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68 year-old Rio de Janeiro singer Serguei Bustamante, a living legend of Brazilian rock'n'roll, met Janis Joplin in the US in 1968. He ran into her again in the summer of 1970. At TRIP's request, he tells a psychedelic - an emotional - tale of what it was like to have Janis whispering in his ear "We met in Long Island, at an outdoors rock and roll festival, back when I lived in the US. She came up to me and said: 'You have lots of feeling'. We became friends right away. I went to San Francisco with her and spent a month there. We had a great time together. Janis had lots of orange juice, a sort of ritual, she pressed fresh juice all the time - and then dosed it with gin. One day she was making juice when someone knocked. I answered and there was a weird man with a Black Power hairdo standing there. Let him in, she said. And that was how I met Jimi Hendrix. I remember they started to argue and then to kiss - it was a different life style, you know? A few days later we went to Jimi's place in Los Angeles. I've always been uninhibited and I danced, swayed and twisted my tongue around. Then Janis told me to stop sticking my tongue out or the hairy guy stretched out on the couch would stick a sunshine in my mouth. The hairy guy was Jim Morrison. |
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Back then I used to perform at a rat-trap called New Holliday,
at basement 73, Leme, Copacabana. I sang stuff like 'Satisfaction'
and 'Tropicália', I opened up for Darlene Glória's act. I wanted
to take Janis there. The manager, a Portuguese, stopped her at the
entrance: 'This dirty bum can't enter.' Imagine that, Janis barred
from a whores' bar! I argued with the man and she finally got in.
Alcione was singing 'Upa neguinho'. I left and caught up with her and David Niehaus, the blond Dutchman I mentioned, at the beach. The moon was full … You know, I'm shameless by nature: the three of us had sex until morning. To say the truth, I was more into the Dutch, with his white ass in the moonlight, I wasn't very attracted to her because for me Janis was unattainable, an idol, sensuality and protest, everything. She was all that I wanted to be. Even when we were next to each other, doing it, to me she was a dot of light floating in space." (as told to Ronaldo Bressane) PS: The original pictures in this story were kept in Ricky's files for 30 years and, as an editorial choice, we decided to keep them as they were found, with no chemical or digital restoration. |
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Janis
sat down and ordered vodka - you know, after having methadone there's
a craving for vodka, and she was undergoing a meth treatment at
the time to get rid of the heroine habit. There was a band playing
and I got on stage and said 'ladies and gentlemen, the greatest
singer of all time.' I asked the band to play for her, but they
didn't get the song right, they were nervous. Then she let go and
sang 'Ball and Chain.' God (Serguei gets emotional and weeps)...
her singing was sublime! The whole club stood up. Alcione screamed
like a woman possessed. Tony Tornado, who also appeared there, shook
all over, shirtless. The Portuguese man kneeled at my feet and cried:
'Fuck! How could I try to stop her? Hit me, I deserve it!' Then
she sang Ray Charles's 'What I'd say.' It was beautiful, glorious,
total insanity. The whole club bought us drinks.