1 00:00:00,160 --> 00:00:03,440 Speaker 1: This episode contains content that may be disturbing to some listeners. 2 00:00:03,840 --> 00:00:08,680 Speaker 1: Please check the show notes for more information. Disgraceland is 3 00:00:08,680 --> 00:00:23,960 Speaker 1: a production of Double Elvis. The stories about Grace Jones 4 00:00:24,520 --> 00:00:31,400 Speaker 1: are fascinating. She was a true crime magnet, arrested, set up, invaded. 5 00:00:32,120 --> 00:00:36,120 Speaker 1: She was a global superstar, an actor, model, a multi 6 00:00:36,200 --> 00:00:39,920 Speaker 1: hyphen icon of the nineteen eighties, as big an attention 7 00:00:40,080 --> 00:00:43,519 Speaker 1: grabbing as Max Headroom in New Coke. And she of 8 00:00:43,600 --> 00:00:48,680 Speaker 1: course made great music, unlike that music I played for 9 00:00:48,720 --> 00:00:51,680 Speaker 1: you at the top of the show. That wasn't great music. 10 00:00:52,320 --> 00:00:55,560 Speaker 1: That was a preset loop for my melotron called New 11 00:00:55,680 --> 00:01:00,480 Speaker 1: Kind of Bond Girl MK One. I played you loop 12 00:01:00,720 --> 00:01:04,760 Speaker 1: because I can't afford the rights to the look by Roxette. 13 00:01:05,360 --> 00:01:07,959 Speaker 1: And why would I play you that specific slice of 14 00:01:08,160 --> 00:01:12,960 Speaker 1: platinum flat top Cheese? Could I afford it? Because that 15 00:01:13,640 --> 00:01:16,919 Speaker 1: was the number one song in America on April eighth, 16 00:01:17,160 --> 00:01:20,800 Speaker 1: nineteen eighty nine, And that was the day Grace Jones 17 00:01:20,880 --> 00:01:24,440 Speaker 1: was arrested and thrown into a Jamaican jail cell, where 18 00:01:24,480 --> 00:01:27,600 Speaker 1: she feared that her incredible life up to this point 19 00:01:28,080 --> 00:01:33,360 Speaker 1: might be coming to a quick end. On this episode 20 00:01:33,600 --> 00:01:38,119 Speaker 1: and arrest a setup a home invasion in eighties icon 21 00:01:38,280 --> 00:01:43,720 Speaker 1: and true crime magnet Grace Jones. I'm Jake Brennan, and 22 00:01:43,920 --> 00:02:20,040 Speaker 1: this this Disgrace Land. April first, nineteen eighty nine, Stony Hill, Jamaica. 23 00:02:20,680 --> 00:02:24,600 Speaker 1: Forty year old Grace Jones was hearing voices, too many 24 00:02:24,639 --> 00:02:27,280 Speaker 1: to count and too muffled to know their true purpose. 25 00:02:28,000 --> 00:02:35,000 Speaker 1: They sounded vengeful, diabolical, like a living, breathing conspiracy. At first, 26 00:02:35,000 --> 00:02:37,200 Speaker 1: she thought they were coming from inside the room, that 27 00:02:37,360 --> 00:02:40,560 Speaker 1: she was becoming one of those paranoid types here on 28 00:02:40,600 --> 00:02:44,960 Speaker 1: the island. Perhaps the voices belonged to duppies, the malevolent 29 00:02:45,040 --> 00:02:50,080 Speaker 1: spirits of Jamaican folklore, souls of the dead, veil piercers, 30 00:02:50,120 --> 00:02:54,040 Speaker 1: somehow lurking in the land of the living, mumbling, searching 31 00:02:54,120 --> 00:02:57,120 Speaker 1: for the flesh and blood of an unsuspecting warm body, 32 00:02:57,639 --> 00:03:03,960 Speaker 1: somebody scared, somebody afraid, some one like Grace Jones. She 33 00:03:04,080 --> 00:03:07,440 Speaker 1: shuddered at the thought. She looked around the dark room, 34 00:03:07,440 --> 00:03:10,440 Speaker 1: and there were no duppies here. There was only her boyfriend, 35 00:03:10,720 --> 00:03:15,560 Speaker 1: the record producer Chris Stanley, fast asleep in bed. This 36 00:03:15,760 --> 00:03:19,680 Speaker 1: was Chris's place, which also housed his recording studio, where 37 00:03:19,720 --> 00:03:22,360 Speaker 1: he and Grace were putting the finishing touches on her 38 00:03:22,400 --> 00:03:26,359 Speaker 1: new album, bullet Proof Heart. But Chris had been sick. 39 00:03:26,919 --> 00:03:29,359 Speaker 1: The stroke put him in a brief coma, left him 40 00:03:29,360 --> 00:03:34,200 Speaker 1: with brain damage, and now sleep came often, and as 41 00:03:34,280 --> 00:03:38,960 Speaker 1: Chris slept, the voices continued a little clearer. Now Grace 42 00:03:39,000 --> 00:03:41,800 Speaker 1: could tell they weren't coming from inside the bedroom. They 43 00:03:41,800 --> 00:03:44,800 Speaker 1: were coming from the next room over, the room where 44 00:03:44,800 --> 00:03:48,160 Speaker 1: she dumped her stuff when she arrived here today, her jacket, 45 00:03:48,360 --> 00:03:52,360 Speaker 1: her hat, her purse. She assumed the voices belonged to 46 00:03:52,400 --> 00:03:55,560 Speaker 1: one of Chris's studio employees, who was probably here with 47 00:03:55,600 --> 00:03:59,560 Speaker 1: her friends. Grace barely knew the girl, which she didn't 48 00:03:59,560 --> 00:04:02,360 Speaker 1: trust her. There was tension anytime the two were in 49 00:04:02,400 --> 00:04:05,160 Speaker 1: the same room. The girl didn't hide the fact that 50 00:04:05,240 --> 00:04:08,640 Speaker 1: she was jealous of all the time Grace spent with Chris. 51 00:04:09,360 --> 00:04:12,160 Speaker 1: Grace had no evidence, but she imagined a scenario in 52 00:04:12,200 --> 00:04:15,120 Speaker 1: which this employee did something that led to Chris's illness, 53 00:04:15,480 --> 00:04:19,760 Speaker 1: poisoned hisus food. Perhaps it sounded crazy, but then again 54 00:04:19,800 --> 00:04:23,440 Speaker 1: it didn't. And now Grace wondered if a horde of 55 00:04:23,520 --> 00:04:26,440 Speaker 1: kleptos were currently going through the contents of her things 56 00:04:26,440 --> 00:04:30,039 Speaker 1: in the other room with their sticky fingers, desperately seeking something, 57 00:04:30,720 --> 00:04:34,599 Speaker 1: just like Duppies, those ghosts out for blood, seeking something 58 00:04:34,920 --> 00:04:42,440 Speaker 1: that belonged to Grace Jones. Grace Jones, the enduring icon 59 00:04:42,480 --> 00:04:47,039 Speaker 1: of disco club fashion, Grace Jones the model, Grace Jones 60 00:04:47,080 --> 00:04:50,560 Speaker 1: the singer, the actress, the bond villain, the woman with 61 00:04:50,600 --> 00:04:54,400 Speaker 1: a face as recognizable as Princess Die, as Boy George, 62 00:04:54,560 --> 00:04:57,599 Speaker 1: as Max Headroom, Pee Wee Herman, or any other face 63 00:04:57,640 --> 00:05:04,599 Speaker 1: that came to define the nineteen eighties. Grace Jones, however, 64 00:05:04,920 --> 00:05:09,240 Speaker 1: exuded a different kind of cultural energy. With her chiseled jawline, 65 00:05:09,440 --> 00:05:12,920 Speaker 1: her flat top fade, her oversized shoulder pads, and one 66 00:05:12,920 --> 00:05:15,880 Speaker 1: of the deepest and most cutting edge closets in the game, 67 00:05:16,320 --> 00:05:19,640 Speaker 1: Grace Jones looked like she had simultaneously stepped out of 68 00:05:19,640 --> 00:05:22,560 Speaker 1: the past and the future, like when she once made 69 00:05:22,560 --> 00:05:25,560 Speaker 1: her entrance into New York City's famed Studio fifty four 70 00:05:25,640 --> 00:05:29,040 Speaker 1: for her own birthday party, dressed as the ancient Egyptian 71 00:05:29,120 --> 00:05:34,839 Speaker 1: queen Nephertiti while riding a Harley. Her look, her style, 72 00:05:35,120 --> 00:05:38,400 Speaker 1: her vibe, even the music that she made it pushed 73 00:05:38,440 --> 00:05:42,039 Speaker 1: the envelope and did so by design. Ever since she 74 00:05:42,120 --> 00:05:44,720 Speaker 1: left her home country of Jamaica for the United States. 