Jo Jo with former husband and Wings guitarist Denny Laine'Rock chick' Jo Jo Laine dies after falling down the stairs
Jo Jo Laine - one of the original 'rock chicks' - has died after hitting her head falling down a flight of stairs. The 53-year-old, who married Wings guitarist Denny Laine after meeting him backstage at a gig, had been in a coma since the accident last week. Miss Laine, who was suffering from liver cancer, was one of the most famous figures on the seventies rock scene. The flamboyant former model counted Jimi Hendrix, Rod Stewart and Jim Morrison among her many lovers and travelled the world with Paul and Linda McCartney as Denny's wife.
Before her death the mother of three spoke of her sadness at the accusations levelled against Sir Paul by his estranged wife Heather Mills. 'This is not the Paul I know', she said. 'He would never raise his hand to a woman and always refused cocaine when it was offered to him on tour. 'These allegations are all rubbish.'
Miss Laine's daughter Heidi, 31, said: 'In many ways it is a release for her. My brothers and I are very upset they we are never going to see our mother again. 'She was so full of life that it seems impossible she is gone'.
Miss Laine, who was born Joanne LaPatrie in Boston, Massachusetts, gave herself the nickname Jo Jo in fanletters she wrote to Sir Paul when he was in The Beatles, little dreaming that a few years later she would sharing a tour bus with him. At 17 she moved to LA where she began working as a model and was soon gracing the covers of Vogue. From there she was propelled into the hedonistic world of rock, mixing with stars including Rod Stewart. Ringo Starr and George Harrison.
She lost her virginity to Jimi Hendrix after meeting him backstage at Woodstock in 1969. In an interview with the Daily Mail two years ago she described how the next few years passed in a blur of drink and drugs.
She met Laine at the age of 20 when she was introduced to Wings after going to see them in concert. 'It was the ultimate groupie's dream. I was on the tour bus, going everywhere with them. Linda wasn't happy at first. 'But she relaxed a little eventually, although we never became close'.
She and her husband went on to have two children, Laine and Heidi, before marrying in 1978. However she filed for divorce after discovering he had been having a fling with her best friend.
Miss Laine had her third son Boston in 1983 after falling for builder Peter O'Donohue. In her later years she became one of the infamous 'wifelets' of Alexander Thynn, the Marquess of Bath, ensconced in a cottage on his 10,000 acre Longeat estate where she shared him with a number of his other girlfriends.
She moved back to her London home in 1996 but by then her years of drinking had taken a toll on her liver. Miss Laine was diagnosed with liver cancer and her condition had been deteriorating before the fall last week at Yew Corner, the house she had once lived in with Laine and to which she often returned by invite of the new owners.
She never recovered consciousness after the fall and died at St George's Hospital in Tooting on Sunday.
