You can't find current photos of the original members- those I found, beyond the years of the band, showed they weren't aging too well either.
It's a shame we readily discard older women for their looks but don't look as harshly at older men.
The article shows Connie like "can we believe she was the girl they wrote about, sweet and giving blowjobs". Who can imagine women wanting to give blowjobs to the men, with how they look now.
Just saying.
Love your newsletter by the way.
Jayne Tansey Patron
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Hi Bob
Connie Hamzy was one of the most intriguing women I've ever met.
When we toured with Van Halen for six months on the F.U.C.K. Tour we got to know her and I can tell you she really was a sweet sweet woman and truly loved being out on the road offering her services. A real act of feminism in my view.
I would offer her rides to the next town on our bus and she travelled with us a couple of times.
I would grill her with questions. Why she did what she did, many about her health and if she was being careful (she wasn't).
One story I still share with people today was the time we arrived at a venue, our tour bus one of about 50 on that run, I noticed a line of guys waiting outside one of them.
I asked the band, "Hey, why are they lining up outside that bus. Are they serving lunch in there today?"
They all just looked at me sideways. Connie was here!
She travelled to maybe four different states and some of the VH road crew paid for her to travel to Mexico City where she even offered to do our laundry!
I may have been one of the few women given the chance to see her in her glory and I'm really saddened by this news. None of us will ever forget her. Rock and Roll Sweet Connie
Suze DeMarchi
BABY ANIMALS
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Once I was at the RnRHOF and was able to get a visit of some of the items that are in the vault that aren't on display. The Vault was like going to Nirvana for me. I saw so many awesome artifacts, Geddy Lee's Green Sunglasses, the original Head that Alice Cooper chops off during the "Welcome To My Nightmare" tour, The Suede Leather poncho that David Crosby is wearing on the cover of The Byrds Turn, Turn, Turn. Ann Wilson's purple suede dress from the Barracuda Video in 1977, and so much more. The one item that was absolutely hilarious to me that made me laugh out loud was a brief case that was owned by Gerald "Buffalo" Evans. Buffalo Evans was the long time road manager for The Allman Bros. This brief case had 30 or more stickers plastered all over it, mostly Backstage passes, but there was one Hot Pink circle sticker that said "Connie in Little Rock" with a phone number under it. When I saw it I laughed out loud and said, "Hey It's Sweet Sweet Connie!" I then sang the lyrics and explained who Connie was. I just thought it was very entrepreneurial of her to have stickers made so she could pass them out to her "regulars" to call her when they were in town.
drmrsdad
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OMG! Sweet Connie from Little Rock gone. So sad to hear. As best I can determine her first big band was The Allman Brothers Band. I remember it well. A Holiday Inn in Memphis. Her mom brought her on a weekend shopping trip to get away from boys. How ironic that was! She was so sweet and gorgeous, like a Seventeen Magazine cover girl. She became a school teacher and I used to get her Christmas card nudie shot with Christmas tree lights. Last saw her in mid-eighties with Gregg Allman solo band. The years were not kind to her looks, She once told me she was with the entire cast and crew of the Burt Reynolds move "Gator" except for Burt himself. RIP Sweet Connie from Little Rock.
Willie Perkins
Macon, GA
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She was my friend. I met her in Houston at a ZZ Top after party back in, probably 1973. I might still, somewhere, have her sticker that said "Call Connie in Little Rock," with her phone #. We kept in touch and I saw her whenever I was passing through Little Rock or Memphis. At one time, she wanted me to help her write her autobiography, but I didn't. Probably hadn't seen or heard from her in 30 years or so.
She was real, not a caricature. She was who she was. She was a schoolteacher, so I'd think she had insurance, or at least Medicare, having turned 65. She led a normal life, with one exception.
I do have a coupla Connie stories, but rather not type them.
Toby Mamis
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Connie was a sweet person, and she made people happy in her own special way.
I met her when the band I tour managed, Cry of Love, started a tour with ZZ Top in Little Rock in 1994. She burst into our dressing room while flamboyantly taking off her top and shouting "Welcome to Little Rock, boys!"
