Let's Spend the Night Together: Backstage Secrets of Rock Muses and Supergroupies (45 page)

There doesn't seem to be any difference between Pleather's adoring attitude toward his musical heroes and any of the female groupies I've interviewed. Can a man be a muse? Why the heck not?

"I grew up downstairs from Johnette Napolitano from Concrete Blonde. When I was eleven or twelve, her little sister was my babysitter. She was a musician, too-a typical '80s, stoner, burnout chick. I was a bit advanced for my age, and nature took its course. After that experience, I started chasing it. The only women I've ever been attracted to are musicians. Ever. I've never been attracted to normal people. Never. I've tried it, but there's always something missing."

I tell Pleather that I've given it the royal try as well, but always come back to the man on the pedestal, er, the stageperhaps because my daddy was bigger than life and seemingly unreachable.

"My relationship with my mother has completely formed and determined my life," Pleather says. "I was homeschooled, so we were always together and extremely close. She taught me how to play guitar, told me what books to read. She made me stay up late to watch great movies. She exposed me to everything about life and art. I had a strange grown-upness about me. I was reading by the time I was two. When I was six, I played guitar constantly. By the time I was eight, I could hang out with my parents' friends and talk on an intellectual level. My dad always worked, provided, did the dad thing. He was a drummer in two or three bands. So almost every night, he would go off and play. When I was ten, my parents formed a punk band, so I went to all their practices. This was '81 and still pretty groundbreaking. My mother plays guitar, bass, and keyboards, so from an early age I found myself relating to female musicians."

And which female band initiated Pleather into the mysteries of love? "The first all-girl band I had a real experience with was the Pandoras. They started as a garage band, then went into metal. I was fifteen. They were in their late twenties, and all too willing to have a plaything in their midst. Things got really crazy; they were very free and open-let's just say that. They were not shy and would engage in couplings anytime-wherever and whenever was fine. They would do each other while you did them, get another guy over, two in one, every permutation possible. I went on tour with them and was kind of their toy."

"On more than one occasion he coupled with the entire band," Drama adds.

"Yeah, that happened," Pleather concedes. "It's for the record."

"He's rock and roll's best-kept secret," Drama continues. "People don't realize that he is the greatest feminist, and if you're gonna have a Band-Aid you might as well have Pleather around. Sure, you can have sex on the tour bus, but what matters about Pleather is that he's the most intelligent male I've ever met. And he wears pink hot pants! But some female musicians are afraid of him, because he's known as THE male groupie." I can't tell if Pleather is pleased by this handy little factoid or a tad embarrassed.

"Growing up, I was too young to realize that female rockers were a novelty. I came of age when the Runaways, Joan Jett, Patti Smith, and Heart came out. After the Pandoras, I moved on to Pleasant Gehman's band, the Screamin' Sirens. I think Pleasant got a kick out of treating men the way she'd been treated. I got a sense that she was playing a role; she was so much smarter than the people she followed around. I always thought she was better than Darby Crash and had a lot more to say."

I assume that due to his reputation, Pleather usually didn't have much trouble corralling the most coveted rock chicks.

"His reputation is that he has the biggest dick in rock and roll," Drama purrs.

"Don't believe the hype," Pleather counters.

I'll bet a lot of Pleather's partners have been equally impressed with his musical knowledge and appreciation. "I've studied the history of music, and I think all the stuff men had to say ended with punk rock, and that's where women started. Anything meaningful to be said in rock music today is being said by women. I've always been chasing that; I want to be at the center of where it happens. In 1990, there was no band with more of a buzz than L7. You'd walk into a club they were playing, and it felt like the world was gonna explode. They really had something to say. They came onstage and it was ultimate power. I had my longest association with them. I was their support system for several years, but it became a traumatic experience because my emotions were played with. I went back and forth between three members of the band. And I really loved all of them simultaneously, loved them more than anything. I would still be with any member of L7. An unfortunate, unprotected accident occurredone of them got pregnant. That was my cue to be ushered out of that situation because they are like a coven. They talk about each other behind their backs, but when something comes into their world, they just close ranks. They wouldn't return my phone calls. They'd just walk past me. It was heartbreaking because I considered them my family-sisters, lovers, everything. So I said, `That's it, from now on I'm gonna be celibate. I'm not getting emotionally involved.'"

He didn't lose his heart, but Pleather soon wound up catering to another troubled rock waif, Inger Lorre from the Nymphs, who is mainly remembered for getting pissy with her A&R man. Her album was in the can for too long, and in what would soon become legendary in naughty rock behavior, she climbed up on the unfortunate fellow's desk and urinated all over it. "I'd bring Inger to Perry Farrell's house to score heroin and help her shoot up, which I know was beyond the call of duty. She was so talented, but in such physical, spiritual, and mental pain. Heroin was the only thing taking her away from that. We'd watch Drugstore Cowboy five times in a row. One afternoon, I woke up and her breathing was strangely slow, and I couldn't wake her up. I knew there was a short amount of time before she'd be dead, so I had to do the ice cube method up her bum. I ended up saving her life that day. That relationship lasted about six months, but it was obvious there was no saving her. She was one of those people that you had to do what she did, so I was doing heroin with her. But I wouldn't take as much and was somehow able to keep my faculties."