75 00:05:44,720 --> 00:05:47,719 Speaker 1: Since she was a teenager. She had built her life 76 00:05:48,040 --> 00:05:51,760 Speaker 1: and her art around risk because she had been denied 77 00:05:51,880 --> 00:05:56,440 Speaker 1: taking those risks growing up. If you, like Grace Jones, 78 00:05:56,440 --> 00:05:59,520 Speaker 1: took those risks as a kid in Jamaica, you were punished. 79 00:06:00,120 --> 00:06:03,320 Speaker 1: You felt the sting of your grandmother's new husband's leather belt, 80 00:06:03,560 --> 00:06:06,760 Speaker 1: the whack of the headmaster's cruel ruler, and the curse 81 00:06:06,760 --> 00:06:10,680 Speaker 1: of your hometown's Pentecostal bishop, who made sure Grace's parents 82 00:06:10,720 --> 00:06:14,880 Speaker 1: knew in no uncertain terms that their daughter was the devil. 83 00:06:15,640 --> 00:06:18,720 Speaker 1: The best way that Grace knew to distance herself from 84 00:06:18,720 --> 00:06:22,200 Speaker 1: the trauma of her past was to take risks. It 85 00:06:22,320 --> 00:06:24,520 Speaker 1: was what separated her from those who wanted her to 86 00:06:24,560 --> 00:06:28,440 Speaker 1: be so terrified that she would remain a meek, safe, 87 00:06:28,839 --> 00:06:34,560 Speaker 1: boring person just like all the rest. But Grace Jones 88 00:06:34,920 --> 00:06:38,600 Speaker 1: was not like anyone else. She knew this, and so 89 00:06:38,680 --> 00:06:40,680 Speaker 1: did the man sleeping in the bed next to her 90 00:06:40,760 --> 00:06:44,920 Speaker 1: in this house high in the hills above Kingston, Grace 91 00:06:45,000 --> 00:06:48,159 Speaker 1: watched chrisle while listening to the voices in the next 92 00:06:48,240 --> 00:06:53,880 Speaker 1: room rise and fall, and suddenly they stopped. The silence 93 00:06:54,200 --> 00:06:58,599 Speaker 1: was deafening, and then cutting through the bedroom window the bright, 94 00:06:58,760 --> 00:07:03,159 Speaker 1: blinding blue swirl of police lights. She heard a knocked 95 00:07:03,279 --> 00:07:06,600 Speaker 1: front door of the house, followed by more voices, this 96 00:07:06,720 --> 00:07:11,760 Speaker 1: time louder, deeper, male voices, a couple of police officers 97 00:07:11,800 --> 00:07:16,280 Speaker 1: talking with Chris's employee and her friends, and then another 98 00:07:16,320 --> 00:07:20,960 Speaker 1: moment of silence, followed by another knock, this time on 99 00:07:21,040 --> 00:07:25,119 Speaker 1: the door of the bedroom Grace was in. Grace opened 100 00:07:25,160 --> 00:07:27,960 Speaker 1: the door, confused and even more out of sorts than 101 00:07:27,960 --> 00:07:30,800 Speaker 1: when she was when the voices had begun minutes ago. 102 00:07:31,320 --> 00:07:35,960 Speaker 1: Standing before her were two Kingston cops. It wasn't so 103 00:07:36,040 --> 00:07:38,640 Speaker 1: much their presence that surprised her, it was what they 104 00:07:38,640 --> 00:07:42,440 Speaker 1: were holding, Grace's purse in one hand and in the 105 00:07:42,480 --> 00:07:50,320 Speaker 1: other a bag of cocaine. Twenty something years earlier, in Syracuse, 106 00:07:50,440 --> 00:07:53,559 Speaker 1: New York, Grace Jones was arrested for the first time 107 00:07:54,080 --> 00:07:58,080 Speaker 1: disorderly conduct for kicking a CoP's car. She and her 108 00:07:58,120 --> 00:08:00,880 Speaker 1: siblings had just moved to the United States, sent for 109 00:08:01,120 --> 00:08:05,000 Speaker 1: by their parents, who had already emigrated years earlier. It 110 00:08:05,040 --> 00:08:08,640 Speaker 1: was the late nineteen sixties. Grace began wearing her hair 111 00:08:08,640 --> 00:08:12,280 Speaker 1: in an afro with two pairs of false eyelashes, just 112 00:08:12,360 --> 00:08:16,480 Speaker 1: like the Queen Supreme Diana Ross. She painted her lips 113 00:08:16,600 --> 00:08:19,520 Speaker 1: orange in her eyelid's bright green so that the colors 114 00:08:19,520 --> 00:08:22,480 Speaker 1: would really pop against her skin, skin that was so 115 00:08:22,720 --> 00:08:25,920 Speaker 1: dark they used to call her Firefly back home because 116 00:08:26,000 --> 00:08:28,720 Speaker 1: at night he could only see her eyes and her teeth. 117 00:08:29,760 --> 00:08:31,960 Speaker 1: She lived as a nudist for a month and dropped 118 00:08:32,040 --> 00:08:34,640 Speaker 1: acid for the first time at a hippie commune. She 119 00:08:34,760 --> 00:08:37,880 Speaker 1: moved Philadelphia, where she was arrested for the second, third, 120 00:08:38,080 --> 00:08:41,760 Speaker 1: and fourth times, each time for simply walking down the 121 00:08:41,800 --> 00:08:46,840 Speaker 1: street holding her white Italian boyfriend's hand. The cops took 122 00:08:46,880 --> 00:08:49,640 Speaker 1: one look at the Caucasian with the flamboyantly dressed black 123 00:08:49,640 --> 00:08:53,439 Speaker 1: woman on his arm and assumed she was a prostitute. 124 00:08:53,559 --> 00:08:56,320 Speaker 1: When it came to the Philadelphia police, they were no 125 00:08:56,440 --> 00:09:01,040 Speaker 1: different from that Jamaican bishop. Grace was there because she 126 00:09:01,080 --> 00:09:04,280 Speaker 1: stood out, because she was unorthodox and dared to live 127 00:09:04,320 --> 00:09:07,200 Speaker 1: out loud, cracking a whip on stage as a go 128 00:09:07,200 --> 00:09:10,680 Speaker 1: go dancer, an androgynous vision in black leather pants for 129 00:09:10,760 --> 00:09:13,640 Speaker 1: one of her first fashion shoots alongside the Chamber Brothers 130 00:09:13,640 --> 00:09:17,640 Speaker 1: in Essence magazine, and soon she upped the ante from 131 00:09:17,679 --> 00:09:21,240 Speaker 1: Philly to New York City, where standing out was held 132 00:09:21,280 --> 00:09:25,520 Speaker 1: against her audition after audition, it was the same thing. 133 00:09:26,120 --> 00:09:29,960 Speaker 1: She was too black, her features were too angular, too strange. 134 00:09:30,880 --> 00:09:34,400 Speaker 1: No matter, Grace was not discouraged. She was fueled by 135 00:09:34,400 --> 00:09:37,680 Speaker 1: the rejection. She sought out modeling agencies that were looking 136 00:09:37,720 --> 00:09:40,800 Speaker 1: for something different, the same ones that like her, were 137 00:09:41,080 --> 00:09:44,320 Speaker 1: seduced by risk, and she went to the places where 138 00:09:44,360 --> 00:09:49,280 Speaker 1: the strange ones congregated. At Les Jardin, a discotheque located 139 00:09:49,280 --> 00:09:52,360 Speaker 1: at forty third and Broadway, she danced to the sounds 140 00:09:52,360 --> 00:09:55,880 Speaker 1: of early disco while lou reed, Jackie on Nassis and 141 00:09:55,960 --> 00:09:59,480 Speaker 1: Eliza Manelli blended into a sea of drag queens, a 142 00:09:59,559 --> 00:10:03,120 Speaker 1: place where standing against a back wall, John and Yoko 143 00:10:03,320 --> 00:10:07,800 Speaker 1: gossiped with Andy Warhol. Andy, for one, never turned his 144 00:10:07,840 --> 00:10:10,840 Speaker 1: back on the room anymore, not since he'd been shot 145 00:10:10,880 --> 00:10:14,160 Speaker 1: by that crazy woman in his studio. Grace wasn't there 146 00:10:14,200 --> 00:10:16,520 Speaker 1: when it happened, but in a way, she felt like 147 00:10:16,600 --> 00:10:20,400 Speaker 1: she was, because what was quickly becoming apparent was that 148 00:10:20,559 --> 00:10:23,760 Speaker 1: even though she would soon become known as an exhibitionist 149 00:10:23,760 --> 00:10:29,280 Speaker 1: