Terry talks to Prince Stash - Part 2

De Rola's mother was Rose Alice Antoinette Freiin von Wattenwyl (1912–1997), a Swiss aristocrat from Bern whom his father had married in 1937. His younger brother is Thadée Klossowski de Rola (born 1944). De Rola spent part of his childhood at the Villa Diodati in Cologny above Geneva, once a residence of Lord Byron, a distant relative of de Rola. Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary Shelley had visited Lord Byron at Villa Diodati in 1816. Mary Shelley had been inspired to write her novel Frankenstein by her stay at the villa.

 

In his youth, which he spent in Swiss and English boarding schools, de Rola developed a strong interest in acting and rock'n'roll. After finishing school, he lived between Rome, Paris and London. In 1959 he was discovered by director Luchino Visconti in Rome and signed a film contract. In 1960 he attended the Cannes Film Festival with Federico Fellini. De Rola was friends with a few musicians, including the late Tony Williams, the lead singer of The Platters. At the end of 1962, de Rola went to New York and from there to Hollywood to pursue his acting.

 

At the end of 1964, de Rola returned to Paris and played as a percussionist in the backing band of his friend Vince Taylor. In the spring of 1965, Vince Taylor and the Playboys performed at the Olympia in Paris as an opening act for the Rolling Stones. In this way, de Rola got to know the band members and became friends with guitarist Brian Jones. Later, he also developed a friendship with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Soon after, he also became acquainted with the Beatles.

 

After Vince Taylor's band broke up in the summer of 1965 due to his drug abuse, de Rola formed his own band with Bobbie Clarke as drummer and Ralph Danks as guitarist. After a series of gigs at the Bilboquet club in Paris, as well as a gig at the American Center, the band was offered a record deal to market them as the French Beatles. However, her aversion to contemporary French pop was a major reason for her decision to decline the offer. Instead, band members chose to follow the Everly Brothers, whom they had met in Paris, to Los Angeles.

 

In Los Angelos, de Rola and the other band members met with numerous musicians and took an active part in the music scene. They played together with the Yardbirds, saw a James Brown concert, were guests on a television show with Sonny and Cher, and attended Bob Dylan's concert at the Hollywood Bowl. Director Bob Rafelson and producer Bert Schneider offered de Rola a starring role in the planned TV series The Monkees. After reading the script, de Rola declined to participate in the later very successful format.

 

At the end of 1965, de Rola left Los Angeles and the band after getting into trouble with his work permit. He moved to Copenhagen and recorded a solo single there, which was released on the Sonet music label. The song on the A-side was called Peace, and the B-side recorded a cover version of Bob Dylan's Chimes Of Freedom. The single was released under the name Stach de Rola. Stachou is the Polish pet name for Stanislas and is occasionally found as the first name of de Rola. [1] Balthus also made a watercolor of his son entitled Stachou. De Rola called himself Stash a short time later, as the English pronunciation of Stach sounded too harsh.

 

After de Rola turned down a recording contract with French producer Eddie Barclay because he did not want to make a recording in French, de Rola came to London in early 1966 and recorded a cover version of Arthur Lee's A Message to Pretty. Mick Jagger, John Lennon and Paul McCartney participated in the production. Shortly after the recording and production of the song, however, the final result disappeared without a trace. However, this project cemented de Rola's friendships with the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.

 

De Rola participated in some sessions of the Beatles and apparently contributed to the 1967 song Baby, You're a Rich Man, which was on the B-side of the single All You Need Is Love. De Rola was also present when John Lennon developed the chord structure of All You Need Is Love on the piano. Allegedly, Lennon and McCartney supported him in planning his own music album. McCartney is also said to have composed a song for de Rola. He shared a passion for esotericism and mysticism with George Harrison.