Did Pleather feel like it was his duty to accommodate and encourage the women in his life? "Of course. Jennifer Finch from L7 introduced me to Courtney Love and I immediately recognized that she was on another level; she was a poet. She would open for L7 and I'd have to coach her before and after every show. She'd say, `I'm just not as good as L7.' I'd tell her, `You don't understand, you're gonna be huge, you're the next Patti Smith or Madonna. You're gonna be an icon!' When I knew her she was humble, and I think she's carried that through. I spent time with her when she was on the outs with her guitar player, Eric. They had an on-and-off relationship and he didn't care what she did because he knew he couldn't control her. He worshipped her too. But she put herself down. She gave it up to men. She doesn't believe she's as talented as she is, and she let Kurt, Billy Corgan, Trent Reznor influence her too much. All she needs to do is follow her artistic instincts. I did wind up with Courtney, but it was more of a friendship/love thing. I thought she was great, and I slept with her, but it was all in fun. I hate to say it, but she was pretty normal in bed. She wasn't wild. I don't know, maybe I'm wild, but she was nothing in comparison to the Pandoras-real Hollywood sleaze all the way. But I have nothing bad to say about Courtney. I think she was the bee's knees.

"Later, two of the Pandoras went on to form the Muffs, a band that destroyed themselves because of their egos. I was with Kim Shattuck for a while. What everybody thinks about Courtney was true about Kim; she'd completely destroy everyone around her for her own ego. No human feelings, just a robot."

Despite promises he made to himself about keeping his emotions in check, Pleather careened down the rock and roll rabbit hole again in 1992. "I fell in love completely with Carla Bozu- lich, the lead singer of the Geraldine Fibbers. I love brains and creative spirit. She was everything I'd ever looked for and I'm still looking for-the love of my life without a doubt. So, Carla and I started out as friends, and it turned out to be the longest courtship I ever had. I chased her, which I wasn't used to doing. She was a tortured genius, totally screwed up, just the way I like 'em. She needed lots of help, and I like helping."

"He likes 'em cra-zee," Drama chimes in.

"I just wanted to facilitate, so she didn't have to deal with the world. I wanted to remove anything placed between her and her creativity. I worshipped the ground she walked on. I kept the circus rolling, and for a while it worked." The ill-fated romance lasted just over two years before Carla found someone else. "That was the worst," Pleather moans. "I've dealt with deaths in the family, and it wasn't anywhere near the amount of pain I experienced losing Carla. That was the only time I found myself standing on the overpass with one foot on and one foot dangling. I went into a three-year hermetic time-no sex, no relationships. I worked as a clerk in a bookstore, I read my books and started writing. I didn't even go out."

For cathartic reasons, Pleather started writing a book, I'm with the Girl Band. "I was going to check with you, to see if it would be all right," Pleather insists. I assure him that I'd be first in line to buy it.

From the time he was fifteen, and during his rocky relationships, Pleather played guitar in several local bands. "Yeah, I always had my own bands while I followed everyone else, but I never put any value on my music. For me it was all about them. But after my hermetic period, I said, 'OK, this is it, I'm focusing on other people too much, I'm gonna do my own thing.'" But when he put an ad in the paper, seeking "female friendly" musicians, he wound up being the only guy in his new group. "I had that band, Roller Girl, for a few years and fell in love with Rosanna the drummer, which pretty much destroyed my life again." Pleather sighs. "She was also in a goth band, and I became their aide, did everything for them. Then she joined Switchblade Kittens, and I met Drama. That was three years ago."

"He ended up breaking up with that drummer, then he married our next drummer. In fact, he's dated, lived with, or married all of our drummers," Drama adds. When I inquire as to how many drummers the Switchblade Kittens have gone through, Drama's answer cracks me up. "Seventeen! Seventeen psycho drummer girls that Pleather has tried to save."

"You're kidding me, right?" I marvel, "This is beginning to sound like Spinal Tap!" Pleather laughs heartily, "Yes! They spontaneously combust and then it's over! Seriously, taking care of a drummer is a full time job. Here's the fundamental differ ence I see between male and female groupies: all the women I've known just want to be talked to. They want someone to listen. I've always been empathetic. I like to listen and I like to help. I don't think most men put much stock in that. In a lot of ways, I think they just want to use women."

"You can be a successful woman in rock and don't have to resort to getting back at men," Drama says, "and some women have done that to Pleather."

"That's exactly what has happened," he agrees. "But I still refuse to hold it against any of them. Anyway, when I go out these days, I'm just there to be who I am. I'm there to be seen and make an impression-to be fabulous."