Rocker Peter Wolf was the heart and soul of the J Geils Band in the 1970s.
After having smash hits with “Centerfold” and “Freeze Frame” in 1980, Wolf went out on his own with more hits like “Lights Out.”
He was the real deal rock star. All through the 70s he lived with actress Faye Dunaway in Boston and Hollywood.
Now Peter has written a memoir, which he calls a book of vignettes.”Waiting on the Moon” will be published Tuesday. Wolf does write all about his Hollywood experiences via Faye, almost as if he were detached from the memories. He maintains a surprisingly non judgmental attitude throughout.
But there it is, in the middle of the book, the story of Faye, Jack Nicholson, and Roman Polanski making the classic “Chinatown” in 1973. (It was released in June 1974.) There are disagreements, a lot of coke, and many wild parties.
At one point, Wolf and Dunaway visit Polanski in a guest house. And the guest was Natassja Kinski, the actress and model and daughter of Klaus Kinski. By Wolf’s recollection, Natassja would have been 13 years old at the most, more likely 12, if his facts are straight.
Wolf writes:
Faye spoke to him in French, and just as they began a lengthy dia-
logue, a beautiful young woman appeared from the other room. Bare-
foot, she had thick light brown hair down to her shoulders and was
dressed in a diaphanous white nightgown that exposed her youthful,
delicate body. She, too, spoke French. I assumed it was Roman’s daughter as she sat on the floor next to him…
The young woman, transfixed, staring at Faye with doe-eyed admira-
tion, got up, hugged Roman goodnight, and left. He then told us that the girl, Nastassja, was the daughter of actor Klaus Kinski and was in Los Angeles for tutoring as well as dancing and acting lessons while preparing for her first film role. He added, “Klaus has not been much of a father.”
Not long after, Wolf and Dunaway go to a party at Jack Nicholson’s house.
Wolf recalls the other guests “drifting away.”
He writes: Jack invited Faye upstairs to work on
the script, and Faye asked if I would mind waiting. I answered, “Of
course not.”
When a half hour became an hour, and then another, I called up the
staircase— “Faye?”— but got no reply. I continued to wait in the living
room.
Finally, as I saw the sun coming up, it occurred to me that what I
thought might be happening was definitely happening.
Wolf calls a cab and while he’s waiting throws a lot of furniture in Nicholson’s pool including a glass table piled high with coke. A year later Wolf and Dunaway nevertheless embark on a tempestuous five year marriage, much of which took place in Boston (where I happened to be at the time– they were the talk of the town!). Fighting, infidelity, and divorce follow.
“Waiting on the Moon” reads like the flip side of Julia Phillips’ “You’ll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again.” It’s a chronicle of Hollywood and the rock world at their most dizzying, with scores of cameos from the most famous celebrities of that time. The book should be number 1 with a bullet when it’s published next week.
PS There’a going to have to be a Volume 2, because the book makes no mention of Dunaway’s Oscar in 1976 for “Network,” or even what happened to Polanski in 1977. Stay tuned…