and a provocateur, Grace Jones was in fact something else. Entirely, 150 00:10:29,960 --> 00:11:03,360 Speaker 1: she was a magnet for true crime. The Jamaican jail 151 00:11:03,400 --> 00:11:08,120 Speaker 1: cell was small, a concrete floor, a bench, also concrete, 152 00:11:08,400 --> 00:11:12,559 Speaker 1: a small toilet, and a blanket. By day two, those 153 00:11:12,600 --> 00:11:15,720 Speaker 1: initial feelings of disorientation in fear that Grace Jones had 154 00:11:15,760 --> 00:11:18,760 Speaker 1: first experienced when she was handcuffed and hauled away from 155 00:11:18,800 --> 00:11:22,000 Speaker 1: her producer and lover, Chris Stanley's house, were long gone. 156 00:11:23,120 --> 00:11:30,400 Speaker 1: Those feelings were now replaced by panic. The cops said 157 00:11:30,400 --> 00:11:32,920 Speaker 1: it was opened and shut. They had been called Chris 158 00:11:32,920 --> 00:11:35,920 Speaker 1: Stanley's house on an anonymous tip, and when they arrived 159 00:11:35,960 --> 00:11:38,280 Speaker 1: they found a baggy of cocaine hid inside a two 160 00:11:38,320 --> 00:11:41,640 Speaker 1: dollar bill in Grace's purse. It was a small amount, 161 00:11:42,040 --> 00:11:45,240 Speaker 1: just zero point zero zero seven of an ounce, but 162 00:11:45,400 --> 00:11:49,960 Speaker 1: cocaine was cocaine, and cocaine was illegal, and now the 163 00:11:50,000 --> 00:11:54,600 Speaker 1: illegal cocaine having Grace Jones was fucked. And on top 164 00:11:54,640 --> 00:11:58,680 Speaker 1: of that, the voices were back, this time the voices 165 00:11:58,679 --> 00:12:01,320 Speaker 1: of police officers. Over at a desk just beyond the 166 00:12:01,400 --> 00:12:04,760 Speaker 1: cell where she now sat. They spoke in tones that 167 00:12:04,920 --> 00:12:09,120 Speaker 1: varied from loud and boisterous to hushed and protective. She 168 00:12:09,240 --> 00:12:11,920 Speaker 1: wondered if they were talking about her. She wondered what 169 00:12:11,960 --> 00:12:13,920 Speaker 1: they would say if she told them about the things 170 00:12:13,960 --> 00:12:16,920 Speaker 1: going through her head, that her sick boyfriend may have 171 00:12:17,000 --> 00:12:20,400 Speaker 1: been poisoned, that the cocaine had no doubt been planted, 172 00:12:20,720 --> 00:12:22,520 Speaker 1: and that there was a fifty to fifty chance that 173 00:12:22,640 --> 00:12:26,600 Speaker 1: they sworn officers of the law were actually in on it. 174 00:12:27,400 --> 00:12:29,920 Speaker 1: But they wouldn't listen. They wouldn't even let her make 175 00:12:29,960 --> 00:12:32,800 Speaker 1: a phone call, which she knew was her right if 176 00:12:32,840 --> 00:12:36,240 Speaker 1: she could only explain just how ridiculous the charges were. 177 00:12:36,720 --> 00:12:39,320 Speaker 1: If you knew her, if you really knew Grace Jones, 178 00:12:39,600 --> 00:12:41,360 Speaker 1: you knew the one that came to cocaine. She didn't 179 00:12:41,360 --> 00:12:43,440 Speaker 1: mess with that stuff. She never put that stuff up 180 00:12:43,480 --> 00:12:45,680 Speaker 1: her nose. Her nose was part of her face, part 181 00:12:45,679 --> 00:12:49,000 Speaker 1: of her unorthodox beauty, her moneymaker, if you will, and 182 00:12:49,120 --> 00:12:51,640 Speaker 1: she wasn't about to jeopardize all that just for a 183 00:12:51,640 --> 00:12:55,240 Speaker 1: little cocaine for a little high. Cocaine wasn't even Grace's thing. 184 00:12:56,040 --> 00:13:00,400 Speaker 1: She was more partial to coelude's value mandrex. Her ideal 185 00:13:00,480 --> 00:13:04,520 Speaker 1: high was chilling out, not freaking out. But on the 186 00:13:04,559 --> 00:13:07,880 Speaker 1: occasions that she did do coke, she'd opt for a 187 00:13:07,960 --> 00:13:13,319 Speaker 1: disco cigarette aka cocoa puffs, joints of marijuana laced with cocaine, 188 00:13:13,720 --> 00:13:16,680 Speaker 1: or as Grace called them Mary Anne's since she was 189 00:13:16,720 --> 00:13:21,600 Speaker 1: introduced to them by Mary Anne Faithful. Grace Jones's true 190 00:13:21,840 --> 00:13:24,840 Speaker 1: preferred method of cocaine intake, however, was to stick a 191 00:13:24,960 --> 00:13:29,480 Speaker 1: rock up her ass. Cocaine via one's butt meant no 192 00:13:29,600 --> 00:13:32,920 Speaker 1: white residue lingering on your upper lip, no blood dripping 193 00:13:32,920 --> 00:13:36,280 Speaker 1: from your nasal cavity, just a nice clean, small rock. 194 00:13:36,520 --> 00:13:42,280 Speaker 1: Stuff it up there and forget about it. There was 195 00:13:42,360 --> 00:13:45,559 Speaker 1: no forgetting her current predicament, so she sat in the 196 00:13:45,640 --> 00:13:48,640 Speaker 1: jail cell waiting for the other shoe to drop. And 197 00:13:48,720 --> 00:13:51,679 Speaker 1: the shoe did drop, but just not in the way 198 00:13:51,800 --> 00:13:55,960 Speaker 1: she was expecting. It dropped like this. The cops on 199 00:13:56,040 --> 00:13:59,439 Speaker 1: duty were eventually relieved by others, and these new guys 200 00:13:59,640 --> 00:14:03,760 Speaker 1: were more sympathetic to her plate. Grace Jones was finally 201 00:14:03,800 --> 00:14:06,720 Speaker 1: granted that one phone call, and as she picked up 202 00:14:06,720 --> 00:14:09,600 Speaker 1: the receiver and dialed the number, she thought back through 203 00:14:09,600 --> 00:14:12,840 Speaker 1: her life as a magnet not only for crime, but 204 00:14:12,880 --> 00:14:22,840 Speaker 1: for obstacles, barriers, and for the devil himself. Nineteen seventy nine, 205 00:14:23,240 --> 00:14:25,840 Speaker 1: New York City, an apartment at the top of a 206 00:14:25,840 --> 00:14:29,440 Speaker 1: commercial building in Union Square. It was the weekend, which 207 00:14:29,480 --> 00:14:31,640 Speaker 1: meant that the only people in the building were those 208 00:14:31,720 --> 00:14:36,640 Speaker 1: occupying set apartment. Its tenant, the art director for Esquire Magazine, 209 00:14:36,800 --> 00:14:42,200 Speaker 1: Jean Paul Good, and his girlfriend, Grace Jones. Grace stepped 210 00:14:42,240 --> 00:14:44,280 Speaker 1: out of the shower and wrapped a towel around her 211 00:14:44,360 --> 00:14:48,479 Speaker 1: naked body. Grace was often naked, whether it was performing 212 00:14:48,520 --> 00:14:51,840 Speaker 1: at the Paradise Garage Discotheque in Lower Manhattan wearing nothing 213 00:14:51,880 --> 00:14:55,040 Speaker 1: but Keith Herring's white tribal body paint, or in a 214 00:14:55,080 --> 00:14:58,960 Speaker 1: New York Magazine feature article, or at Studio fifty four, 215 00:14:59,040 --> 00:15:02,080 Speaker 1: where anything went and where Grace was often found in 216 00:15:02,120 --> 00:15:04,240 Speaker 1: which you can hear more about in our episode on 217 00:15:04,320 --> 00:15:08,480 Speaker 1: Studio fifty four. But I digress. Being naked at this 218 00:15:08,640 --> 00:15:11,720 Speaker 1: very moment was a bit different for Grace because she 219 00:15:11,840 --> 00:15:14,920 Speaker 1: was pregnant with her first child, and her body looked 220 00:15:14,920 --> 00:15:17,240 Speaker 1: different to her than it ever had before when she 221 00:15:17,280 --> 00:15:20,920 Speaker 1: looked at her reflection in the focked up mirror. Maybe 222 00:15:20,920 --> 00:15:23,120 Speaker 1: it was all that time spent at newdest retreats and 223 00:15:23,200 --> 00:15:25,920 Speaker 1: hippie communes when she was younger. But being naked for 224 00:15:26,000 --> 