These stories are the stuff of music history legend;they become mythologized, and some are even completely fabricated, like Robert Johnson’s crossroads meeting with the devil. Some of them are true.
'Mama' Cass choking on a sandwich
When 'Mama' Cass Elliot died in her London flat in 1974 at the age of 32, a hasty postmortem suggested she had choked on her own vomit while chomping a sandwich in bed. At 5' 5" and 240 pounds, it was easy to believe that - like a female version of Monty Python's Mr Creosote - Elliot had simply gambled on one mouthful too many. Not so. The coroner's report after her death concluded that Cass died of massive heart failure, brought on by obesity and the strains of crash dieting. Though a sandwich may well have been found at her bedside, the autopsy revealed no evidence of food in her trachea. Tragically, it appears she died peckish.(the guardian.com)
Keith richards blood transfusion
Keen to clean up for a European tour, Richards reportedly replaced his poisoned old claret with an infusion of healthy blood in a Swiss clinic in September 1973. In reality, it was probably only haemodialysis, which filters impurities from the bloodstream. 'Someone asked me how I cleaned up, so I said I had my blood completely changed,' Richards said. 'I was fucking sick of answering that question, so I gave them a story.'
Sid Vicious
Punk romantics believe that Sid's mum scattered his ashes over Nancy's grave in Philadelphia. It's more likely that Ma Vicious arrived back at Heathrow with his remains. Malcolm McLaren claims she knocked them over in the arrivals lounge; hence the fanciful myth that Sid's essence still circulates, wafting through the air vents and moving among the travellers.
"John Lennon and George Hrrison never, never, ever saw comletely eye to eye. That's why George always shared Paul's mike. The Beatles to John were he and Paul. John lived 30 miles outside London. Paul lived next door to Abbey Road, so Paul used to pop in whenever he felt it. Walked in barefoot anytime, day or night. For John to do something he had to get a chauffeur come pick him up. And he was a lazy lad." (Tony Bramwell, lifelong Beatles friend from Liverpool)
Art Garfunkel, grilled by Lennon in 1975:
"Incredibly disarmingly, he said to me, 'Artie, you worked with your Paul recently. I'm getting calls from New Orleans that my Paul wants to work with me and I'm thinking about it, and I don't know. How did it go when you worked with Paul?' I said, 'John, remember that there was a musical blend that was a great kick. if you can return to the fun of that sound and the musical happenings with your old buddy, and ignore the strands of complication and history, what I found with my Paul is the harmony and the shound happenings are a full agenda and they'll keep you busy and you'll have fun.' [Did he seem like he wanted to get back together with McCartney?]
Liv Tyler (true)
A model, singer and November 1974's Playboy Playmate of the Month, Bebe Buell never identified herself as a groupie, but she hooked up with rock stars ranging from Mick Jagger and David Bowie to Elvis Costello and Iggy Pop. She also sits at the center of rock's most famous baby-daddy love quadrant. From 1972 to 1979, Buell lived with Todd Rundgren, and in 1977 she had a baby girl, christened Liv Rundgren. Years later, it was revealed that the baby's real father was Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler, and in 1991 Buell's daughter changed her name … to Liv Tyler.
Cynthia "Plaster Caster" (true)
We all have hobbies—stamp collecting, bird watching, whatever. But in the late '60s, Cynthia "Plaster Caster" Abritton took up a truly unique pastime—making plaster casts of rock stars' erect penises. Her first subject was Jimi Hendrix (when that cast cracked, she named it "the Venus de Milo"). She later hung with Frank Zappa, Eric Clapton and Keith Moon and inspired the 1977 Kiss song "Plaster Caster." Abritton, who describes herself on her official website as a "recovering groupie," ran for mayor of Chicago in 2010.
