Click on the image to visit Buell's Wikipedia article, the source for much of this information.

On Wednesday the 24th a piece of rock history will take the stage: Bebe Buell at the Hiro Ballroom.

Some people focus on the giant-sized names I have shot for the Creative Commons, but the people that linger in my mind are the hundreds of others who are not household names but who have successfully created full, interesting lives. The lawyers, academics, economists and artists who shape our world without our ever realizing it.

Bebe Buell is one of those artists.

She is famous in New York City for her ability to throw together–to embody–a scene, and as an accomplished musician in her own right.

In 1981, she recorded an EP with  Rick Derringer and Ric Ocasek, and The Cars served as her band on two tracks.  The rock band Power Station formed around her in 1984 when then-boyfriend John Taylor (of Duran Duran) pulled some famous friends together to provide backing for Buell.

Her music career is underscored by Buell’s presence for many of the Twentieth Century’s huge musical moments. In Almost Famous, director Cameron Crowe partly based the film’s “Penny Lane” character–played by Kate Hudson–on Buell.  Hudson was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and won a Golden Globe for the role.

In 1972, Buell began dating rock star Todd Rundgren, which lasted for several years. During and after their sometimes open relationship, she was associated with Iggy Pop, David Bowie, Mick Jagger, Jimmy Page, and Steven Tyler.   In 1977, Buell and Tyler had a daughter together, the actress Liv Tyler.  After her relationship with Steven ended, Buell began dating Rod Stewart.  In the summer of 1978, she began an affair with the recently-separated Elvis Costello that continued on and off until 1984.

All of this shaped Bebe Buell into a piece of living rock history, and as you can see from my 2009 Wikipedia portrait of her above, one of the best-looking.  She clearly kept a good head on her shoulders and took care of herself during what must have been some very debauched moments that she witnessed.

On top of it all, she raised an amazing daughter in Liv Tyler, who my friends in Hollywood tell me is one of the nicest, most down-to-Earth actors working today.  That’s Bebe’s parenting; she spared Liv from many of the problems that afflicted her contemporaries.

Go to Amazon to hear the Bebe Buell Band’s latest single, Air Kisses for the Masses and find out what all of this influence wrought.

Five Questions for Bebe Buell

Q. What is one thing you think every American should know?

A. That marriage is between two PEOPLE who love each other- a personal vow and contract. God does not care who loves or married whom- only how we treat our fellow man. Love is free- it should not have a gender. Only a purpose- to love.

Q. If you had the option to have been born another nationality than your current one, which nationality would you choose?

A. Alien. Oh wait- I AM an alien!! I believe we are born who we are meant to be so it is hard to imagine. But I have always been fascinated with nomads- people who wander and roam with no real anchor. Kind of like the TV show Kung Fu. So probably Tibetan.

Q. What is one misconception people have about you?

A. That I am sexual or good in bed. I’m really just a “love bug”- not armed with much sexual skill or sexual perfection. It is my heart that boils over with loving energy.

Q. Is there anyone’s death, either in your life or in popular culture, whose passing you were surprised by how profoundly it affected you?

A. John Lennon. I cried for days and days. My 14 year old Chihuahua Chiquita- I was consumed with grief. But she was reincarnated almost immediately and my new “mutt” Chickenburger has a home.

Q. In life we often have goals that we feel as if would just die if we don’t reach them. Sometimes we reach them, sometimes we don’t. The question is, have you ever worked to fulfill a goal, only to find that once you achieved it, the experience was a let down? It meant something to you when you did not have it. Then you obtained it and, after the initial excitement, you thought to yourself, “Is that all there is?” Have you ever had an experience like that?

A. I treat my goals as a desire- a passion. If I am meant to have it, earn it, own it… then I consider it a “gift”, a blessing. A gift from the karma police.

I never take anything for granted.

Especially love.  My daughter.  My family.  My art. My music… my muse…

FIVE QUESTIONS – A SERIES

• EVAN WOLFSON – founder of the modern gay marriage movement…I have five questions for you.
• JIMMY WALES – Citizen of the world, sage to millions of editors of Wikipedia, which he founded…I have five questions for you.
• BILLY NAME – Famous Warhol live-in photographer; silverized the Factory; shot the cover of the Velvet Underground’s eponymous album; iconic portraits of Lou Reed and Edie Sedgwick…I have five questions for you.

Bleach Portrait of Bebe Buell, Tribeca Film Festival, April 2008

This is the second in a series of bleach portraits I call “Overexposed.”

Bleach portraits happen almost exclusively at major events with a red carpet, and they are often discarded by photographers as unusuable.  At large film festivals, premieres and awards shows there are sometimes hundreds of photographers.  When a celebrity poses, there are moments when so many flashbulbs are popping at once that the subject becomes completely bleached out.

I never deleted mine because I found powerful symbology in multiple metaphors that the images represent.

It is not a setting on the camera; it is not Photoshop (at all); it is just capturing a moment where there is blinding light produced from multiple flashes.  If you click on the photo above, you will see the portrait produced for her Wikipedia article that was taken just moments after this one, with all the same camera settings.

Buell, photographed at the premiere of Squeezebox!, has led an interesting life.  She is the mother of Liv Tyler, and Cameron Crowe said he partly based the character “Penny Lane” in Almost Famous on her.  She was a model and singer, but what made her name was the long list of major rock stars she has dated.*  Among them, Rod Stewart, Elvis Costello, Todd Rundgren, Iggy Pop, David Bowie, Mick Jagger, Jimmy Page, and Steven Tyler (father to Liv).  She was also involved with the late Stiv Bators and actor Jack Nicholson.

Did you know she told her daughter Liv for years that her then-stepfather, Todd Rundgren, was her real father?  Liv figured out the truth for herself when she saw how much she resembled Steve Tyler and her half-sister Mia.  And did you know she claims Coyote Shivers abused her?  She is not the only one.

She is married to musician Jim Wallerstein of Das Damen and Vacationland

Click on the bleach portrait above to see her Wikipedia portrait.

Overexposed: Bleach Portraits
(click above for a complete list)

• Steve Martin

*All information regarding Buell’s past comes from her Wikipedia article; should it be inaccurate, feel free to let me know and I will see if there is something I can do to fix it.