'Almost Famous', Penny Lane, and What It Means to Be a Groupie

McKenna Ryan

May 17, 20228 min read

She peers through her purple plastic sunglasses, brows furrowed fiercely, face framed by yellow curls. “We are not groupies,” she says, “Groupies sleep with rock stars because they want to be near someone famous. We are here because of the music, we inspire the music. We are Band-Aids.”

This is our introduction to Penny Lane (portrayed by Kate Hudson), arguably the true star of Cameron Crowe’s semi-autobiographical film, “Almost Famous.” The cult classic takes the audience on the journey of William Miller, a budding music journalist. 15-year-old William is granted the chance of a lifetime when Rolling Stone Magazine sends him on the road to write about the up-and-coming rock band, Still Water. He leaves his home, high school, and overbearing mother to traverse the country alongside debaucherous rock stars, witnessing the band at their extraordinary highs and devastating lows, befriending their roadies, and falling deeply in love with Penny Lane. Like William, I too fell in love with Penny Lane - her style, golden ringlets, and the stupid brown tackle box she carried everywhere. But, I, and many true groupies, would contend that her definition of "groupie" is farcical and misconstrues the already deeply misunderstood meaning of groupiedom.

Dissecting Penny Lane

"Almost Famous" is a fictionalized version of writer/director Cameron Crowe's life. It is purportedly based on his time touring with the rock gods of Led Zeppelin, who become Still Water in the film. Although, Still Water is much more of an amalgamation of rock stereotypes coming together to form one quintessential 70s rock band than they are a direct depiction of Zeppelin. Although, there is one line that is plucked directly from history. When watching "Almost Famous," one might notice the line "I am a Golden God" sounds a bit odd coming out of mousy-haired Russell Hammond (Billy Crudup), and that's because this was a direct quote from Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant. Hands outstretched Eva Peron style, Plant stood on the balcony of the Hyatt House Hotel overlooking the sunset strip. His golden curls billowing in the wind, shirt emblazoned with a burning sun, Plant exclaimed, "I am a Golden God!"

The Golden God overlooks his dominion. Photo by Peter Simon, source

While most of the “Almost Famous” characters were based rather loosely on real people, Penny Lane is remarkably similar to her real-life counterparts. To understand Penny Lane, one must first come to know the women her character was allegedly based on: Pamela Des Barres, Bebe Buell, and Pennie Lane Trumbull.

Pamela Des Barres

Bebe Buell

Pennie Lane Trumbull

The GTOs, Pamela front and center | source: https://www.altaonline.com/dispatches/a4456/miss-christine-rock-legend/

Pamela Des Barres is now an author, but in her heyday, she was a member of the performance group The GTOs (Girls Together Outrageously), a Frank Zappa project, and the Groupie of all groupies. When you google the term “groupie,” four pictures are coupled with the definition - Des Barres is in three. Her memoir, “I’m with the Band: Confessions of a Groupie,” recounts her rock and roll exploits with excerpts straight from her letters and diaries. Kate Hudson referred to this memoir, using it as source material for her portrayal of Penny Lane, even pasting pictures of the blue velvet-clad beauty in her dressing room. Like most other groupies, Des Barres was enamored by music. It was the center of her universe, stemming from her love of The Beatles and infinitely rippling outwards. Adorned in feather boas, mini dresses, and flower crowns, Des Barres was swept up into the world of rock and would eventually make her way backstage, engaging in dalliances with some of rock’s biggest names, including Mick Jagger, Jimmy Page, and Keith Moon. She was, and is, beloved by groupies and musicians alike.

Miss Pamela, as she is more commonly known, takes the word “groupie” and wears it like a crown. For her, groupiedom is a source of pride, despite the unjust cruelty she has faced because of it. Miss P claims that groupies are what the name suggests - they are with the group. They are not hysterical girls vying for the validation of a rock star - they are enthusiasts of music, daring to enter the world of musicians to get an inside look at the magic. Miss P radiates confidence and security in herself, her past, and her body - mostly because she knows she had more fun in her twenties than most people have in a lifetime.

In her book, Miss P sums up the idea of groupies perfectly: “Groupies are not just star-fuckers. We inspired the guys as much as we were inspired by them. It was very equal. They loved us because we dared to have a blast. We looked after them, picked their clothes and showed them the best restaurants to go to. I made cowboy shirts for Jimmy Page and Miss Christine [of the GTOs] showed Alice Cooper how to do his makeup.”

Bebe Buell & Steven Tyler | source; https://www.pinterest.com/pin/7036943140200145/

Bebe Buell is a model, musician, and muse to many, including Todd Rundgren, David Bowie, and Steven Tyler (with whom she parented actress Liv Tyler). Buell, like Penny Lane, spurns the title of “Groupie” and opts for “Band Aide.” Perhaps it is because of the negative connotation or the complexities that the term “groupie” brings that some women prefer to title themselves “Band Aides,” but they boil down to the same thing. Some may claim that a groupie is anyone who has romanced multiple musicians. I and many others would suggest that groupies do not merely date musicians. They are also avid followers and fans of the music. The music invariably comes first. This would be the line between Pattie Boyd and Pamela Des Barres, between Marianne Faithfull and Bebe Buell.

