From David Bowie To Jimmy Page, Lori Maddox Was Rock N’ Roll’s Most Notorious – And Underage – Groupie

Published March 2, 2018
Updated November 6, 2024

Lori Maddox was obsessed with sex, drugs, and rock and roll, and they were just as obsessed with her – despite the fact that she was just 14 years old.

Lori Maddox With Led Zeppelin

Michael Ochs Archives/Getty ImagesLori Maddox, far right, with Led Zeppelin, and fellow baby groupie Sable Starr, far left.

In 1970s Los Angeles, you were hard-pressed to find someone who wasn’t either a groupie or someone who wanted to be.

The lifestyle was one people fantasized about: leaving home, living on busses, following legendary rock stars from city to city and getting just the faintest glimpse into their lavish lifestyles. Not everyone could handle it, and those who could become almost as famous as the stars. One, in particular, was Lori Maddox.

The only problem? Lori Maddox was just 14 years old.

Despite being underage, Maddox maintained sexual relationships with some of the music industry’s biggest stars, from David Bowie to Mick Jagger. This is her story.

The Early Life And Transition To Becoming The One Of The Music World’s Biggest Groupie

Rainbow Bar And Grill

Robert Landau / Alamy Stock PhotoThe Rainbow Bar and Grill on the Sunset Strip where Lori Maddox and other groupies frequently met with celebrities.

Lori Maddox was born on November 29, 1958 in Los Angeles, California. As a child, Maddox appeared in several magazines, including the Star magazine. Her big brown eyes and smile captured the attention of talent scouts in the ‘City of Angels.’

Fresh out of junior high school, Maddox met Sable Starr, who became known as the “queen of the groupie scene.” Starr, also underage at the time, pulled Maddox into her world of after-hours parties on the Sunset Strip.

The two girls became regulars at the Rainbow Bar & Grill, Rodney’s English Disco, the Continental Hyatt House AKA the “Riot House”, and the Whisky A Go Go.

When Lori Maddox was just 14 years old, she met David Bowie.

She and Starr were at the E-Club, one of the nightclubs that dotted the strip and played host to rock stars, and turned a blind eye to drug use and girls that might not be of legal age. Bowie, eleven years her senior at the time, scared her at first. When asked about meeting Bowie, she described him as, “hair the color of carrots, no eyebrows, and the whitest skin imaginable.” She pretended she was with someone else to avoid going back to his hotel room with him.

“I met him when he was doing the Spiders from Mars tour. I had not yet turned 15 and he wanted to take me to his hotel room. I was still a virgin and terrified,” she later told Thrillist.

But five months later, David Bowie’s bodyguard called her while she sat at home doing homework. He told Maddox that Bowie wanted to take her to dinner. After spending some time with Bowie, Starr, and others at a club and later Bowie’s private hotel suite, Maddox was asked to help Bowie bathe. This eventually led to the two sleeping together.

“He got into the tub, already filled with water, and asked me to wash him. Of course I did. Then he escorted me into the bedroom, gently took off my clothes, and de-virginized me,” Maddox described. Starr later joined the two for a threesome.

Despite her age, Maddox maintained that the encounter was a positive one for her.

“I was an innocent girl, but the way it happened was so beautiful. I remember him looking like God and having me over a table. Who wouldn’t want to lose their virginity to David Bowie. I saw David many times after that, for the next 10 years, and it was always great,” Maddox explained.

Following this experience, Maddox dove head-first into the life of a rock and roll groupie.

Lori Maddox Fully Embraces The Groupie Lifestyle

When she wasn’t partying with rockstars, Maddox could have been mistaken for any other teenage girl. During the week she went to school, lived at home with her mom, and hung out with her sisters.

On the weekends, she snuck out while her mom was at work and frequented seedy nightclubs with much older men. Despite what seems like an obvious problem, Maddox never considered her lifestyle unusual. In fact, she reveled in it.

“You need to understand that my life has never been normal. I have always been special. I always felt like the universe was taking care of me,” Maddox told the Thrillist.

Not too long after her tryst with Bowie, Lori Maddox got a phone call from Jimmy Page, guitarist and founder of Led Zeppelin, the biggest rock band in the world at the time. He invited her to his hotel and even sent a limo to collect her.