RIP, Connie.
Bob Davis
Retired Tour Accountant
p.s. Have you heard of the "Cookie Lady" in St. Louis? She always brought cookies, along with 2 teenage assistants to handle "chores," similar to Connie's. You can use your imagination.
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Reading your piece conjures up images of some distant and bygone backward era - like the roaring twenties or something - it just sounds so sexist, oppressive and utterly stuck in its time. Boomer men treated women like shit. Then (like both clockwork and Mark Farner himself) they "find" Jesus, denounce their sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll pasts (with a nudge and a wink) and act like the pious hypocrites that they really were all along.
Vince Welsh
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Having been a production manager of many notable bands of the era and knowing Connie well. (But never in THAT way) there is an untold story of a great teacher of special needs children, a truly kind heart and person that viewed her odd "hobby" as a service to lonely guys on the road.
She is to be remembered fondly by many who knew her as a person not just a legend.
RIP Connie, there will never be another you.
Mark Hogue
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We were visiting clients in Fort Smith, Arkansas in the early 2000's. As we entered the large riverfront restaurant, I was asked if I knew the song, "We're an American Band" by Grand Funk. Of course I did, and at that moment I was introduced to Sweet Sweet Connie, who was parked at the bar. She wheeled around and said hello, as did I. She was kind, but wasn't there to entertain. It was a memorable dinner.
Billy Kinross
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Bob, If I might offer an addendum, Connie also serviced the road crews, drivers, and more if interested. Check out the roadie Facebook posts since Saturday and the chatter is she should be in the Hall of Fame. There is even a petition to do so.
Steve Lemon
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Thanks Bob for writing about Connie. Groupies like her always interested me, and I actually met her backstage in the ladies room many moons ago. She had been on Stern that day so I knew she plan to go to the show. But for the life of me I can't remember which band it was & what show, but I clearly remember meeting her that night in the bathroom. I remember feeling like I had met a piece of rock history. RIP to Connie.
Jc
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Another nail in the Coffin of Rock & Roll.
Sweet Connie was sweet, sweet and fearless..
What she wanted she got.
How many of us can say that? Miss Pamela, Miss Mercy & Sweet Connie, these girls were 3 chord revolutionary feminists.
Groupies Lives matter!
The history is fading. Charlie is incapacitated, Eric & Van went bonkers…Box sets & remixes, autobiographies & documentaries.
Sweet Connie made the news today, oh boy.
Michael Des Barres.
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The first time I saw Connie I was when I was with Capitol, covering a show in Little Rock.
A security guard had refused to let her in so she clamped her laminate to her tongue in an act of defiance.
There was blood everywhere. I don't know how she fared that night with the other acts but the blood probably contributed to my act declining her services. It was right about when AIDS was becoming the big story in the press.
On the other hand, she was kinda hot at the time so I was going to ask her if my personal guitar prowess would have any impact on her.
Not that it would have but after further thought I decided not to ask. Even if I had talked her into it just to secure a story for the future (really, seriously!) it wasn't worth taking the chance.
Frank Palombi
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Thanks, Bob, for your obit on Connie! I went early to sound check in Little Rock as we opened for Amboy Dukes ( yes,Ted himself) and a bigger headliner in 1971. She was sweet alright.. with such incredible innocence that it was tough to believe when she walked up to me as I checked my kit on stage and she just turned, big smile and said... "the promoter doesn't want me to do sex in the dressing rooms but I can give you head in the bus!"..later after the show back in Memphis the guitarist from the main headliner called and said to come up to his room... I walked in and Connie was doing everyone ,... she had already done the pilot on the private jet and then walked back to do the limo driver as we checked in. She was the happiest, carefree devotee of giving Rock musicians anything they wanted... One of a kind, young and stunningly pretty at that time.
Glad an obscure 21 yr old like me had some fun , and great memories from the Renaissance era of rock music, all those years ago. RIP Connie.
