Wild, sexy and stylish model Anita Pallenberg who turned Mick Jagger and Keith Richards into the Rolling Stones dies age 73
Rocker Keith left 'devastated' as ex-lover and mother of his children passes away
SHE is often referred to as “the sixth Rolling Stone” – but Anita Pallenberg was so much more than that.
The actress, model and muse, who died on Tuesday aged 73, was the inspirational driving force behind the band in their iconic, rock ’n’ roll heyday.
Wild, witty, stunning, sexy — and with a unique flair for fashion which Jagger and Richards copied — her qualities, combined with their musical talents, created a perfect storm.
Well-connected and well-educated, Anita terrified and beguiled the rock ’n’ rollers in equal measure.
Her one-time partner Keith Richards, with whom she had three children, once said of her: “She scared the pants off me.” The Stones guitarist, 73, was last night said to be “devastated” by her death.
Certainly, Anita was one of a kind.
While she bedded both Brian Jones and Keith, and was rumoured to have had an affair with Mick, it would be wrong to dismiss her as a groupie. As muse and critic she inspired their songs and even sang backing vocals for 1968’s Sympathy For The Devil.
Her opinion was so valued that Mick was said to have remixed tracks on the band’s 1968 album Beggars Banquet based on her feedback.
Addicted to drugs, obsessed with black magic and even implicated in the death of a teen lover, Anita had a knack for stirring things up.
Jo Bergman, the band’s personal assistant from 1967 to 1973, said at the time: “Anita is a Rolling Stone. She, Mick, Keith and Brian were the Rolling Stones. Her influence has been profound. She keeps things crazy.”
Born in German-occupied Rome in 1944, Anita was expelled from boarding school aged 16 and started modelling, moving from Italy to New York, there hanging out at artist Andy Warhol’s Factory, the place to be for arty types.
In 1965, aged 21, she sneaked backstage at a Stones gig in Munich and offered the band some hash, which they declined — although guitarist Brian Jones was “kind enough” to invite her to his room.
It was the start of a stormy affair and a turning point for the Stones.
Her close friend Marianne Faithfull, Mick’s lover at the time, described how Anita brought a decadent shine to the group.
In her 1994 biography Faithfull, she said: “How Anita came to be with Brian is really the story of how the Stones became the Stones. She almost single-handedly engineered a cultural revolution in London by bringing together the Stones and the jeunesse dorée (gilded youth) . . .
“This transformed the Stones from pop stars into cultural icons.”
But her relationship with Brian turned violent. On holiday in Morocco in 1967, Keith saw Brian beating up Anita. He stepped in, took her to London with him and they stayed together for the next 13 years.
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In Anita, hellraiser Keith had met his match. He once said of her: “She knew everything and she could say it in five languages.”
Her distinctive style — floppy hats, fur coats and lots of jewellery — became the Stones’ look, with Keith even wearing her clothes. She held court among the band’s friends and hangers-on.
Marianne described “wicked Anita” as “dazzling, beautiful, hypnotic and unsettling . . . Other women evaporated next to her”.
But as the Stones got bigger, Anita got bored and turned to acting. In 1968 she appeared in the film Barbarella with Jane Fonda, then with Marlon Brando in Candy.
Keith wrote in his 2010 autobiography, Life, that Brando “kidnapped her one night and read her poetry and, when that failed, tried to seduce Anita and me together”.
Despite this, when the couple’s first son was born the following year, they named him Marlon. Even more scandalous was Anita’s appearance with Mick in the 1970 film Performance, which sparked rumours of an affair, something she always denied.
It was at this time that she started using heroin to combat boredom. Anita explained: “Me and Marianne Faithfull were always left alone, as Keith and Mick were recording, and we were friends. We hung out together, taking drugs together.”
In the ensuing years both Anita and Keith spiralled further into heroin addiction and alcohol abuse.
Tragically, in 1976, their ten-week-old son Tara died in his cot. Keith’s mother took their daughter Dandelion Angela (who was born in 1972) into her care, while seven-year-old Marlon endured a chaotic upbringing on the road with the band.
Anita was also becoming increasingly fascinated by witchcraft. Tony Sanchez, bodyguard and drug dealer to the band, wrote in his 2010 book, Up And Down With The Rolling Stones: “She was obsessed with black magic and began to carry a string of garlic with her everywhere — even to bed — to ward off vampires . . . She warned me never to interrupt her when she was working on a spell.”
Sanchez claims another of her hobbies was the “corruption of innocents”. He described how Anita “had a penchant for offering cocaine to the giggly, naive maids and nannies”.
He also says Anita’s 15-year-old neighbour Steve Levoie claimed to have been invited to orgies by her.
Levoie reportedly said: “The house was filthy and Anita was dirty herself . . . She had a lot of young boys who would come to the house all the time. She would ask for sex.”
Things came crashing down on February 27, 1977, when Anita and Keith got off a plane in Toronto, Canada, and were busted for possessing heroin. The judge gave them a choice — rehab or prison. Rehab worked for Keith but not for Anita, who endured one more terrible tragedy before getting clean.
In 1979, 17-year-old Scott Cantrell shot himself in the head at Anita and Keith’s mansion in New York.
Keith was away on tour and Scott, their groundsman, had become her lover. Anita was initially arrested for manslaughter amid claims they were playing Russian roulette, but his death was later ruled to be suicide.
She said of the tragedy: “I didn’t feel anything. That’s one of the wonders of drugs and drink.” Her relationship with Keith did not survive the incident and they split up in 1980. Asked how she felt, Anita said: “I was happy that I could score my own drugs. That’s the reality.”
It was 1987 before she got clean. She said: “(Drug addiction) is like the love of my life. It is a love affair I had to give up. I was on my own, my family did not want to see me.
“I was disgusting, aggressive, a very hard drinker. I was morose, not a happy drunk. I wanted to live. I took care of myself. I went to AA meetings and all that.”
In 1994 she did a fashion degree at Central Saint Martins in London, but soon got disillusioned with the fashion world, confessing in 2008: “It’s too nasty, too rip-off, too hard.”
In her later years, Anita, whose stunning looks had faded, spent her time gardening and with her five grandchildren. She also had two hip operations — she began drinking again after the second to deal with the pain — and suffered from hepatitis C.
Anita considered writing a memoir but decided not to because the publishers “all wanted salacious”.
Last August she said: “I am ready to die. I have done so much here.”
The cause of death is yet to be confirmed, but there is no doubt Anita lived her life to the full.
She once described herself as: “A vagabond. An adventurer. I am not a person with one specific talent. I wish I was.”
THE HITS SHE INSPIRED
GIMME SHELTER, 1969: Keith wrote this song while full of bitterness at Anita’s supposed affair with Mick Jagger.
WILD HORSES, 1971: Keith’s ode to Anita and their son Marlon, sad at leaving them to go on tour.
ANGIE, 1973: Written by Keith in rehab, the afternoon Anita had their daughter Angela.
BEAST OF BURDEN, 1978: Keith’s plea for mercy as their relationship disintegrates.