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{{short description|Former child model and "baby" groupie of the 1970s}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2020}}
'''Lori Mattix
Her experience has been discussed in the [[Me Too movement]], with her story marking a shift of the movement's focus from the [[Cinema of the United States|film industry]] to the [[music industry]].<ref>{{cite web |first=Alan|last=Cross|url=https://globalnews.ca/news/4014316/music-industry-metoo-timesup-alan-cross/ |title=The music industry is hurtling towards its own #MeToo and #TimesUp reckonings: Alan Cross |website=[[Global News]] |publisher=[[Corus Entertainment]]|location=Vancouver, Canada|date=February 11, 2018|access-date=August 24, 2018 }}</ref>
==Life as a groupie==
At the age of 13,{{when|reason=It would be clearer if we could indicate the year|date=September 2024}} Mattix began frequenting clubs on the [[Sunset Strip]] in [[West Hollywood]] with her friend [[Sable Starr]],<ref>{{cite web |first=Claire Marie |last=Healy |date=August 10, 2015 |title=The 70s groupies who broke the rules of style and sexuality |website=[[Dazed (magazine)|Dazed]] |url=https://www.dazeddigital.com/fashion/article/25854/1/the-70s-groupies-who-broke-the-rules-of-style-sexuality |access-date=April 9, 2020 }}</ref> particularly the [[Rainbow Bar and Grill]], the [[Whisky a Go Go]], and [[Rodney Bingenheimer's English Disco]].<ref name="rough">{{cite book |first=Nigel |last=Williamson |date=August 2, 2007 |title=The Rough Guide to Led Zeppelin |publisher=[[Rough Guides UK]] |isbn=978-1-84836-226-0 |url=https://archive.org/details/roughguidetoledz0000will |url-access=registration |pages=[https://archive.org/details/roughguidetoledz0000will/page/94 94], 253-254}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Mark |last=Blake |date=October 25, 2018 |title=Bring It On Home: Peter Grant, Led Zeppelin and Beyond: The Story of Rock's Greatest Manager |page=182 |publisher=[[Hachette UK]] |isbn=978-1-4721-2687-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0cNVDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT182
===Jimmy Page===
In June of 1972, the members of [[Led Zeppelin]] were in Los Angeles for their [[Led Zeppelin North American Tour 1972|1972 North American tour]]. While there, Mattix met 28-year-old guitarist [[Jimmy Page]] for the first time at the Hyatt hotel where the band was staying, according to Mattix's 2015 interview with [[Thrillist]]. Page approached Mattix and introduced himself by the hotel's pool.<ref name="rough" /><ref>{{cite web |date=February 27, 2015 |title=Jimmy Page: "Forget the myths about Led Zeppelin" |website=[[Uncut (magazine)|Uncut]] |url=https://www.uncut.co.uk/features/jimmy-page-forget-the-myths-29362/3/ |access-date=April 9, 2020 }}</ref><ref name="FAQ">{{cite book |first=George |last=Case |date=October 1, 2011 |title=Led Zeppelin FAQ: All That's Left to Know About the Greatest Hard Rock Band of All Time |publisher=[[Rowman & Littlefield]] |pages=216–217 |isbn=978-1-61713-074-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ttCGDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT217
Later that evening, the band's manager, [[Peter Grant (music manager)|Peter Grant]], spotted Mattix and her groupie friends at the Rainbow Bar and Grill. He insisted she come with him. A limo then drove her back to the Hyatt to meet with Page in his room. In a 2009 interview, Mattix claimed she lost her virginity to Page during that encounter.<ref name="JPLM">{{cite AV media | url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PL5380rCsoU&ab_channel=acidinurmind | title=JIMMY PAGE & LORI MATTIX | date=May 24, 2009 | access-date=September 25, 2024}}</ref> This was the beginning of her sexual, romantic relationship with Page despite being in her mid-teens. California's age of sexual consent was 18 at the time and still is.<ref name="WDI">{{cite AV media |people=Petal Productions |year=2007 |title=Led Zeppelin: Way Down Inside |medium=Documentary |location=United States }}</ref> Because of this, according to ''[[Rolling Stone]]'', Page feared charges of [[statutory rape]] and went to great lengths to hide his association with Mattix.<ref>{{cite magazine |first=Andy|last=Greene|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/the-10-wildest-led-zeppelin-legends-fact-checked-153103/jimmy-page-dated-a-14-year-old-girl-while-he-was-in-led-zeppelin-153501/ |title=Jimmy Page Dated a 14-year-old Girl While He Was in Led Zeppelin |magazine=[[Rolling Stone]] |publisher=Wenner Media LLC| location=New York City|date=November 21, 2012 |access-date=August 13, 2018}}</ref>