 

Although Stash de Rola remained a marginal figure in the music scene, he was at the center of the party scene in Swinging London. He regularly went to the clubs Bag O'Nails, Ad Lib or Speakeasy, where he met with Jimi Hendrix and the members of The Animals and The Who. De Rola was considered a dandy and was nicknamed Peacock because he wore expensive vintage velvet and silk clothes, some of which he designed himself. He frequently swapped clothes with Jimi Hendrix, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Brian Jones.

 

On 10 May 1967, Scotland Yard raided Brian Jones' home on Courtfield Road in London and arrested him and Stash de Rola, who was also present. Both were put on trial for drug possession. De Rola was acquitted at the trial, which did not take place until October 30, 1967. Brian Jones, on the other hand, was sentenced to one year in prison for drug possession. This sentence was suspended on appeal on December 12, 1967.

 

The indictment was a traumatic experience for those involved. De Rola's passport was revoked, he was at the mercy of hostilities, and his reputation was damaged. During the trial, however, de Rola also received a lot of encouragement and support, especially from Paul McCartney, who let him live with him. Brian Jones, on the other hand, followed the advice of his lawyers and stayed away from the band members of the Rolling Stones during this time, which further worsened his mental state.

 

In the summer of 1967, de Rola traveled with Jones and his ex-girlfriend Anita Pallenberg to the Cannes Film Festival, where the film Murder and Manslaughter by director Volker Schlöndorff was shown. The main actress was Pallenberg and the music was composed by Jones. At the end of 1967, Stash de Rola, Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd and some friends took a trip to Wales in the Black Mountains. There they took LSD intensively, which apparently triggered a psychotic breakdown in Syd Barrett, which eventually led to his expulsion from the band.

 

In the 1960s, Stash de Rola had numerous affairs and love affairs. His partners included Joan Blackman, Tuesday Weld, Nico, Suki Potier, Linda Eastman, Marianne Faithfull, and Anita Pallenberg. He was briefly engaged to Romina Power, the daughter of Tyrone Power, and wanted to shoot a film with her in Hollywood, directed by John Huston, but was not allowed to leave the country at that time.

 

In the late summer of 1967, Stash de Rola hosted a problematic photo session at the Villa Medici in Rome. The villa was the seat of the Académie de France à Rome, which was headed by his father as director. De Rola wore his best dandy attire and posed with two nude models in the photos. Although the project was not pursued, the photographer James Baes sold the photos to the Italian men's magazine Playmen in 1968. The photos caused a scandal at the time and angered his father.

 

In the late 1960s, de Rola resumed acting, playing supporting roles in Le dolci signore, a romantic comedy by Luigi Zampa starring Ursula Andress, and Saturation 70, a psychedelic science fiction by Gram Parsons, which was never completed. This film, which was shot near the town of Joshua Tree in the Mojave Desert, also starred five-year-old Julian Jones, a son of Brian Jones, who died in July 1969.  De Rola had always remained connected to Brian Jones despite his drug problems and had been deeply affected by his death.

 

In the 1970s, de Rola wrote the dialogues for Roger Vadim's film La Jeune fille assassinée, played in Joe Cocker's band, was on the road with Marlon Brando, made numerous trips to Ceylon and was once again involved in an arrest for drug possession. On June 26, 1973, police stormed Keith Richards' home on Cheyne Walk in Chelsea and took Richards, his girlfriend Anita Pallenberg and Stash de Rola into custody. The three were released on bail the same evening.

 

In the 1980s, de Rola founded the recording company Thrill Records, which he later renamed Thrill Entertainment. In 1987 he produced the album The Dirty Strangers by the band of the same name. Keith Richards and Ron Wood of the Rolling Stones played guitar to some of the songs. In 1992, de Rola made the film Shining Blood, in which he was an actor, screenwriter, director and producer at the same time. He also published two books on alchemy. In the early 2000s, de Rola published the love letters between his father and mother, which they had written to each other from 1928 to 1937. One motivation for the publication was to give the reader an insight into what Balthus had really thought about painting and people.