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My "Sweet Connie" story comes from the summer of 1987. I was getting ready to move to Los Angeles to "make it" and had grown and boffed my hair up high and adopted an outrageous glam style of dressing and showed up in the VIP motor home at a local rock festival in Little Rock. Connie eyed me up and down and asked the program director of the local rock station (MAGIC-105) "Is he in a band? Are they signed?" and with the answer being a solid, "yes, but no", my chances were ended.
25 years later I took Pamela (who is like a dear aunt to me and maybe the nicest person I know) to Little Rock on our way to Nashville with the Sin City crew. She visited with and interviewed Connie for a book project and we discussed the wide gulf between their lives and lifestyles.
Yes, access was different and when both those women, (girls at the time) started meeting bands. The rules and culture of "backstage" hadn't even been established. And they helped write all that. There are certainly mixed feelings about those times and the relationship between men and women but Connie was as sweet as they come and no one will dispute that. I wish her well. I'll bet a laminate was waiting at the gate for her.
Bryson Jones
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I lived in Little Rock for a number of years in the late 90's into the early 00's. I was involved in the music scene and heard all the stories about Connie and would see her at various clubs around town as she truly wanted to support musicians which is the way she always felt about her relationships with musicians over the years. I managed a Southern Hard Rock band for a short time called Go Fast. We were working on marketing materials for a new album that we thought would be the biggest thing since Lynyrd Skynyrd so we called Connie and asked her to be involved in a photo shoot. She was tickled to be included and was a great sport. We went out of our way to treat her like the Rock legend she was with special wardrobe, a hairstylist and makeup. All photos were PG, but she told us stories and answered every question about all her friends. Of course many of her tales were X rated, but actually there were just as many stories about how she just took care of rock stars like cooking breakfast for Eddie Van Halen or sewing Pete Townshend's pants. I am sure we could dig in here and postulate on reasons why Connie sought this type of attention as a young girl going to the Barton Coliseum to see every show. It would be easy to dismiss and feel "gross" about her past as we look at it through woke eyes, but the Connie I knew was always full of joy, eager to share stories, and for one last time LOVED music. Hopefully the story of Connie's life will not be solely focused on her potential victimhood, but also on her joy and love for Rock n Roll.
Michael Cusanelli
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I was raised in Arkansas..
I knew Connie in the 80s..She came out to see my band perform regularly, in Little Rock, whenever larger prey was not in sight..
Turns out, she lived down the street from me..And my wife..I was invited over, to "see her etchings", but my wife was not so enthused about the prospect...
I did sneak over, and enjoyed the mini-museum..She wasn't very attractive then, so it went no further..I had way better options, including even my wife..The bragging rights would've been great, but I wanted to "just be friends"..
LR WAS a backwater..But we were close enough to Chicago, that we were regularly visited by Styx, REO, Cheap Trick, Kansas, Chicago, and the like..A quick drive to Memphis afforded us quite a feast of touring national acts..And B.B. King, of course..
James Spencer
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When we were touring around 1993-94 we played Little Rock. I knew about Connie and never thought she'd ever show up at the venue but she did.
She looked pretty shop-worn by then and approached everyone during a soundcheck at the outdoor amphitheater we were playing near downtown. Her offer was a blow job plain and simple. It was so awkward everyone just sort of smiled and said they were busy and no thanks.
It was kinda pathetic. She finally got frustrated and yelled at the tip of her lungs for all to hear within earshot of the stage, "doesn't anybody want a blowjob around here!?"
I think our truck driver took her up on the offer in his Peterbuilt because she disappeared and we were all glad cause it was really depressing to see what this woman had become.
Rumor was she had become an elementary school teacher and I'm surprised it wasn't mentioned in that memorial article.
Those days are gone now as Rock has gotten wrinkles, family ties and arthritis. Maybe the younger bands and hip hop acts are imbibing with the band-aides but I think that sort of behavior bordering on mental illness went into the halls of rock history along with poor Connie, RIP.
But we're still an American band and we're coming to your town soon…
Kenny Lee Lewis
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Your incredible piece on Connie Hamzy brought me back so vividly to those glorious days of the 70s. As Alice Cooper's tour manager during that time, Connie "from Little Rock", as we called her, graced our tour with her presence. I'm sure that anyone who knew Connie is saddened by her passing and will remember her in the fondest of terms.. She was a sweet and kind person; not a mean bone in her body.