00:15:30,600 Speaker 1: Grace wasn't tantamount to being vulnerable. Being naked was being strong, 225 00:15:30,920 --> 00:15:33,040 Speaker 1: and being strong was what a guttner To this point 226 00:15:33,040 --> 00:15:36,120 Speaker 1: in her life and career. When her career as a 227 00:15:36,160 --> 00:15:38,840 Speaker 1: model suddenly morphed into an opportunity to make a go 228 00:15:38,960 --> 00:15:41,520 Speaker 1: of it in the music business. In nineteen seventy seven, 229 00:15:41,640 --> 00:15:44,120 Speaker 1: the year of the Blackout, the year the Yankees, the 230 00:15:44,200 --> 00:15:46,520 Speaker 1: year of garbage strikes, in the year of the Son 231 00:15:46,560 --> 00:15:51,280 Speaker 1: of Sam, Grace Jones jumped at the chance. She loved 232 00:15:51,360 --> 00:15:54,440 Speaker 1: music as much as fashion or art. But her management, 233 00:15:54,640 --> 00:15:57,000 Speaker 1: her record company, they all tried to make her something 234 00:15:57,000 --> 00:15:59,520 Speaker 1: that she wasn't. She would never be a wreath of Franklin, 235 00:15:59,520 --> 00:16:01,880 Speaker 1: no matter how how hard she tried. She didn't have 236 00:16:01,920 --> 00:16:06,200 Speaker 1: that voice. No one had that voice. Grace had limitations. 237 00:16:06,640 --> 00:16:09,480 Speaker 1: With the guidance of her art world friends like Andy 238 00:16:09,520 --> 00:16:12,760 Speaker 1: Warhol and Richard Bernstein, as well as her fashion world 239 00:16:12,760 --> 00:16:16,520 Speaker 1: friends like designer is Miake, and her music world friends 240 00:16:16,600 --> 00:16:19,840 Speaker 1: like Chris Blackwell, founder and owner of the record label 241 00:16:19,880 --> 00:16:23,120 Speaker 1: Island Records, along with the super funky rhythm section of 242 00:16:23,160 --> 00:16:26,040 Speaker 1: Sly and Robbie, Grace quickly found a way to turn 243 00:16:26,120 --> 00:16:30,880 Speaker 1: those limitations into strengths, and so after three albums in 244 00:16:31,000 --> 00:16:33,920 Speaker 1: three years that clung to the soon to be haggard 245 00:16:34,000 --> 00:16:37,880 Speaker 1: corpse of disco, Grace Jones pivoted for her fourth album, 246 00:16:38,040 --> 00:16:42,200 Speaker 1: Warm Leatherette. The record combined the organic feel of Sly 247 00:16:42,360 --> 00:16:46,400 Speaker 1: and Robbie's bottom end with Grace's soulful, cyborg vocal delivery, 248 00:16:46,720 --> 00:16:49,680 Speaker 1: a heady combination that you can hear on Grace's incredible 249 00:16:49,720 --> 00:16:54,880 Speaker 1: cover of the Pretender's private life. For a very public person, 250 00:16:55,200 --> 00:16:58,520 Speaker 1: Grace Jones valued her own private life even more so 251 00:16:58,640 --> 00:17:01,960 Speaker 1: now that she was expecting. As Jean Paul worked away 252 00:17:02,000 --> 00:17:04,479 Speaker 1: in another part of the apartment, cutting up and arranging 253 00:17:04,520 --> 00:17:07,439 Speaker 1: new photos of his views of Grace on a desk, 254 00:17:07,880 --> 00:17:10,480 Speaker 1: Grace put on clothes and stepped from the bathroom into 255 00:17:10,480 --> 00:17:13,800 Speaker 1: the living room. She was thinking about her upcoming trip 256 00:17:13,800 --> 00:17:17,640 Speaker 1: to the Bahamas to compass points studios where she would 257 00:17:17,640 --> 00:17:22,399 Speaker 1: put the finishing touches on the Warm Leatherette album. And 258 00:17:22,520 --> 00:17:25,760 Speaker 1: that's when she saw him, a man who wasn't Jean Paul. 259 00:17:26,359 --> 00:17:29,000 Speaker 1: And this man was just beyond the living room window, 260 00:17:29,359 --> 00:17:33,959 Speaker 1: standing on an outdoor terrace. He was tall, perfectly coughed, afro, 261 00:17:34,400 --> 00:17:38,840 Speaker 1: well dressed. Grace clocked his suit as Italian, so debonair 262 00:17:38,880 --> 00:17:42,359 Speaker 1: that her first instinct wasn't a panic, And then she 263 00:17:42,400 --> 00:17:45,280 Speaker 1: saw the gun. The man was coming through the window, 264 00:17:45,359 --> 00:17:48,159 Speaker 1: now one foot down on the living room floor, followed 265 00:17:48,160 --> 00:17:52,520 Speaker 1: by another calmly, deliberately, the pistol gripped tight and aimed 266 00:17:52,600 --> 00:17:55,520 Speaker 1: straight at her. She thought about screaming for Jean Paul, 267 00:17:55,680 --> 00:17:58,239 Speaker 1: and also about making a run for it. In her 268 00:17:58,240 --> 00:18:03,280 Speaker 1: elevated state, she opted for the latter instinct, and then adrenaline. 269 00:18:03,760 --> 00:18:06,080 Speaker 1: She wasn't even thinking about hauling ass. She was just 270 00:18:06,200 --> 00:18:10,600 Speaker 1: doing it, heart pounding, breathless. She was in the bathroom now. 271 00:18:10,840 --> 00:18:13,160 Speaker 1: As she slammed the door shut behind her and twisted 272 00:18:13,200 --> 00:18:15,880 Speaker 1: the lock, she heard the footsteps of that tall man 273 00:18:15,960 --> 00:18:18,920 Speaker 1: getting closer, and then the door was being kicked down. 274 00:18:19,800 --> 00:18:22,919 Speaker 1: She was now face to face with mister armed Debonair. 275 00:18:24,200 --> 00:18:26,600 Speaker 1: Jean Paul must have heard the noise because he came running, 276 00:18:26,840 --> 00:18:28,760 Speaker 1: and now the man had his gun trained on both 277 00:18:28,800 --> 00:18:33,760 Speaker 1: of them. The man wanted cash. Grace had none. Jean Paul, 278 00:18:33,840 --> 00:18:37,800 Speaker 1: being European and worldly, only had some douschemarks, two thousand 279 00:18:37,840 --> 00:18:40,880 Speaker 1: of them. Give her take, Give her take. The man 280 00:18:41,000 --> 00:18:43,680 Speaker 1: was shaking his head now. He rotated his neck in 281 00:18:43,720 --> 00:18:46,119 Speaker 1: a way that indicated either his winds or not, or 282 00:18:46,160 --> 00:18:49,800 Speaker 1: this couple's lack of funds was irritating him most likely 283 00:18:49,880 --> 00:18:54,720 Speaker 1: both give him cash, American cash, he demanded. He tied 284 00:18:54,760 --> 00:18:57,439 Speaker 1: them both up, one by one, and then he stood 285 00:18:57,440 --> 00:19:00,480 Speaker 1: there looking at Grace Jones and John Paul in their 286 00:19:00,480 --> 00:19:05,600 Speaker 1: faces and wondering what he was going to do with them. 287 00:19:05,720 --> 00:19:08,880 Speaker 1: Grace feared the worst. She thought about being shot dead 288 00:19:08,920 --> 00:19:11,800 Speaker 1: in her boyfriend's apartment, the baby still in her belly, 289 00:19:12,119 --> 00:19:14,640 Speaker 1: about not being found until Monday when the building opened 290 00:19:14,720 --> 00:19:19,120 Speaker 1: her business. She thought about Paula Kilmack aka Pola, her 291 00:19:19,160 --> 00:19:21,760 Speaker 1: friend and fellow model, and how just a few years 292 00:19:21,800 --> 00:19:24,520 Speaker 1: back Pola took a bunch of coeludes and died, and 293 00:19:24,560 --> 00:19:26,800 Speaker 1: how her ghost haunted the city in the pages of 294 00:19:26,840 --> 00:19:31,120 Speaker 1: Cosmopolitan in Vogue, that face of hers staring directly into 295 00:19:31,119 --> 00:19:33,840 Speaker 1: the lens, and how the rumors wouldn't quit, that it 296 00:19:33,920 --> 00:19:36,359 Speaker 1: wasn't a case of too many pills, and that Pola 297 00:19:36,400 --> 00:19:39,680 Speaker 1: had actually been high on heroin and angel dust walk 298 00:19:39,880 --> 00:19:42,720 Speaker 1: right off the roof of a building. She thought