Won't You Call Me, Miss O'Dell?: Q&A with Chris O'Dell

She worked at Apple and George Harrison ("Miss O'Dell") and Leon Russell ("Pisces Apple Lady") wrote songs about her. She worked for and became closely acquainted with everyone from the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, to Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton. After a chance meeting with Beatles press officer Derek Taylor in Los Angeles, she soon moved to London to aid the Beatles in their radical Apple schemes. She was twenty and they would soon churn out The White Album. She sang on "Hey Jude", watched the Beatles unravel and was present on that fateful rooftop. Soon after, she lived with George and Pattie Harrison, acting as a personal assistant and general cohort at their manor, Friar Park. With her acquired skills and worldly experiences, she was recruited as a member of the Stones' touring troupe. She ran drugs for Keith Richards and can be seen on the cover of Exile on Main St. But unlike many other tell-all tales of the period, O'Dell offers an interesting perspective, that of a working woman, a viable component in the rock and roll machine. She was one of the very first female tour managers, helming touring operations for the Stones, Crosby Stills Nash and Young, George Harrison, Bob Dylan and countless others. She experienced her first love and heartbreak with Leon Russell, just as he had turned from session mastermind to solo star. Another boyfriend, Jim Gordon (then of Derek and the Dominos, who later fatally stabbed his mother due to diagnosed schizophrenia), chased her rabidly around the band's London flat with a knife, while under the influence of cocaine. Chris O'Dell experienced rock and roll's prime period from every angle, before a quick jaunt in English aristocracy, as wife of the Honourable Anthony John Mark Russell, and mother of son William. O'Dell now works as an addiction counselor in her home town of Tuscan, Arizona. She penned the illuminating tome, Miss O'Dell: My Hard Days And Long Nights With The Beatles, The Stones, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton And The Women They Loved.

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Prior to your run in with Derek Taylor, what goals did you have for your future?

Can't say that I had any concrete goals.  I was just taking life as it came at that point.

Can you even imagine what life would have been like, if not for that serendipitous meeting?

I probably would have stayed in LA and in the music business.  Or gotten married!!

Of all the surely memorable music moments you have witnessed – from James Taylor serenading you in your bathroom, to the Beatles on the rooftop, to the countless performances you saw from an intimate point of view on tour - which stands as the most stunning musically, not necessarily historically?

I always remember being in the room when George was playing guitar and singing at Friar Park.  Or other places where it was just him playing spontaneously.  Same with Eric with him strumming his guitar in the den.  Those were the private and special moments.

If you can, sum it up for me in a sentence or two, what about the power of music kept you around for so long?

Music says what we cannot say ourselves.  It reaches a deep spiritual part of us and every time I sat in the studio or on the sided of the stage, I felt so complete.

You vaguely mention Lauren Bacall paying a visit to Apple, whom is one of my utter favorites. Were you there for that? If so, do tell!

Yes, I remember her coming with her two children one day.  They landed in Derek's office, I believe.  I don't remember if I actually saw them or the rumor just spread through the building - as it often did.

After your relationship with Leon Russell, it seems you found love vital to happiness – strongly contrasting your previous casual flings. Is that true?

I think it was my first rejection/broken heart.  That wakes anyone up to the value of relationship and love.  I certainly, like many girls, had the fantasy that there was this one guy out there for me.  But in fact it was several!!

The Jim Gordon incident is absolutely horrific. How was revisiting that tale and how does it feel in light of his later fatal attack on his mother?

Scary!  But at the time, I didn't realize the implications.  I just thought he was too high.

It seemed that at the time, you viewed your life as sort of boring if you were not in the company of people like George and Pattie Harrison. Would you say that is reflective of your confidence at the time?

Well, that would certainly be true.  But what was also true is that they were my friends.  I liked being with my friends.  Life was not boring however.  I was still hanging out with other friends like the Dominos and Mick Jagger.  But Pattie was my girlfriend.

I just recently viewed Cocksucker Blues for the first time, and you are included in a bit of that footage. The film depicts the Stones’ world as rather dark and sometimes unappealing. Did you see it that way? You do not particularly portray it that way.

That movie made every thing looked pretty base.  But that is how Robert Frank photographs life also.  He goes for the rough, dark side of life.  It wasn't quite that dark.  But it was nuts at times.

What became of the book on women in rock and roll you were writing with Pattie Boyd in the mid-eighties?

Still sitting in my closet.

I adore your tidbit about Cameron Crowe – any other charming tales of bumping into him throughout the years?

Cameron and I became great friends for a while.  He called me when Elvis died.  Today we have little contact but he did email me and congratulate me on my book.

You worked for Bill Graham, one of rock’s most powerful at that time. What were your thoughts on him personally, and how did it feel to be an important asset to that machine?

Bill was an amazing man.  I think he is the one man I worked for who was fair and loyal to his employees. I admired him.  But he was also rough and brash.

Nearly everyone that you worked with, from Bob Dylan to Mick Jagger, has a persona that has become synonymous with their existence. Would you say you plunged the depths and saw these people for who they really are – rather than who they’ve been made out to be?

I'm really not sure they are that much different.  They aren't actors who take on characters.  Musicians are who they are to a degree.  So, yes, I may have know them better - their vulnerabilities - but they were still the people we all saw.

You only briefly discuss your time spent touring with Led Zeppelin – what moment spent in their company was the most fun?

I actually only participated in one concert in Frankfurt.  After the concert we went to a club and got smashed.  That was fun.  Pattie reminded me recently that we went to a party after one of their concerts in LA and Robert Plant pushed her in the pool.  I don't remember that.

Now for general music talk, what was the last album you listened to in its entirety?

Leon and Elton's new album. [Leon Russell and Elton John's The Union]

Who and what are your top five favorite artists and albums?

I love Smokey Robinson, I love a lot of R&B.  In fact, that's about all I listen to now.  Classic Soul on XM.  But of course, the Beatles' music is also high on my list.  I have just about heard enough for a lifetime by now, however.  Love the Stones.  They are such a great rock and roll band.

Is there anyone you wish you had known, or known better?

I wish I had known Smokey Robinson.


You seem to have an optimistic outlook on life, what goals do you have for yourself now?

Right now, my goal is to help people with addiction and eventually retire with my husband to an island!!