Grant insisted on keeping Mattix in a locked hotel room with a security guard at the door during the band's [[Led Zeppelin North American Tour 1973|subsequent U.S. touring]].<ref name="rough"/> Mattix did not travel with Led Zeppelin while they were on tour, but she claimed Page stationed himself in Los Angeles and would frequently fly back there to see her between concerts in the band's private jet, ''[[The Starship]]'';<ref>{{cite book |first=Barney |last=Hoskyns |date=September 4, 2012 |title=Trampled Under Foot: The Power and Excess of Led Zeppelin |publisher=[[Faber & Faber]] |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LyDdgwZ0DYUC |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=3hlb_uJutngC&pg=PT250 250] |isbn=978-0-571-25936-6 }}</ref><ref name="lost"/>. Whenever Page returned to England, Mattix says he called her every day.<ref name="Spend"/> ▼
▲Grant insisted on keeping Mattix in a locked hotel room with a security guard at the door during the band's [[Led Zeppelin North American Tour 1973|subsequent U.S. touring]].<ref name="rough"/> Mattix did not travel with Led Zeppelin while they were on tour, but she claimed Page stationed himself in Los Angeles and would frequently fly back there to see her between concerts in the band's private jet, ''[[The Starship]]''
Page’s sexual relationship with the underage Mattix lasted for more than two years, ending in 1975 when Mattix was 16.<ref name="Spend"/> Mattix claimed she ended the relationship after finding Page in bed with [[Bebe Buell]].<ref name="lost"/> Buell gave an alternate version of these events, claiming that despite the fact that Mattix "had given herself exclusively to Jimmy (Page) from age 14 to 16," she was barred by Page's security from seeing him once he began dating Buell.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Buell|first1=Bebe |last2=Bockris |first2=Victor |title=Rebel Heart: An American Rock 'n' Roll Journey|url=https://archive.org/details/rebelheart00bebe|url-access=registration|date=July 19, 2002|publisher=[[St. Martin's Press]]|page=[https://archive.org/details/rebelheart00bebe/page/82 82] |isbn=0312266944}}</ref>▼
▲
Lori Mattix is said by [[Led Zeppelin]] biographers<ref>{{cite book |last=Mick |first=Wall |date=November 9, 2010 |title=When Giants Walked the Earth: A Biography of Led Zeppelin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d0-nmLBW-SUC&pg=PA324 |publisher=[[Macmillan Publishers]] |page=324 |isbn=978-1429985611 |author-link= Mick Wall }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Kellett |first=Andrew |date=September 9, 2017 |title=The British Blues Network: Adoption, Emulation, and Creativity |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Lkc_DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA99 |publisher=[[University of Michigan Press]] |page=99 |isbn=978-0472036998 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Calef |first=Scott |date=2009 |title=Led Zeppelin and Philosophy : All Will Be Revealed |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ozfg785V0E4C&pg=PA282 |publisher=[[Open Court Publishing Company]] |page=282 |isbn=978-0812696721 }}</ref> to have been referenced by the band in the song "[[Sick Again]]", specifically with the lyrics:
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===David Bowie===
Mattix says that when she was 14 years old, she was introduced to [[David Bowie]] while he was in Los Angeles on his [[Ziggy Stardust Tour]] in October 1972. When Bowie's tour returned to Los Angeles five months later, on the night before Bowie performed at the [[Long Beach Arena]] in March 1973, Mattix claimed, Bowie's bodyguard was sent to pick up her and Starr for a sexual encounter. According to Mattix, as she told to ''[[Thrillist]]'' in 2015, she and Starr met Bowie at the Rainbow Bar before the three went to Bowie's hotel suite and had sex: "...{{nbsp}}[Bowie] de-virginized me{{nbsp}}... That night I lost my [[virginity]] and had my first threesome."<ref name="lost"/>
