Playmates got $5,000 then and I said, “If I beat you, I have to be the first Playmate that you pay $10,000.” He said, “It’s a deal, but if you win, I have to pay you that money privately or else the other Playmates will expect it too.” I had to sign an NDA. He bet me I could not beat him at Monopoly. I made a bet with him that I had to keep secret my whole life. So that’s how I got to Chicago and stayed at the original Playboy mansion and played Monopoly with Hugh Hefner. She asked if she could show them to magazines and I said, “Only Playboy.” They wanted to meet me. The brilliant photographer Lynn Goldsmith was over at our townhouse one day and we were having some wine together and she said, “Let’s take some arty pictures.” Meaning, let’s take some nudes. When you’re a successful model and then you do Playboy, and then turn around and say you’re more of a singer than a model, people roll their eyes. I’ve been battling labels and name-calling and shaming for a long time. You praise all the strong women in your life in the song “By a Woman.” She was my first strong female influence. She took one hit of pot and what would come out of her mouth was like heaven drenched in chocolate. She wasn’t a singer yet, but I’d go over to her loft on 23rd Street and she had this big mirror and together we’d put on Raw Power and pretend to be rock stars. She and I hit it off like a house on fire. I wrote poems a lot and instantly became friends with Patti Smith, who had dated Todd. I very quickly became rock royalty: There was Mick and Bianca, Angie and David, Bebe and Todd. He came down and Todd and I made eye contact and there was an immediate connection that you can’t deny. You had to throw a penny at Todd’s window because he didn’t have a doorbell and he lived on the second floor.
Playboy bebe buell driver#
The scene in Taxi Driver where Jodie Foster is leaning up against the door? That’s right there.
I looked at him and said, “Wow, he’s fantastic.” So we pulled up to 13th Street between Second and Third, and in those days, that neighborhood was dangerous. I said, “Who’s that?” He happened to have an issue of Rolling Stone in the car and they had just done a story on Todd. He’d take us out dancing in New York and one night he was taking me to see Man of La Mancha, and said, “I have to stop by my friend’s house and drop off some tapes.” And it was Todd Rundgren. I met this guy on the modeling circuit, who was gay and not interested in any of the models. Your relationship with Todd was legendary. My first four dates were with Todd Rundgren, David Bowie, Iggy Pop and Mick. I just thought it was part of the uniform. I’d stand in front of the mirror and copy him, and I’d put a sock down my pants so I had a nice bulge.
Do you remember when that began?Īs early as five I’d stick my leg out in a rock stance for family pictures.
You developed a love for rock & roll well before you became a model. We talked to Buell, who will bring her live show to New York’s Joe’s Pub on April 29th, about writing her new album, playing Monopoly with Hugh Hefner and the time she carried Steven Tyler home.
What’s important is where you go and how you go.” “I don’t think people should have an age. “Ageism is one of my crusades,” says Buell, picking at a salad at her favorite Nashville coffee shop.