I wrote about her in my soon to be released autobiography, ROCK AND ROLL WARRIOR. I thought you might enjoy reading the excerpt which is attached hereto. Feel free to use any portion. Thanks.
Regards,
David Libert
Excerpt:
Writing a book about rock 'n roll touring dictates a certain modicum of discretion, a regulation not actually written in stone. It's more like a rather ambiguous unspoken rule. That said, I would certainly be remiss to not mention Connie Hamzy, arguably the most famous groupie of all time. This gorgeous groupie was better known as "Connie from Little Rock" or "Sweet Connie." Her exploits of performing fellatio upon hundreds of rock bands and their crews are legendary and well documented, so I won't bother going into any of that.
Well... maybe just a little. When the Alice Cooper tour arrived in Little Rock, I was informed by the promoter that Connie had "set up a room backstage" for the sole purpose of providing head for any tour member desirous of such services. Needless to say, there was a line outside her door. I mean, what strapping young road rat wouldn't want to take a welcome five-minute break from the rigors of touring for a nice, relaxing, well-deserved blowjob?
But it was Connie's activities aboard the good ship AC1 that stands out in my mind. We all decided to take her with us on the next couple of tour dates. After setting up shop in one of the lavatories on the plane, she proceeded to blow a good portion of the entourage, one by one. When she finally ran out of penises, I put on my Airline Social Director of Creative Services hat and went into the cockpit to ask the flight crew (by this time completely converted into the ideology of touring), if any of them were desirous of getting "serviced" by Connie. By now, the pilot, co-pilot, and navigator had become good friends with the tour personnel. Yet they were a no-nonsense flight crew when it came to piloting the plane. After all, they did hold our very lives in their hands. The completely humorless pilot replied in typical completely humorless pilot jargon, "Uhhh, negative, Dave. Uh, um, not while, unhh, operating the aircraft."
Fair enough. But I then queried if I could at least send Connie into the cockpit to give the passengers the impression that she was in there to do her "thing."
"Uh, affirmative, Dave. That's a big 10-4."
So I got on the PA. "Connie, your services are requested in the Cock (pause) pit." (Passenger chuckles.)
Connie happily sashayed into the cockpit, not knowing, along with everyone else on board, that nothing was actually going to happen. A minute or two passes, and then the pilot makes an announcement on the PA.
"This is the Captain speaking. Will you all please fasten your seatbelts? I think we're about to encounter some turbulence."
It was the only time I can recall Captain Kirk attempting to be funny. And it was. We were rolling in the aisles. This kind of crass, sophomoric humor was normal operating procedure for a rock tour. It rarely stopped. To be on an Alice Cooper tour, you'd better be a good sport. Everyone was a target. Even Alice, much to his delight. It was one of the glues that held us all together.
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well, you didn't let me down
exactly the kind of sexist white guy of a certain age celebration I knew was coming
...and hey, she should be grateful, right? you're writing about her.
lets unpack this:
these young women were just random skaggs who'd do ANYTHING to be near rock stars
and Connie was a classic American red blooded girl, then woman who was actually pretty in an unfiltered, unmade up way
she LOVED rock & roll... the way it made her feel, the way it gave her life curves to navigate AND she had fun with it
did you know her specialty for birthday boys was to hum "Happy Birthday" while fellating them?
happened to a friend of mine as a young buck out on the road with Marshall Tucker --
she showed up with a pair of little kid's pistols in a holster and went to town
...and he never forgot it.
probably 45 years ago, but he still tells the story like a badge of honor
because she brought magic to the backstage rompage
and before i unpack further, let's be clear. Connie Hamzy was a SCHOOL TEACHER!
she wasn't some dumb bunny sleezing to get lucky + get rich
she was living the life on HER terms, and having a higher batting average of massive rock stars than most labels
people for a very long time wanted her around... the Van Halen boys, Alice Cooper, Ringo Starr, etc
so when the school district let Connie go for conduct unbecoming, she took the school board to court -- and WON!
