Venice Beach teen Dee Dee Keel was desperate to find out what was happening behind the scenes, in the clubs and hotel rooms of Hollywood: so she tracked an intriguing local rocker, Jim Morrison, on his way to the Strip. That’s where she first saw Miss Pamela in all her groupie glamour. By 1969, Pamela Des Barres was no longer a Valley teenybopper; she had transformed into a rock icon-in-the-making. Her freaky clique of Laurel Canyon sprites were ordained by Frank Zappa to become the world’s first all-girl band of all-girl groupies, the GTOs. Soon, they had the likes of the Flying Burrito Brothers, the Who, and Led Zeppelin taking notice, just as Rolling Stone dedicated an entire issue to the groupie phenomenon and made the GTOs its centerfold.
KCRW