Lori Maddox And Jimmy Page

Michael Ochs Archives/Getty ImagesJimmy Page of Led Zeppelin with Lori Maddox.

“I felt like I was being kidnapped,” she said. “I got taken into a room and there was Jimmy Page.”

If there had ever been a time for it to click that her lifestyle was far from average, it should have been then, standing in the bedroom of a man quite literally double her age. But, despite the hostage-like situation, Lori Maddox didn’t run. Instead, she fell in love.

“It was perfect. He mesmerized me,” she said of the evening. “I fell in love instantly.”

Their relationship was secretive and tumultuous, and constantly overshadowed by Maddox’s age. But Page clearly didn’t care.

As Maddox was underage she couldn’t travel state-to-state with the band in their jet, so she would sequester herself in Page’s hotel room, and wait for him to return. Eventually, her life outside of being a groupie began to suffer.

“My whole life was about waiting for Jimmy,” Lori Maddox said. “I tried going to high school, but I couldn’t concentrate. And after Jimmy Page and David Bowie, what was I going to do with a North Hollywood boy? I didn’t go to high school prom because I was too busy living the Hollywood prom.”

Eventually, Maddox’s relationship with Page became strained, and she soon looked to other stars to rub shoulders with.

Lori Maddox’s Life Outside Of The Music Scene

Iggy Pop Sable Starr

Lori Maddox / FacebookMaddox with Iggy Pop and Sable Starr.

Just as quickly as it had started, the fairy tale ended. As rock stars do, Jimmy Page eventually moved on, and one night after returning from a show, Maddox found him and Bebe Buell – eventual groupie of Steven Tyler, and mother to his oldest daughter, Liv Tyler – in bed together.

“I looked at him and said, “What did you do to me?” I never trusted him again. He was like a god to me and instantly destroyed this whole image I had of him,” Maddox explained.

After that, her attitude changed. No longer was she there for love, she was there for fun.

“After Jimmy, I grew up and got over it. I was still modeling. My life was still rock ‘n’ roll and rock stars. Of course there were other guys – and amazing situations,” she recounted.

Before she turned 18, Lori Maddox would take shots with John Bonham, do several different drugs with Iggy Pop, have sex in a bathroom with Mick Jagger, and find herself in a bar fight between Paul McCartney and John Lennon.

As for how she feels about it today as a 65-year-old woman with a fashion career in Los Angeles, Maddox explains that she wouldn’t wish her lifestyle on just anyone.

“I don’t think underage girls should sleep with guys,” she stated, according to The Guardian. “I wouldn’t want this for anybody’s daughter. My perspective is changing as I get older and more cynical.”

Lori Maddox Today

lorimattix / Instagram
Lori Maddox in 2023.

Despite her foray into the illicit lifestyle of sex, drugs, and rock and roll all well before she reached adulthood, Maddox has no regrets when it comes to her own life. In fact, she says, she never felt better than she did all those years.

“I feel like I was very present,” she said. “I saw the greatest music ever. I got to hang out with some of the most amazing, most beautiful, most charismatic men in the world. I went to concerts in limos with police escorts. Am I going to regret this? No.”


After reading about Lori Maddox, read about Cyntha Plaster Caster, a groupie who turned her rock stars into interesting pieces of artwork. Then, check out these groupies who changed music history.

author
Katie Serena
author
A former staff writer at All That's Interesting, Katie Serena has also published work in Salon.
editor
Amber Morgan
editor
Amber Morgan is an Editorial Fellow for All That's Interesting. She graduated from the University of Florida with a degree in political science, history, and Russian. Previously, she worked as a content creator for America House Kyiv, a Ukrainian organization focused on inspiring and engaging youth through cultural exchanges.
Citation copied
COPY
Cite This Article
Serena, Katie. "From David Bowie To Jimmy Page, Lori Maddox Was Rock N’ Roll’s Most Notorious – And Underage – Groupie." AllThatsInteresting.com, March 2, 2018, https://allthatsinteresting.com/lori-maddox. Accessed November 15, 2024.