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Hamzy had her first groupie experience in 1970 when Steppenwolf played Little Rock's Barton Coliseum. To beat the traffic, her mother dropped her and a girlfriend off at the show several hours early. "I knew where the backstage door was because I'd go back there to get autographs when I was kid. So my girlfriend and I walked around back, and there was a limousine sitting there. Steppenwolf's road manager saw us and invited us back to the hotel to pick up the band. And we said Sure ." My girlfriend was with their lead singer in one room, and I was with their drummer in another room. We didn't have sex, but he got me out of my top. I was only 15." A month later, Hamzy lost her virginity to the drummer of Frijid Pink, a Detroit band that had minor success with covers of "Heartbreak Hotel" and "House of the Rising Sun."
"She was such a sweet kid when I first met her, wide-eyed and innocent," recalls Jonnie King, a DJ at Little Rock's KAAY in the early 1970's who met Hamzy when she was a freshman in high school. "For her, being a groupie was about being accepted. She needed attention and affection, and maybe that was the only way she knew how to get it. When I saw her a couple of years later, she wasn't the same little girl. The sweetness had dissolved and there was a harshness."
By 16, Hamzy was backstage at nearly every concert that came to Little Rock, from Three Dog Night to the Carpenters. She had blossomed into a dark-haired beauty and was becoming known for her willingness to experiment with drugs and sex. As her reputation in the music industry grew, managers and promoters began flying her to shows around the country. "They'd leave prepaid tickets at the airport, and I'd get on a plane and go. I did that with Grand Funk and Alice Cooper. One time I left on a private plane with Leslie West in Mountain. I was 16."
"While the other high-school girls were trying out for cheerleading, Connie was hanging out with Cheech and Chong and Humble Pie," says Constance Canfield, a longtime friend and former bi-sexual lover of Hamzy's. "Being a groupie gave her an identity. Even today, it defines who she is."
"I've been a groupie for almost 35 years, and I still love it," says Hamzy. "I love the camaraderie with the musicians and the roadies, and everyone who works in the business. A lot of these people are my friends. Some of them I even consider family."
A few hours later, Hamzy and I are sitting at the bar in Coulton's Steakhouse, finishing lunch. We're discussing Almost Famous , Cameron Crowe's autobiographical love letter to '70s rock'n'roll, in which Kate Hudson plays a beautiful groupie named Penny Lane.
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