trying to have some fun

 

------------------- [excerpts from Jerry Hall's 2010 book] --------------------

...I loved to party and dance and have fun.  But every time I did, Bryan seemed to disapprove.

        Back in Texas I had been a champion leg-wrestler and sometimes I told people about it, and once I even gave a demonstration, accompanied by a lot of hootin' and hollerin'.  Bryan was embarrassed and told me to stop, and I ended up in tears.

        Although we were engaged, Bryan wouldn't commit to setting a date for our wedding.  He was becoming more distant; he would often sit staring into the distance, deep in thought, for hours on end.

        Of course we didn't spend all our time alone.  We were good friends with David Bailey and his model wife Marie Helvin, and with Anthony Price and the rest of Bryan's band.  I would invite people over and try and give dinner parties and have some fun.  But often Bryan would either not join us for dinner or be rude and cold to my friends, especially if they were straight men.

        After the tour was over, late in 1976, Bryan decided to record a solo album.  He had done a lot of cover songs and was trying to write some songs of his own.  He worked in the basement with a keyboard and he became very moody and bad-tempered.  

        It was a cold winter and often dark and rainy and I felt very alone.  I was still only 20 and I missed the sun, my friends and my sisters.

        I used to tell Bryan about my twin Terry and the pact we'd made as kids - 'twins forever stick together'.  We'd put it at the end of our letters.  Bryan wrote a song, Let's Stick Together, which he released on an album of the same name and then as a single.  Both the album and the single were hits and I got to sing along on the video for the song.  

I even did a live performance with him, in New York at a small club called the Bottom Line.  

I painted myself with gold dust and I had on a leopard-skin swimsuit with a long tail at the back.  I came out hollerin' Texas-style and swung the tail around; I really hammed it up.  Antonio came to watch us, and so did Andy Warhol and Eileen and Jerry Ford and they all shouted 'bring back Jerry' once I had finished, which made Bryan very uncomfortable....

        Back in London The Rolling Stones came to town and we went to see their show.

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{Jerry Hall:  My life in pictures.  Curated by Jonathan Phang.  Quadrille Publishing.  Copyright 2010.}

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