevertheless he must surely have known at some point in the reported 10-year liason.

The counter argument is simply to point to California’s definition of statutory rape: that someone under the age of 18 cannot be responsible for their actions in the same way that someone in their mid-20s can be.

Why have these rock stars been immune to the investigations of historical rape allegations known as “Operation Yewtree”, many of which centred on celebrities exploiting star-struck youngsters who went along with their own abuse? Perhaps we should ask how many wealthy stars now struggle to sleep knowing the kind of accusations, real or false, that could be dug up and held against them. What if a groupie who “consented” 40 years ago was to point out now that she had been unable to give that consent due to her minor age?

To continue romanticising this era of moral and legal lapse is an even greater social failing now that we have been through the uncomfortable learning experience of Yewtree and the ugly process of seeing men like Jimmy Savile and Rolf Harris for what they really are. Despite Mattix’s repeated descriptions of Bowie as a “god” it now seems likely that he too fell for the self-indulgences and hypocricy of celebrity, allowing his base desires to bring down a starman.

Stewart Vickers @VickHellfire

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