There's even Jack Nicholson, who tells Buell she should forget about all those 'sleazy' rock guys-and has sex with her up against a Volkswagen.ĭespite the high jinks, 'Rebel Heart' can be tremendously poignant. There's the drug-addicted Tyler, whom she falls for at first sight ('He and I were the only ones wearing leopard skin that night'). Why don't we give this fruit basket to the raccoon and put them both in the bathroom?'). Would you like some cocaine? Are you hungry? I've got a great idea. There's the gentlemanly Page, who opens his hotel-room door with a bow ('Come in, darling. There's the cultivated, mischievous Jagger, who coaches Buell about wine and skin-care products and teases her about Tyler ('What do you want the fake Mick for when you've got the real one?'). 'Rebel Heart,' which was written with Victor Bockris, can be as rambling as an acceptance speech. Liv'll just sort of say to me after, 'Mom, you should have worn a different color underwear'.'īuell airs even more laundry in her memoir, 'Rebel Heart,' a funny and scandalous Alice in Wonderland story about a former Catholic-school girl who comes to New York as a teenager to model and stumbles into a strange world where everybody's snorting coke off the looking glass. 'I don't do it all the time, but sometimes the Iggy does enter my blood and I do get outrageous onstage. 'I think she would prefer it if I didn't take my pants off when I performed,' she says. Later, when you ask if her daughter is ever embarrassed by the Bebe Show, Buell reflects for a moment. She belts out some bright punk tunes, dances and struts like Tyler and Jagger, strokes the microphone stand suggestively and shakes her hair (among other things).

Buell is playful, magnetic and clearly exhilarated at being the rock star for a change. On a July evening Buell, 48, and her band take the stage at CBGB's in New York. 'Let me beat you up! Then make up your mind.' Fair enough. 'Come to one of my shows!' she'll tell you.

Before you judge Bebe Buell-before you dismiss her as merely the mother of Liv Tyler, or the ex-girlfriend of Steven Tyler, or the ex-girlfriend of Jimmy Page, Mick Jagger, Iggy Pop, Rod Stewart, Elvis Costello and Todd Rundgren-you really should see her rock.

Rebel Heart by Bebe Buell