about 299 00:19:42,720 --> 00:19:44,639 Speaker 1: what it would be like to be a ghost, to 300 00:19:44,680 --> 00:19:47,520 Speaker 1: be a rumor. She thought about being laughed at by 301 00:19:47,600 --> 00:19:50,680 Speaker 1: fashion moguls who'd once doubted her, and about her first 302 00:19:50,800 --> 00:19:53,280 Speaker 1: music management team, how they wanted to make her a 303 00:19:53,400 --> 00:19:56,400 Speaker 1: Vegas act in a few years time. She thought about 304 00:19:56,440 --> 00:19:58,720 Speaker 1: how she'd left that cocktail lounge stuff in the dust 305 00:19:58,720 --> 00:20:01,800 Speaker 1: when she sang live for the f time, no stage, 306 00:20:02,080 --> 00:20:05,080 Speaker 1: just her and the crowds surrounding her like wolves, and 307 00:20:05,119 --> 00:20:08,360 Speaker 1: how she didn't cower with fear, but instead crawled around, 308 00:20:08,640 --> 00:20:12,439 Speaker 1: hissing like a snake, barking like a dog. If anyone 309 00:20:12,480 --> 00:20:16,560 Speaker 1: felt fear that night, it was the captive audience. And 310 00:20:16,640 --> 00:20:19,000 Speaker 1: now she thought about this well dressed man with the 311 00:20:19,119 --> 00:20:21,359 Speaker 1: rod in his hand, and how she was one wrong 312 00:20:21,480 --> 00:20:24,760 Speaker 1: move away from him pulling the trigger, and that perhaps 313 00:20:24,800 --> 00:20:27,760 Speaker 1: the same fear that she felt he felt as well, 314 00:20:28,359 --> 00:20:32,080 Speaker 1: how that despite being tied up, Grace Jones could still 315 00:20:32,160 --> 00:20:35,840 Speaker 1: have the upper hand. She calmly explained to the man 316 00:20:35,960 --> 00:20:38,040 Speaker 1: that he could take the Deutsche marks to a nearby 317 00:20:38,119 --> 00:20:42,320 Speaker 1: travel agency and convert them to cash to American cash, 318 00:20:42,359 --> 00:20:44,720 Speaker 1: and that the money was untraceable and that he would 319 00:20:44,760 --> 00:20:47,560 Speaker 1: need no idea to do so. She also said he 320 00:20:47,560 --> 00:20:50,080 Speaker 1: could take her keys and use them to activate the 321 00:20:50,119 --> 00:20:52,359 Speaker 1: elevator that would bring him down to the bottom floor 322 00:20:52,400 --> 00:20:55,480 Speaker 1: and get away without a trace, which is exactly what 323 00:20:55,520 --> 00:20:59,000 Speaker 1: the well dressed man did and within seconds, just like 324 00:20:59,040 --> 00:21:02,239 Speaker 1: the music execs did, not see Grace's vision, and just 325 00:21:02,320 --> 00:21:04,480 Speaker 1: like the butterflies in her stomach on the night of 326 00:21:04,520 --> 00:21:08,360 Speaker 1: her first public performance as a singer, just like Beautiful Pola, 327 00:21:09,160 --> 00:21:16,919 Speaker 1: the man was gone. The whole ordeal was absolutely terrifying, 328 00:21:17,200 --> 00:21:20,080 Speaker 1: and Grace Jones wouldn't have been criticized by anyone at 329 00:21:20,119 --> 00:21:23,360 Speaker 1: the experience of being held hostage in her boyfriend's apartment 330 00:21:23,640 --> 00:21:27,320 Speaker 1: had led her to dial back her public persona. But 331 00:21:27,440 --> 00:21:31,080 Speaker 1: Grace Jones's ambition was defined by the risks she took, 332 00:21:31,480 --> 00:21:34,120 Speaker 1: and there was nothing more risky than her next move, 333 00:21:34,720 --> 00:21:38,399 Speaker 1: because Grace Jones, the model, the singer, was now about 334 00:21:38,440 --> 00:21:42,040 Speaker 1: to take that next step way outside of her comfort zone. 335 00:21:42,200 --> 00:21:51,320 Speaker 1: Grace Jones was going to Hollywood. We'll be right back 336 00:21:51,520 --> 00:22:04,560 Speaker 1: after this word word word. There was only one person 337 00:22:04,720 --> 00:22:06,920 Speaker 1: Grace Jones knew would be able to help her when 338 00:22:06,920 --> 00:22:09,320 Speaker 1: she was being held inside a Jamaican jail cell in 339 00:22:09,359 --> 00:22:12,679 Speaker 1: April of nineteen eighty nine. That person was not her 340 00:22:12,720 --> 00:22:15,879 Speaker 1: ex lover Jean Paul, good father to her only child 341 00:22:16,119 --> 00:22:18,440 Speaker 1: and the man who once endured a home invasion with her. 342 00:22:19,200 --> 00:22:22,560 Speaker 1: Nor was it Dolph Lungren, the fulbright scholar turned muscle 343 00:22:22,600 --> 00:22:25,840 Speaker 1: bound Rocky Foe, Ivan Drago who dated Grace for a 344 00:22:25,880 --> 00:22:30,600 Speaker 1: while in the mid eighties. Hold Up Dolph Lungren was 345 00:22:30,680 --> 00:22:35,200 Speaker 1: a Fulbright scholar, the beefcake meathead who beats on Sylvester 346 00:22:35,320 --> 00:22:38,399 Speaker 1: Stallone and Rocky four. That guy was supposed to go 347 00:22:38,480 --> 00:22:41,719 Speaker 1: to MIT for chemical engineering, but instead left it all 348 00:22:41,760 --> 00:22:44,479 Speaker 1: behind to become Grace Jones's bodyguard when they met at 349 00:22:44,480 --> 00:22:50,000 Speaker 1: a club where she was performing. What Yeah, that happened? Anyway? 350 00:22:50,240 --> 00:22:55,800 Speaker 1: Back to the story, Grace Jones didn't turn to bo's 351 00:22:55,920 --> 00:23:00,000 Speaker 1: or boyfriends or ex's in her time of need. Instead, 352 00:22:59,720 --> 00:23:03,760 Speaker 1: she called a professional, her press agent, and it's her 353 00:23:03,800 --> 00:23:07,359 Speaker 1: belief that calling her press agent, John Carmon, not only 354 00:23:07,400 --> 00:23:11,040 Speaker 1: sprung her from custody, but saved her life. She didn't 355 00:23:11,040 --> 00:23:14,520 Speaker 1: tell John Carmon her whole convoluted conspiracy theory involving the 356 00:23:14,560 --> 00:23:17,560 Speaker 1: cocaine that didn't belong to her, or of Chris Stanley's 357 00:23:17,600 --> 00:23:21,000 Speaker 1: illness or as jealous employees, and that the local constabulary 358 00:23:21,040 --> 00:23:23,520 Speaker 1: force that had no doubt been bribed in the past 359 00:23:23,800 --> 00:23:26,359 Speaker 1: had something to do with what was going on here. 360 00:23:26,880 --> 00:23:30,520 Speaker 1: She just gave him the irrefutable facts. She'd been held 361 00:23:30,600 --> 00:23:33,320 Speaker 1: in police custody for a few days now with no 362 00:23:33,560 --> 00:23:37,680 Speaker 1: sign of being let go, her mind wandering in the darkness, 363 00:23:37,840 --> 00:23:41,320 Speaker 1: growing just like mold, now growing in the corner of 364 00:23:41,320 --> 00:23:45,160 Speaker 1: her dank little cell. But once John Carman sent out 365 00:23:45,200 --> 00:23:47,760 Speaker 1: a press release to every major publication in the world, 366 00:23:48,040 --> 00:23:51,560 Speaker 1: every newspaper, every magazine, to all those friends in places 367 00:23:51,640 --> 00:23:54,280 Speaker 1: high and low, the cops felt the pressure and had 368 00:23:54,320 --> 00:23:57,760 Speaker 1: no choice but to release Grace Jones, and the bail 369 00:23:57,920 --> 00:24:01,719 Speaker 1: was set at twenty seven hundred dollars. A trial now wounded, 370 00:24:01,920 --> 00:24:05,320 Speaker 1: and the prosecution had their evidence, not just the zero 371 00:24:05,480 --> 00:24:08,080 Speaker 1: point zero zero seven of an ounce of cocaine, but 372 00:24:08,160 --> 00:24:11,199 Speaker 1: evidence of Grace Jones's history as both a victim of 373 00:24:11,200 --> 00:24:22,480 Speaker 1: criminal behavior and as a perpetrator. Grace was banging on 374 00:24:22,520 --> 00:24:25,080 Speaker 1: the