If the roads leading to a 1971 Steppenwolf concert at Barton Coliseum in Arkansas weren’t so clogged, Connie Hamzy may have never taken the road to rock ‘n’ roll infamy. To beat the heavy traffic, Connie’s mother dropped her fifteen-year-old daughter off at the Coliseum’s front doors hours before the concert began. Once inside, Connie charmed her way backstage and consensually “visited” drummer Jerry Edmonton. Her innocent Arkansan days were over.
Once she had a taste of the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle, she no longer needed car rides from her mother; groups like Mountain and the Eagles paid for her plane fare. In 2010, when Howard Stern asked her if the flights were to offer sexual favors, the perpetually good-natured Connie replied, “Well, of course! They don’t mean for me to be a flight attendant.” In the 2010 documentary, I’m with the Band, Connie recalled her mile-high fling with Eagle Don Henley:
“I had my eyes closed, because that’s what you do when you’re making love, before feeling another set of hands on me, and it was the pilot. Then I realized, ‘Who could be flying this thing?’ Don tells me not to worry, it’s on autopilot. My only complaint is that they didn’t ask me how I felt. I mean, it can’t be safe to put the plane on autopilot, can it?”…