THE AMAZING ROCK 'N' ROLL LIFE OF SALLY ARNOLD: How a NANNY became manager of the Rolling Stones
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: 'Rock n Roll Nanny,' a memoir written by Sally Arnold, who was the former manager of the Rolling Stones, has made some shocking revelations about her encounter with some of the big names in the industry, including Mick Jagger making sexual advances to her to have a threesome with Ronnie Wood.
According to Daily Mail, the former Norland Nanny came in to take care of Jade, which eventually turned out to be a qualification to be the manager of the band. According to her memoir, her experience as a nanny was recommended by an elite brigade of childcare specialists and favored by royalty and celebrities, landing her in the new manager role.
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She was patient, had extraordinary organizational skills, and was strict regarding working. These qualities enhanced her chances to be their first woman manager of the band. Sally reportedly says in her memoir, "Most of us were in our 20s when I started back in the 1970s, but looking after rock bands was like nannying overgrown kids; I took care of them. It was my duty to make sure they were safe, secure and happy, and got to the next gig on time." She continued, "I was with Jade, who was adorable, 24 hours a day, and she was getting too attached to me. When I was asked by Mick Jagger — via his assistant Alan Dunn — if I’d like to be tour manager instead, my initial response was, 'Why me? I’m a nanny,' and they said it was because the boys in the bands liked me and their wives trusted me."
"I’d phone them to wake them up, tell them when to pack their bags and check out of the hotel, what time to get on to the tour bus. I was supervising them every step of the way, exactly like five-year-olds. You have to be in control and quite bossy. And as the eldest of four children, I always was. Sometimes I even wrote them coded messages about sniffer dogs waiting at airports," Arnold said, adding, "I was visiting Mick at his house in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, and Woody [Ronnie Wood] was there too. They both said, 'Come upstairs,' and I said, 'Don’t be so stupid. It’s me, Nanny, your tour manager.' Mick said, 'Come on, baby girl. You know you want to.' I thought, 'I’m not going to fall for that tired old line,' and I never did." The 73-year-old added, "Men are so funny. They think every woman should fall into their lap. I preferred to be the one who didn’t sleep with the rock stars, even though there were hundreds who did."
Arnold also spoke about an incident with drummer Keith Moon in her book, "I went to their dressing room after a concert in Oxford and heard loud banging. My first sight of Keith was when he — quite literally — burst out of a wardrobe, planks of wood, splinters everywhere, screaming and shouting, 'Everybody f*** off out of my way!' But he became polite and charming when he’d calmed down. 'My dear girl, how very nice to meet you,' he said.'"
Arnold stated how she hunted to find Bob Burns, the drummer of the Southern American rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd. "I was thinking, 'Where the hell has he gone?' I found him in Hyde Park, completely stoned. I couldn’t get him out until the morning as the park had been locked. He left the band soon after that [in 1974], thank God." She also explained how she lost the love of her life, Lynyrd Skynyrd’s stage manager Dean Kilpatrick, when he died when the band’s private plane crashed in October 1977 in her memoir. "Sometimes, it still feels like it happened yesterday. I still look back with terrible sadness and think about what my life would have been if I’d married Dean. I adored him, and we would have had a wonderful life. I don’t think we’d have had children. The band was my children, and I’d have looked after them forever," she said.
Sally also opened up about her marriage to music promoter Paul Loasby in the memoir. “I knew it was a mistake pretty much straight away." Later, Sally explained, "I wouldn’t dare. I’d shock myself! I had flings with lots of roadies [band technicians and crew], especially because they were lovely guys.” Meanwhile, the 73-year-old currently lives alone in Devon. Musicians loved working with her and also composed songs for her. Eric Clapton’s 1977 hit ‘Lay Down Sally’ was an ode to Arnold. He said to her once, “It’s about you, ‘It’s all upbeat and bubbly — just like you are.” She said, “I wasn’t a fan of him. I don’t think you can work in the industry if you’re starstruck. I’d never bought a Rolling Stones’ record before I worked with them. I preferred classical music, and I sang with the London Symphony Chorus. It was my sanity in a mad world.”
Arnold wrote about her tour with the band to 22 cities. "Exhausting. During that tour I’d go to see the Berlin Philharmonic or the Paris Opera. I usually went on my own. It was a bit of peace and quiet away from the noise and eternal requests of the boys, although Charlie Watts [the Stones’ drummer] came with me once. On this tour there were covered amps on stage behind the band, hidden by drapes, and one side was for the heroin, the other for cocaine. Keith [Richards] and Woody [Ronnie Wood] also smoked 'dirty' cigarettes. They’d empty out some of the tobacco and replace it with whatever drug they were using," she wrote. She also explained when she overheard Princess Margaret, who was attending Stones’ Earl’s Court show, saying, “Ah, cocaine. Such an amusing drug, don’t you think?" Sally wrote, "Did the princess take it? I’ll never know.”
The former manager then added, "We were all in my bedroom at a hotel in London and I was sitting at my desk doing the account. The boys — Keith and Woody — took a picture off the wall and put a line of white powder on it. I assumed it was cocaine. It was heroin. I’d never seen white heroin before and I’d never have taken it if I’d known. I had a huge line of it and was horribly ill. Both Keith and Woody were so kind. They stayed with me for hours, just looking after me long after everyone else had gone.This was just the sort of thing you’d see on rock’n’roll tours on private planes. I was so bored and uninterested I just went back to sleep."
She also explained of an episode with Clement Freud. She wrote, "He’d become a bit of a mentor; he seemed clever and amusing and he taught me about food and how to cook. But one day he sat behind his desk and told me, 'Come here. Kneel down.' And he held my head down and forced me to perform oral sex on him. It was sickening but I had no idea I could complain. And despite this I stayed friends with him and he’d take me out to meals and teach me how to eat caviar and other exotic food. But he used to enjoy intimidating people; there was a very menacing side to him."
Arnold also explained her encounter with musician Pete Townshend, "Pete was sexually abused himself, by one of his grandmother’s gentlemen callers. There is a correlation between an absent father figure and childhood abuse; he was also trying to research the connection between drug-taking and abuse and he stumbled across these weird sites. But he was far too honourable to be involved in viewing child porn. I know from the charity work he did, from the way he behaved around children — his own and other people’s — that the charges were absolutely untrue." What does she do currently? "Going to the cinema in the daytime. It feels the most decadent treat of all," she reportedly said.