However, Starr gave a conflicting account of the same night's events, claiming that she alone had sex with Bowie and that Mattix was no longer with them by the time they were at the hotel.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Legs |last1=McNeil |first2=Gillian |last2=McCain |title=Please Kill Me: the Uncensored Oral History of Punk|url=https://archive.org/details/pleasekillmeunce00legs |url-access=registration |publisher=[[Grove Press]] |location=New York City |date=1996 |isbn=978-0-8021-1588-1 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/pleasekillmeunce00legs/page/137 137–138] |edition=1st}}</ref> Mattix also gave a different account of her encounter with Bowie to music journalist [[Paul Trynka]], in which she claimed that she and Starr sought out the hotel room Bowie was staying in and snuck inside, uninvited. In this account, Mattix claimed that when they found Bowie he was "tired" but they initiated a sexual encounter with him.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Trynka |first1=Paul |title=Starman: David Bowie - The Definitive Biography |date=March 1, 2011 |page=173 |publisher=[[Little, Brown Book Group]] |location=London |isbn=978-1-84744-238-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N70s2CgHlVUC }}</ref> Mattix claims she continued to see Bowie "many times" in the ten years afterwards.<ref name="lost"/>
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In 2015, an interview with Mattix was published in which she detailed the alleged relationships between her and Bowie, and later Page. The issue later became a central debate topic across social media, prompting a widespread review of how such stories should be understood in the [[MeToo movement|#MeToo]] era.<ref>{{cite web |first=Craig|last=McLean|url=https://www.theguardian.com/global/2018/may/06/good-time-girl-memories-of-a-super-groupie |title=Good time girl: memories of super groupie Pamela Des Barres |newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|location=London, England|date=May 6, 2018|access-date=August 13, 2018}}</ref> The allegations and the larger context of the MeToo movement had a major impact on the legacy of Bowie, who died the next year.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Keane |first1=Erin |title=The dark side of David Bowie: As the mourning goes on, we can't ignore his history with underaged groupies in '70s |url=https://www.salon.com/2016/01/13/the_dark_side_of_david_bowie_as_the_mourning_goes_on_we_cant_ignore_his_history_with_underaged_groupies_in_70s/ |work=salon.com |date=January 13, 2016 |access-date=26 August 2023}}</ref>
When asked whether the Me Too movement had changed her opinion on her groupie years, Mattix admitted that she had not seen her relationships as exploitative at the time, but that the movement had forced her to view these years in a different light during an interview with
Rebecca Hains, a children's media culture expert, viewed the problem as a symptom of sexism in the music industry, arguing that it is a "sad commentary on our culture that modern masculinity can be so entitled, so [[toxic masculinity|toxic]], that we are repeatedly put in the position of both loving the art and hating the man behind said art for what he did to women and/or children."<ref>{{cite web |first=Rebecca|last=Hains |url=https://rebeccahains.com/2016/01/11/reconciling-david-bowies-genius-with-rape/ |title=Reconciling David Bowie's genius with rape |date=January 11, 2016 |website=rebeccahains.com |access-date=August 13, 2018}}</ref> Journalist Stereo Williams framed the problem of lax social attention to such crimes as one endemic to the time period – considered unworthy of concern in the 1970s and earlier – but incompatible in a modern era where society has a greater focus on "protecting victims and holding celebrities accountable."<ref>{{cite web |first=Stereo |last=Williams |url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/david-bowie-and-rock-n-rolls-statutory-rape-problem |title=Not Above the Law: David Bowie and Rock 'n' Roll's Statutory Rape Problem |website=[[The Daily Beast]] |publisher=[[IAC (company)|IAC]]|location=New York City|date=January 17, 2016 |access-date=August 13, 2018}}</ref>
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