hotel room door so forcefully that she thought her 375 00:24:25,119 --> 00:24:28,200 Speaker 1: fist would go right through it, and her other hand 376 00:24:28,600 --> 00:24:32,040 Speaker 1: she held the pistol. She couldn't even remember where she 377 00:24:32,119 --> 00:24:34,879 Speaker 1: got it, not that she intended to actually fire it. 378 00:24:35,160 --> 00:24:38,640 Speaker 1: The gun was merely insurance, a tool of motivation when 379 00:24:38,640 --> 00:24:42,879 Speaker 1: her words in her fist would inevitably fail. She banged 380 00:24:42,880 --> 00:24:45,800 Speaker 1: on the door again and screamed his name. She knew 381 00:24:45,800 --> 00:24:48,200 Speaker 1: Dolph was in there, and she knew that Dolph knew 382 00:24:48,280 --> 00:24:51,480 Speaker 1: that she meant business. He understood that back when she 383 00:24:51,560 --> 00:24:54,800 Speaker 1: burned all of his clothes, even that nice versace suit, 384 00:24:55,240 --> 00:24:58,639 Speaker 1: all of it up in flames. Dolph, you asshole, what 385 00:24:58,680 --> 00:25:00,520 Speaker 1: the hell are you doing in there? Why aren't you 386 00:25:00,560 --> 00:25:04,399 Speaker 1: coming out? She struggled to understand, while also struggling to 387 00:25:04,480 --> 00:25:08,360 Speaker 1: understand who she had become at this moment. It wasn't her, 388 00:25:08,680 --> 00:25:14,480 Speaker 1: and it wasn't him either. It was this city, nineteen 389 00:25:14,520 --> 00:25:18,479 Speaker 1: eighty seven, Los Angeles. If you must get into trouble, 390 00:25:18,880 --> 00:25:22,200 Speaker 1: dude at the Chateau Marmont. Such was the advice that 391 00:25:22,280 --> 00:25:25,640 Speaker 1: Columbia Pictures president Harry Cohne once gave to actors Glenn 392 00:25:25,840 --> 00:25:29,280 Speaker 1: Ford and William Holden back in the nineteen thirties. He 393 00:25:29,320 --> 00:25:32,280 Speaker 1: could have easily directed the stars to Arrow Flynn's bachelor 394 00:25:32,320 --> 00:25:35,040 Speaker 1: pad up on Mohand Drive, where the Robin Hood star 395 00:25:35,160 --> 00:25:38,720 Speaker 1: hosted Anything Go as parties on the QT on the downlow, 396 00:25:39,359 --> 00:25:44,399 Speaker 1: very hush hush. But by nineteen eighty seven, ground zero 397 00:25:44,560 --> 00:25:47,600 Speaker 1: for Hollywood debauchery was not somewhere up in the hills, 398 00:25:47,920 --> 00:25:50,360 Speaker 1: nor was it down on the strip at the Chateau Marmont. 399 00:25:51,119 --> 00:25:54,359 Speaker 1: It was at the home of Grace Jones, who was 400 00:25:54,480 --> 00:25:57,480 Speaker 1: busy making a name for herself as the Pepsi Generations 401 00:25:57,640 --> 00:26:00,800 Speaker 1: Errol Flynn, with the bulging biceps of her unlikely live 402 00:26:00,840 --> 00:26:04,600 Speaker 1: and lover the Swedish gentle giant Dolph Lungren wrapped around her. 403 00:26:05,320 --> 00:26:07,720 Speaker 1: There was one rule and one rule only at Grace 404 00:26:07,800 --> 00:26:12,160 Speaker 1: Jones's house party. Don't die, don't smoke too much weed 405 00:26:12,200 --> 00:26:14,840 Speaker 1: in the designated weed room, and don't snort too much 406 00:26:14,880 --> 00:26:17,720 Speaker 1: cocaine off the gold plate in the designated coke room. 407 00:26:17,920 --> 00:26:20,480 Speaker 1: Don't pop too many pills in the quayludes room. And 408 00:26:20,640 --> 00:26:22,800 Speaker 1: if you're going to get in on the action happening 409 00:26:22,840 --> 00:26:25,119 Speaker 1: in the orgy room, then make sure you've got a 410 00:26:25,160 --> 00:26:28,879 Speaker 1: safe word ready. Parties were part and parcel of the 411 00:26:28,880 --> 00:26:33,400 Speaker 1: Grace Jones lifestyle. Back in New York at Andy Warhol's factory, 412 00:26:33,800 --> 00:26:36,040 Speaker 1: a good party would get you a front row seat 413 00:26:36,040 --> 00:26:39,000 Speaker 1: to the likes of Divine John waters Is drag Queen 414 00:26:39,160 --> 00:26:42,720 Speaker 1: Muse smoking an angel dust laced joint while Woody Allen 415 00:26:42,800 --> 00:26:48,120 Speaker 1: neurotically coughed nearby, or maybe another Grace Grace Kelly aka 416 00:26:48,280 --> 00:26:52,120 Speaker 1: Princess Grace of Monica chewing the fat with Robert Redford 417 00:26:52,119 --> 00:26:56,119 Speaker 1: and Beatle John over at Whole Books. Grace Grace Jones, 418 00:26:56,160 --> 00:26:58,960 Speaker 1: that is, even had her own baby shower at Studio 419 00:26:59,000 --> 00:27:01,919 Speaker 1: fifty four, grown for her by none other than Blondie's 420 00:27:01,920 --> 00:27:05,720 Speaker 1: Debbie Harriet. But here in La Grace didn't go out 421 00:27:05,760 --> 00:27:09,480 Speaker 1: on the town. La was the devil's workshop. It was 422 00:27:09,560 --> 00:27:14,680 Speaker 1: all asphalt and plastic. It lacked New York's authenticity. Where 423 00:27:14,680 --> 00:27:17,320 Speaker 1: were the Warhols and the Keith Harrings and the Richard 424 00:27:17,359 --> 00:27:21,560 Speaker 1: Bernstein's in Los Angeles. The place felt so manufactured that 425 00:27:21,600 --> 00:27:25,520 Speaker 1: it actually frightened her. Thus the parties came to her. 426 00:27:28,119 --> 00:27:31,680 Speaker 1: Hollywood was the last place she thought she'd then done. 427 00:27:31,880 --> 00:27:34,680 Speaker 1: Grace Jones was in New York City in so many 428 00:27:34,680 --> 00:27:37,320 Speaker 1: ways that it felt strange to be here in La 429 00:27:38,200 --> 00:27:41,600 Speaker 1: But of course strange as a cozy bedfellow of risk, 430 00:27:41,680 --> 00:27:46,159 Speaker 1: and risk is what really turned Grace on. Besides, just 431 00:27:46,200 --> 00:27:49,359 Speaker 1: two years earlier, in nineteen eighty five, there was this 432 00:27:49,480 --> 00:27:52,000 Speaker 1: new wave of stars in Hollywood, and it was a 433 00:27:52,000 --> 00:27:54,359 Speaker 1: wave that Grace wanted to catch right on before it 434 00:27:54,400 --> 00:27:57,800 Speaker 1: came crashing down. Nineteen eighty five was the year in 435 00:27:57,840 --> 00:28:01,000 Speaker 1: which Tina Turner, the R and B singer, starred in 436 00:28:01,040 --> 00:28:05,119 Speaker 1: the film mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. It was also the 437 00:28:05,200 --> 00:28:08,320 Speaker 1: year in which Madonna the pop singer starred in the 438 00:28:08,520 --> 00:28:12,440 Speaker 1: excellent film Desperately Seeking Susan. And it was the year 439 00:28:12,560 --> 00:28:15,840 Speaker 1: in which Grace Jones, a model turned singer, a New 440 00:28:15,960 --> 00:28:19,760 Speaker 1: Yorker turned Los Angelino, starred opposite Roger Moore in the 441 00:28:19,880 --> 00:28:24,280 Speaker 1: James Bond film of You To a Kill. Grace was 442 00:28:24,320 --> 00:28:28,360 Speaker 1: suddenly no longer the intimidating looking musician per Icy Stare 443 00:28:28,480 --> 00:28:31,200 Speaker 1: Piercing You from the cover of her excellent nineteen eighty 444 00:28:31,200 --> 00:28:34,920 Speaker 1: one album Nightclubbing. That's the one with the transformative covers 445 00:28:34,920 --> 00:28:37,680 Speaker 1: of songs by Iggy Pop, Bill Withers and the Police. 