Bebe Buell

There is a name for women who relentlessly pursue rocks stars until they finally get into their clutches and take them to bed.  These women are often called groupies and Bebe Buell was one of the best…if not the best rock groupie on earth. This may sound like an outlandish statement but when you consider the men that this beautiful woman slept with, at the height of rock and roll, then you’ll be sure to agree.  Here is a brief list:

• Mick Jagger
• Jimmy Page
• Todd Rundgren
• Steven Tyler
• Elvis Costello
• (maybe) Keith Richards

And that’s just to name the most popular.  Bebe Buell was not massive floozy though.  Sure she was with many famous men in her time, but the real credit that she deserves was that she was one of the few women these men had ever met who could tame them.  Bebe Buell did not simply sleep with these men but she (in many cases) actually became their girlfriend and in one case even sired one of their children.

You have probably heard of Bebe’s famous daughter.  Her name is Liv Tyler and she is as famous now as many of those men ever were. But the story of how Bebe brought Liv into the world is a complex one.  At the time Bebe was living with Todd Rundgren and had been for several years.  But Bebe was not satisfied with Todd behaviour.  Even though they were in a committed relationship Todd would still sleep with just about any woman who offered.  Upset and feeling cheated, Bebe went off and had an affair with Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler.

When Liv was born Todd knew right away it wasn’t his child.  But he looked after Liv just the same and Steven had very little to do with Liv’s life in its early stages.  But realistically Bebe raised Liv pretty much on her own and when Liv decided to become and actress and a model Bebe was her manager. Eventually Liv wanted to branch out on her own and effectively fired Bebe as her manager, which created quite a lot of tension between the two.  But not too long ago the mother and daughter reconciled. 

At one point Bebe even tried to get in the rock and roll game herself with her bands Bebe and the B-Sides and The Gargoyles.  But neither of these bands ever amounted to much and Bebe abandoned her dream of self-rock stardom.