“My job started in California, where the Stones lived for three months while finishing their album Exile on Main Street. The whole of Los Angeles seemed gripped by Stones fever, and fans were desperately searching for their idols' hideaway. But no one had traced them to Beverly Hills' Stone Canyon, where they all lived on the same block.
My life with them soon settled into an uneasy routine. Cooking itself was no simple matter...I'd be bringing the sauce to the crucial stage when one of the Micks would saunter in and shove a child in my arms. I became an expert one-armed cook.
[Anita Pallenberg] was pregnant with her second child when we met. We quickly became friends and often took long walks in the Canyon, where she would reminisce about the Stones' early days. "Everything was fresh then," she'd say. "We weren't snobby or pretentious and we didn't take on airs. Now the only thing the women are interested in doing is outdressing and outdoing each other."
How right she was - I soon saw many examples of what she meant. The most hilarious was Rose's relentless aping of Bianca. At one time Bianca started wearing riding suits and carrying a little riding crop, which she used to emphasize what she was saying. So Rose got one, too. I was playing on the floor with Chloe once when they both came in - identically dressed. When Bianca started lashing a pillow with her whip, Rose attacked a chair with hers. Bianca never seemed to realize she was being mimicked, and Rose never realized how ridiculous she looked.
Anita's own looks - and Keith's, for that matter - were marred by awful black teeth. This, she explained, was a side effect of heroin. "We've both decided not to have our teeth fixed," she said. "We want to leave something ugly and unglamorous about ourselves to show people like Bianca and Rose we're not trying to fake the agony."
Another thing that took some getting used to was the rolled-up $20 and $50 bills I'd find stuffed in the sofa. I was a bit naïve at the time. Rose had to tell me they were used to snort cocaine. I'd also been finding little piles of what looked like talc, and I'd promptly vacuum them up. When Rose caught me doing this, she said, "Janie, we like you very much, but you're costing us a great deal of money. You just sucked about a gram of coke into the hoover."
Mick Taylor was developing serious problems. He'd walk around the house muttering about his loneliness, worrying that the group was taking over his life. The atmosphere of tension got worse. He would spend hours playing the same riff over and over on the piano, while Rose would march about slamming doors. Once she actually collapsed in my arms, crying about not being married to Mick, anxious about the responsibility of the child.
As bad as the London days were, they were carefree compared to the next stage. To rehearse for their coming tour, the Stones had rented a big, empty movie theater in Geneva. With the exception of Bianca, the whole entourage flew to Switzerland.
Leaving London was especially disastrous for Mick Taylor. Cooped up in a hotel room, he and Rose fought all the time. At one point, Rose took me aside. "Mick has just seen a doctor," she confided, "and we all have to be very careful. He's on the border of a nervous breakdown." That touched me off - I became quite depressed. For the first time, I began to wonder how long I could hold out in this madness. I was getting much too involved in everyone's problems.
For me, the final blow came soon afterward, when Mick Taylor cracked up. One night he took his favorite guitar - the one he'd used for Exile on Main Street - smashed it over a vase of flowers, then spent the rest of the night weeping on the edge of his bed.
It was time to take stock of my life, especially of my life with Chloe. The child was nearly two then, still not talking, and developing the nervous habit of pulling out her short blonde hair. It was apparent that she wasn't seeing enough of her mother, and was getting too attached to me. A few days after Mick smashed his guitar, I said my goodbyes.”