if only Tom T Hall had written that sequel to "Harper Valley PTA"
see you forgot about the tedium back before cell phones, or satellite dishes
when people were trapped in crappy backstages, or dumpy motels, looking for pay phones to call home -- or the next city where they might know somebody
these girls were legends because beyond being carnally inclined, they could talk about rock & roll, other bands, what was going on in the world
...and sometimes just being a female presence was a real gift in the stinky, sweaty dudefest of road life
these girls were experiencing the freedom that the Summer of Love -- theoretically -- provided
before it turned out men were still insecure and sexist, wanting the freedom to get down, but didn't want their girls to cheat
a surprise baby, i remember all the tears my hippie babysitters shed over that
but the groupies? man, they were rocking and loving every minute of their freedom and their sexual liberty
were the competitive? you see/hear the stories about Sable Starr and Lori Maddox versus some of the GTOS
by the time I was old enough to be a baby rock critic for the MIAMI HERALD in college, the groupies in South Florida had figured out how to coexist
when I would go backstage for meet & greet or Aftershow Ratt or Motley Crue or even old guarders like Nazareth, you'd see all the same girls hanging out, waiting on the band, telling jokes, eating carrot sticks + looking at me in my tshirt and straight leg Levis like "isn't she cute?"
I had friends who hooked up with Ace Frehley, not part of the "crew," but they were cool with the girls cause I knew them
...and I'd often scare off the really young ones, who didn't truly get the joke, and I wasn't competition, so I got along with those girls, who just loved rock + roll & wanted to be near the music
AND when those guys would hit the room? the smiles on their faces were awesome. happier than when they were onstage... being worshipped.
i always thought because on some pre-verbal level, they felt understood. and they were. and isn't that what we ALL want?
I don't know if i met her on not in Memphis one night. might've been, might not have been. but it was one of those philosophical conversations about rock & roll, what it is and how it's so much more than just guitars and how many decibels you're pushing out, hair cuts and videos... it's the spirit and it's the place where the joy and the power almost explodes beyond freedom. it was fascinating, sitting in the bar listening... obviously, she was waiting on a later shift/second serving or she hadn't been picked
when I saw the news -- on Miss Pamela's page -- I called a few friends who were or are rock stars. told them the sad news, let them marinate for a few moments. other than the young'un with the "happy birthday" initiation, not one of them talked about what she did, they all talked about how she made them feel, how they could really talk to her, and she knew how to turn out a whole show + somehow never flinch or do anything but enjoy the process. "she was a friend, Holly," said one of the Kentucky Headhunters. "You know, I didn't go there... for a bunch of reasons... but she sure knew rock & roll, and talking to her, man, she had seen it all unfold. she could talk about bands and the blues and everything else with so much soul. we sure did lose a lot of history if she's gone..."
to me, that's the point. and yes, she got older. you don't look like you did at 22, either, Bob.
people in the south don't always trust medicine, or doctors. she had some miles on her. but something tells me -- beyond the obvious "objects in the mirror may be closer than they appear" -- she loved just about every single mile of it.
shaming her, or acting like the girl in that equation is less than is just flat crappy. she wasn't embarrassed about how she chose to live. i know a lawyer who was rolling through Little Rock, early in his tenure with an act; lo and behold, Connie made him feel welcome, too. not to curry favor with the band, but because she thought he was a pretty okay guy
sexual license has to be a two way street...
you know that, just like you know how good "we're an American band" sounds.
if she got some dazzle out of being "Sweet, sweet Connie," well, good for her. what makes that capitalizing? that band had a huge hit on her inspiration?
so, hey, you're smarter/better/theoretically more feminist than this...
or maybe your 14-year old masturbatory kid took over; those kids, who aren't in play to girls like Connie, can be mean, belitting, cutting down what they can't have
maybe you shoulda got to Little Rock a bunch of years ago
Holly Gleason
editor of WOMAN, WALK THE LINE: How The Women of Country Music Changed Our Lives, due in paperback 10/10/22
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