446 00:28:38,440 --> 00:28:42,080 Speaker 1: Grace Jones was now the intimidating looking Bond villain who 447 00:28:42,160 --> 00:28:46,720 Speaker 1: spent her time offscreen carousing with an equally intimidating, blonde 448 00:28:46,760 --> 00:28:51,920 Speaker 1: haired Jim Rat. Dolph Lundgren's career was rising just as 449 00:28:51,920 --> 00:28:54,960 Speaker 1: fast as his girlfriend's. But while Dolph was putting in 450 00:28:55,000 --> 00:28:57,360 Speaker 1: the work, early warnings at the gym and all that 451 00:28:57,440 --> 00:28:59,160 Speaker 1: to ensure that he looked like the kind of guy 452 00:28:59,200 --> 00:29:02,680 Speaker 1: who could knock out Sli stallone, Grace Jones, his girlfriend 453 00:29:02,760 --> 00:29:06,280 Speaker 1: was back home and she was all play the parties 454 00:29:06,280 --> 00:29:09,200 Speaker 1: were going on day and night. The parties brought her 455 00:29:09,280 --> 00:29:12,240 Speaker 1: closer to that New York state of mind. They made 456 00:29:12,440 --> 00:29:15,800 Speaker 1: la feel less frightening. The dancing, the drugs, the sex, 457 00:29:15,840 --> 00:29:18,200 Speaker 1: the hedonism, it was all just as much of a 458 00:29:18,240 --> 00:29:20,480 Speaker 1: coping mechanism as it was a fringe benefit of the 459 00:29:20,520 --> 00:29:24,080 Speaker 1: lifestyles of the rich and the famous. Dolph Lungern couldn't 460 00:29:24,120 --> 00:29:27,840 Speaker 1: keep up with Grace Jones. Dolph needed his rest, so 461 00:29:27,880 --> 00:29:32,600 Speaker 1: he started sleeping elsewhere. First it was slize place, and 462 00:29:32,760 --> 00:29:37,680 Speaker 1: later it was hotels. If you grew up in the 463 00:29:37,760 --> 00:29:40,160 Speaker 1: nineteen eighties like I did, then you know that Grace 464 00:29:40,280 --> 00:29:43,240 Speaker 1: Jones and Dolph Lungren's relationship was one of the weirdest 465 00:29:43,240 --> 00:29:46,480 Speaker 1: of the decade, but also one of the most eighties 466 00:29:46,600 --> 00:29:51,200 Speaker 1: things ever. It was bond and rocky, black and white, 467 00:29:51,520 --> 00:29:54,440 Speaker 1: the fashion and the music and the blockbuster films of 468 00:29:54,480 --> 00:29:58,920 Speaker 1: the era all twisted up into one indelible image. But 469 00:29:59,000 --> 00:30:03,560 Speaker 1: it wasn't meant to last. Maybe Grace knew that before 470 00:30:03,600 --> 00:30:06,360 Speaker 1: she showed up at Dolf's hotel room carrying a loaded 471 00:30:06,400 --> 00:30:10,360 Speaker 1: pistol or when Dol finally opened the door, calmly took 472 00:30:10,360 --> 00:30:13,520 Speaker 1: the gun from her hand, removed the cliff and proceeded 473 00:30:13,560 --> 00:30:16,800 Speaker 1: to talk his way back into her good side, and 474 00:30:16,840 --> 00:30:18,840 Speaker 1: maybe she tried to put the whole thing behind her 475 00:30:19,040 --> 00:30:22,360 Speaker 1: once her volatile romance with Dolf came to its natural conclusion, 476 00:30:22,560 --> 00:30:25,160 Speaker 1: and she at long last made her escape from La 477 00:30:25,600 --> 00:30:29,440 Speaker 1: when she once again pivoted, this time from movies, back 478 00:30:29,480 --> 00:30:32,800 Speaker 1: to music, and back to Jamaica, where she was not 479 00:30:33,000 --> 00:30:35,520 Speaker 1: welcomed as a star, as an adult who made a 480 00:30:35,600 --> 00:30:39,480 Speaker 1: name for herself, but as a defiant, corrupt child who 481 00:30:39,600 --> 00:31:11,480 Speaker 1: needed to be punished. January nineteen ninety Grace Jones, perhaps 482 00:31:11,560 --> 00:31:14,640 Speaker 1: wearing a gold pleated Bessain mackay hood at one piece 483 00:31:14,760 --> 00:31:18,160 Speaker 1: or a more ostentatious brown for her coat, sat Stone 484 00:31:18,200 --> 00:31:22,120 Speaker 1: faced before a magistrate in m Kingston, Jamaica court. The 485 00:31:22,200 --> 00:31:25,680 Speaker 1: magistrate was not yet speaking, but the voices already were 486 00:31:26,360 --> 00:31:28,680 Speaker 1: just like the voices she had heard at her boyfriend 487 00:31:28,680 --> 00:31:31,080 Speaker 1: and producer Chris Stanley's house on the night she was 488 00:31:31,200 --> 00:31:36,280 Speaker 1: arrested for cocaine possession. These voices came from an unseen source. 489 00:31:36,880 --> 00:31:40,320 Speaker 1: They were behind her, whispering low, and they belonged to 490 00:31:40,360 --> 00:31:43,760 Speaker 1: the audience. The rubberneckers sitting there in the gallery, eager 491 00:31:43,800 --> 00:31:47,320 Speaker 1: to learn the fate of the prodigal daughter. The voices 492 00:31:47,400 --> 00:31:51,280 Speaker 1: spoke of her transgressions, her affinity for drugs and munity, 493 00:31:51,680 --> 00:31:55,880 Speaker 1: her pact with that Gomorrah of the West Hollywood, multiple 494 00:31:55,880 --> 00:31:59,760 Speaker 1: affronts to God, the prophecy of a Pentecostal bishop. A 495 00:32:00,080 --> 00:32:06,160 Speaker 1: devil was in their midst. All grace Jones, ever, wanted 496 00:32:06,200 --> 00:32:09,480 Speaker 1: to do was what came naturally, and that was to 497 00:32:09,560 --> 00:32:13,680 Speaker 1: define herself by her actions in her ambitions, both of 498 00:32:13,720 --> 00:32:16,560 Speaker 1: which were reactions to the way she was brought up 499 00:32:16,680 --> 00:32:20,240 Speaker 1: as a child to not just be another meek, safe, 500 00:32:20,360 --> 00:32:24,320 Speaker 1: boring person. If living as a newdister dropping LSD on 501 00:32:24,320 --> 00:32:26,240 Speaker 1: a Hippi commune meant that she was some sort of 502 00:32:26,280 --> 00:32:28,200 Speaker 1: devil in the eyes of the old world, then so 503 00:32:28,360 --> 00:32:31,520 Speaker 1: be it. She knew that her lifestyle and her public 504 00:32:31,520 --> 00:32:34,320 Speaker 1: image would draw attention, but she never thought that she 505 00:32:34,360 --> 00:32:38,760 Speaker 1: would attract the attention of criminality year after year, nor 506 00:32:38,800 --> 00:32:40,960 Speaker 1: did she ever think that she would be on trial 507 00:32:41,080 --> 00:32:45,640 Speaker 1: for But here she was. When she was first arrested 508 00:32:45,640 --> 00:32:48,360 Speaker 1: and released on bail in April of nineteen eighty nine, 509 00:32:48,720 --> 00:32:51,520 Speaker 1: she wasted no time telling the press that the cocaine 510 00:32:51,800 --> 00:32:55,040 Speaker 1: had been planted in her purse She said that this 511 00:32:55,120 --> 00:32:57,360 Speaker 1: would be proven in court and that the identity of 512 00:32:57,400 --> 00:33:03,600 Speaker 1: the duplicitous person would be revealed. Nine months later, sitting 513 00:33:03,640 --> 00:33:09,200 Speaker 1: before the magistrate, Grace reiterated her claim she'd been set up, framed, 514 00:33:09,560 --> 00:33:12,200 Speaker 1: taken advantage of by someone who was not well known 515 00:33:12,240 --> 00:33:16,120 Speaker 1: to her. This person, she claimed, was a female employee 516 00:33:16,280 --> 00:33:19,040 Speaker 1: who worked at the recording studio of her boyfriend and 517 00:33:19,200 --> 00:33:22,719 Speaker 1: music producer Chris Stanley, and the woman was identified as 518 00:33:22,760 --> 00:33:25,840 Speaker 1: such under a pseudonym in Grace's memoir, though in the 519 00:33:25,880 --> 00:33:28,440 Speaker 1: papers at the time, the woman was referred to as 520 00:33:28,480 --> 00:33:32,280 Speaker 1: Chris Stanley's ex girlfriend. These are the same papers that 521 00:33:32,440 --> 00:33:35,720 Speaker 1: also claimed that Grace and Chris were married, which Grace 522 00:33:35,760 --> 00:33:39,480 Speaker 1: has since denied in her memoir. So who really knows. 