Anita Pallenberg lived through the wildest years of the Rolling Stones, went to hell and made it back

Just as the art world loves its legend of the muse, the woman who inspires creators, the world of rock ‘n’ roll adores its archetype of the groupie, the young fan dazzled by the shine of stars. Euterpe was the ancient Greek muse of musicians, one of the nine as chronicled by the poet Hesiod. But it is model-actress Anita Pallenberg who has been portrayed as equal parts muse and groupie to the Rolling Stones during their wildest years. In 1965, she snuck into the band’s dressing room during a Munich concert and wound up not leaving the members’ side for more than a decade, during which she lent a certain sophistication to the band’s image. She had a toxic relationship with Brian Jones, which ended prior to his 1969 drowning death in his own swimming pool; she had an affair with Mick Jagger and wound up married to Keith Richards, with whom she had three children, although one would die at just 10 weeks old. She accompanied the Stones in their various exiles: once in Nice, where they took refuge from British tax authorities, and in Switzerland, where they fled after a raid over suspected heroin possession — later, they would be locked up on the same charge in Toronto. She got high alongside the band as well, and once had an affair with a man who killed himself in her bedroom. After these tragedies, she wound up abandoned by everyone and suffering from addiction, begging for her next fix. But just when the world seemed to have forgotten her, Pallenberg got sober and for a few years, returned to her former glory.

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