Bebe echoed Penny Lane’s claims when she explained in a 2016 interview with Louder Sound that she, and many others, were not deliberately pursuing intimate liaisons with musicians. “I get very offended with people that just want to go backstage and have sex with somebody. To me, that’s absolutely stupid, and I’ve never understood it and I’ve never done it.”

Pennie Lane Trumbull, the namesake of the beloved Almost Famous character, is far more elusive. Trumbull spent three years traveling with musicians before packing up and going home, attending college and grad school, and petering out into the crowd. In her days of groupiedom, she established “The Flying Garter Girls,” a band of groupies that followed touring musicians across the country because “their music touched [them] in ways nothing else could.”

These three women were blended into one composite “not-groupie,” Penny Lane. Penny is the leader of “The Band-Aids," a group of girls who travel all over the country at the heels of rock stars. Together, they engage in on-the-road affairs, hidden from wives and girlfriends under the mysterious cloak of rock and roll. Penny, in particular, becomes entangled in a relationship with Russell Hammond, the fictional lead guitarist of the fictional band Still Water. What is essential to mention about Penny (and many real-life groupies) is that she was just 16 years old. The disgusting underbelly of groupiedom is the vast percentage of “Baby Groupies.” These were girls who engaged in the same acts as groupies but at a much younger age. Although it was a “different time,” this part of groupiedom has never been and will never be okay. The fault for this should not rest solely on the “Baby Groupie” but on the men who used them and others who enabled them.

What Does it Mean to Be a Groupie?

Groupiedom, as well as the entirety of adolescent society in the 60s and 70s, has been characterized by an air of innocence - a time of free love, music, and fun. It was an era of social upheaval, ruled by youth culture and burgeoning feminism. Gone were the days of the 50s when women wore shin-length skirts, meticulous hairdos, and perfect makeup. Gender roles were rapidly shifting (especially after World War II, when women learned they could, indeed, do it), and sexual liberation was on the rise. Women could be wild and get away with it. They could dance to the pulsing vibrations of rock music, coat their eyes in fabulously colored shadows, and finally let their hair down. Women were waking up en masse - they were asserting their own identities and taking agency over their bodies unapologetically.

When discussing of-age groupies, I question the shame generally associated with them. Not self-inflicted shame, as many of them are brazenly candid about their pasts, but shame imposed by outside forces. Groupies are often deemed hysterical fangirls, unintelligent, or lacking in self-respect. They are sex-crazed parasites, feeding off the fame of rock stars. The word has become synonymous with “loose” or “slut.” Men call them whores while women argue they are blackening feminism by being subservient to men. These claims are blatantly erroneous, propagated by people who fear independent women with sexual agency. Groupies are women who do not allow society to restrain them, a fact abhorrent to the puppet masters of the world. They are unafraid of men and sex, not shying away from "taboo" topics. They are wild and willful, knowing what they want and how to get it - and more often than not, it is not fame or fortune they seek but love, fun, and, most of all, music.

Sleeping with musicians is not the entire impetus of a groupie - although, so what if it is? For countless groupies, intimacy was just a perk, a part of the job. In contrast to what Penny Lane claims, being a groupie was about being a muse. It was about having a hand in the glimmering world of rock and roll and taking musicians to new heights by inspiring them. This inspiration came not only through romance and beauty but through the groupies’ vast connections and knowledge of musicians from all corners of the world. They could turn the seemingly most cultured musicians onto new sounds. Groupies became the go-between, the link between the unreachable god-like rock stars and everyday people. They were undeniably a key aspect of rock and roll, a genre built on the backs of women.

At their core, groupies were fans. For them, the power lay in the music. The power of music is difficult to express - it has the indescribable ability to slip into your body, seep into your bloodstream, and sink into your soul. It can fill your whole being with ineffable energy, like getting the butterflies from your head to your toes. A chill runs up your spine, your foot taps to the beat, or perhaps tears well in your eyes. It is a beautiful feeling, and it can be deeply physical. Groupies chase this feeling. They are women so touched, so moved by music that they must leave their mark on it, they must express this love in any way they can. “Almost Famous” character Sapphire (Fairuza Balk) may have said it best: “They don’t even know what it is to be a fan... To truly love some silly little piece of music, or some band, so much that it hurts.”

Groupies were there to appreciate the art, get lost in the music, and befriend the people behind the magic. To place them under one umbrella of “loose women” is to strip them of their humanity and reduce them to objects used by rock stars. It is to punish them for committing no crimes. Women like Pamela Des Barres have been working for decades to de-stigmatize the term “groupie.” It’s become tainted, painted over with a misogynistic brush by people terrified of women who can open doors for themselves. The word has adopted a negative connotation, but if one were to ask themselves why this is, they would undoubtedly understand that the negativity surrounding groupies comes not from them but the sexism rampant in our world.

What many people seem unable to graspgroupies are human. They were not just sex-crazed fangirls or manic Maenads drunk off the wine of the gods of rock. They were women profoundly moved by art - art that they inspired. Groupies exist outside of groupiedom as whole, well-rounded people with feelings, families, hobbies, and homes. "Groupie" was just one of their many attributes. They weren't scheming women using the fame of rock icons to bolster themselves. They were girls having fun.