523 00:33:40,080 --> 00:33:43,880 Speaker 1: What we do know is that Kingston Police originally responded 524 00:33:43,920 --> 00:33:47,040 Speaker 1: to Chris Stanley's house and studio on an anonymous tip. 525 00:33:47,640 --> 00:33:50,800 Speaker 1: The identity of that caller remained a mystery during Grace's trial, 526 00:33:51,080 --> 00:33:54,800 Speaker 1: although Grace herself would tell you otherwise. In the end, 527 00:33:54,880 --> 00:33:57,720 Speaker 1: the magistrate overseeing the case chose to give Grace, in 528 00:33:57,800 --> 00:34:01,960 Speaker 1: the magistrate's own words, the benefit of the doubt, despite 529 00:34:01,960 --> 00:34:05,200 Speaker 1: her past, despite the drug fueled industries in which she 530 00:34:05,280 --> 00:34:08,640 Speaker 1: worked as a multi hyphenate, and despite her own reputation 531 00:34:08,760 --> 00:34:12,960 Speaker 1: in her home country, Grace Jones was acquitted. Her trial 532 00:34:13,040 --> 00:34:15,720 Speaker 1: lasted three days, the same amount of time she'd spent 533 00:34:15,760 --> 00:34:18,880 Speaker 1: in a jail cell some nine month prior, and the 534 00:34:19,160 --> 00:34:21,920 Speaker 1: entire ordeal left her with about thirty thousand dollars in 535 00:34:22,000 --> 00:34:24,719 Speaker 1: legal fees and travel expenses, as well as a new 536 00:34:24,760 --> 00:34:29,400 Speaker 1: album to promote. That album, Bulletproof Hard, had been released 537 00:34:29,400 --> 00:34:32,560 Speaker 1: by Capitol Records in October of the previous year, nineteen 538 00:34:32,600 --> 00:34:35,799 Speaker 1: eighty nine. The cover photo of Grace, taken by her 539 00:34:35,800 --> 00:34:39,120 Speaker 1: old flame and collaborator Jean Paul Good, Now, feels like 540 00:34:39,160 --> 00:34:41,920 Speaker 1: a final wave goodbye to the decade that defined her, 541 00:34:42,200 --> 00:34:47,040 Speaker 1: the nineteen eighties. Grace's head, bathed in dark purple shadows, 542 00:34:47,239 --> 00:34:51,279 Speaker 1: sits atop her elongated neck, her lips bright red, her 543 00:34:51,320 --> 00:34:55,560 Speaker 1: ears sharp and perfectly symmetrical, her flat top like a plateau, 544 00:34:56,040 --> 00:34:58,799 Speaker 1: bright yellow light emanating from where her eyes should be. 545 00:34:59,440 --> 00:35:03,240 Speaker 1: She is the past and the future, bathed in mystery, 546 00:35:03,680 --> 00:35:08,839 Speaker 1: maybe too mysterious. The album was a disappointment both commercially 547 00:35:09,080 --> 00:35:12,160 Speaker 1: and critically. It failed to reach the heights of many 548 00:35:12,160 --> 00:35:15,280 Speaker 1: of her past records like Nightclubbing, Slave to the Rhythm, 549 00:35:15,520 --> 00:35:19,759 Speaker 1: or even the Nile Rogers produced Inside Story. Perhaps it 550 00:35:19,840 --> 00:35:22,799 Speaker 1: was the lackluster response from the public, or perhaps it 551 00:35:22,840 --> 00:35:25,560 Speaker 1: was the traumatic circumstances under which the record was made, 552 00:35:26,120 --> 00:35:29,680 Speaker 1: But Bulletproof Heart was the last album Grace Jones would 553 00:35:29,680 --> 00:35:33,319 Speaker 1: release for another nineteen years, until two thousand and eight, 554 00:35:33,480 --> 00:35:36,440 Speaker 1: when she reunited with Sly and Robbie the other Compass 555 00:35:36,440 --> 00:35:43,759 Speaker 1: Point All Stars to make her triumphant record, Hurricane. But 556 00:35:43,880 --> 00:35:47,440 Speaker 1: before taking an extended hiatus from the music world, Grace 557 00:35:47,520 --> 00:35:50,479 Speaker 1: Jones returned to the scene of the crime, or rather 558 00:35:50,560 --> 00:35:52,760 Speaker 1: to the scene where she'd been held for her crime 559 00:35:52,880 --> 00:35:58,760 Speaker 1: she didn't commit. Grace Jones rolled up to the Kingston 560 00:35:58,840 --> 00:36:01,160 Speaker 1: jail where she'd done her town, but now she had 561 00:36:01,160 --> 00:36:04,000 Speaker 1: a film production crew in tow. They were there to 562 00:36:04,000 --> 00:36:06,080 Speaker 1: shoot a music video for one of the tracks from 563 00:36:06,120 --> 00:36:10,319 Speaker 1: her Bulletproof Heart album. Being here, making art here, in 564 00:36:10,360 --> 00:36:12,920 Speaker 1: the very place that tried to silence her, took the 565 00:36:13,000 --> 00:36:15,480 Speaker 1: power and control out of the hands of those who 566 00:36:15,520 --> 00:36:20,040 Speaker 1: wanted to define her as something else. She knew what 567 00:36:20,160 --> 00:36:23,600 Speaker 1: she was, She knew what lurked behind her eyes, the 568 00:36:23,640 --> 00:36:26,560 Speaker 1: ones that had been innocent and God fearing as a child, 569 00:36:26,760 --> 00:36:29,799 Speaker 1: who were now curated with makeup and beaming with the 570 00:36:29,840 --> 00:36:34,879 Speaker 1: bright yellow light of the future. Grace Jones's eyes were 571 00:36:35,000 --> 00:36:39,480 Speaker 1: the future, a future with no fear, no rules, and 572 00:36:39,560 --> 00:37:08,080 Speaker 1: no disgrace. I'm Jake Brennan and this is Disgraceland. All right, guys, 573 00:37:08,120 --> 00:37:10,839 Speaker 1: thanks for hanging with me on another episode of Disgraceland. 574 00:37:10,920 --> 00:37:14,080 Speaker 1: Hope you dug this Grace Jones story. Listen Question of 575 00:37:14,080 --> 00:37:15,960 Speaker 1: the Week six one seven nine oh six sixty six 576 00:37:16,080 --> 00:37:17,960 Speaker 1: three eight. Leave me a voicemail, send me a text. 577 00:37:18,000 --> 00:37:20,400 Speaker 1: I want to know your answer on who's your favorite 578 00:37:20,600 --> 00:37:24,360 Speaker 1: multi hyphen it singer? Okay? Or you know which actor 579 00:37:24,560 --> 00:37:28,240 Speaker 1: turned singer do you think did it the best? Or model? 580 00:37:28,360 --> 00:37:31,040 Speaker 1: Or you know whatever? Whoever it is, is it Grace Jones? 581 00:37:31,320 --> 00:37:33,799 Speaker 1: Is it somebody else? Get at us again? Six one 582 00:37:33,880 --> 00:37:35,759 Speaker 1: seven nine oh six sixty six three eight to leave 583 00:37:35,800 --> 00:37:38,840 Speaker 1: a voicemail or send a text at Disgrace Lampod on 584 00:37:38,880 --> 00:37:41,879 Speaker 1: the Socials Disgrace Lampod at gmail dot com to send 585 00:37:41,920 --> 00:37:44,040 Speaker 1: an email to support the show. You can leave a 586 00:37:44,040 --> 00:37:47,600 Speaker 1: review for disgracelam on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. You can 587 00:37:47,640 --> 00:37:51,400 Speaker 1: also become a Patreon All Access member go to disgracelampod 588 00:37:51,440 --> 00:37:54,680 Speaker 1: dot com to sign up for exclusive and bonus free content. 589 00:37:54,719 --> 00:37:56,480 Speaker 1: All right, I gotta get out of here. Here comes 590 00:37:56,520 --> 00:38:02,200 Speaker 1: some credits. Graceland was created by Yours Truly and is 591 00:38:02,280 --> 00:38:05,880 Speaker 1: produced in partnership with Double Elvis, the Exactly Right Network 592 00:38:06,080 --> 00:38:09,840 Speaker 1: in iHeart Podcasts. Credits for this episode can be found 593 00:38:09,880 --> 00:38:13,400 Speaker 1: on the show notes page at disgracelampod dot com. If 594 00:38:13,440 --> 00:38:16,480 Speaker 1: you're listening as a Disgraceland All Access member, thank you 595 00:38:16,520 --> 00:38:19,480 Speaker 1: for supporting the show. We really appreciate it. And if not, 596 00:38:19,719 --> 00:38:21,759 Speaker 1: you can become a member right now by going to 597 00:38:21,840 --> 00:38:26,680 Speaker 1: disgracelampod dot com slash. 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