Once upon a time no rock band was complete without a cache of beautiful girls hidden behind the amplifiers – girls who were more than happy to put out and didn`t ask for anything in return.

Although the breed is not entirely extinct, the groupie – part fan, part geisha, part prostitute – was essentially a phenomenon of the 1970s, that pre-Aids, post-Pill world of drug-saturated concupiscence. And this week the exploits of one of that decade`s most famous groupies, Bebe Buell – ex-model, Playboy centrefold and mother of the actress Liv Tyler – will be published in the US. Rebel Heart: An American Rock and Roll Journey has already ignited controversy for its frank account of the Seventies rock`n`roll lifestyle and brought blushes to several of its central players: Elvis Costello, Rod Stewart, Mick Jagger and David Bowie. Yet still the book does not explain what it takes to be a groupie – that cocktail of blind naivety, lasciviousness and adulation that compels pretty little girls to sleep with skinny egomaniacs for absolutely no emotional return.

Someone who has all these qualities in abundance is Josette Caruso. Thirty years ago she was a slim brunette with a big smile and a taste for outrageous sexy outfits. One of her favourites was a long, silver, sequinned dress, cut very low at the back. David Bowie took one look at her in it, she says, and declared, "I can see myself in you."

Today, at 48, Josette`s wardrobe is a little less provocative, but she is still dark and petite, and still a self-confessed groupie. Like Buell she was a permanent fixture of the Seventies New York scene. "We were a small ιlite group of girls and I was very proud to be called a groupie. When I say that today, some people will jump down my throat, but they don`t understand. I felt special. I had been with David Bowie. To me that was special."

At a time when rock`n`roll had yet to be absorbed fully into the consumer mainstream, stars such as Bowie or Mick Jagger were youth culture royalty. Josette was a sexually inexperienced 16-year-old from New Jersey. Like most teenagers she was obsessed with rock stars. One day in 1969 she found herself sitting in a restaurant adjacent to Fillmore East, Bill Graham`s famous New York concert hall. Nearby sat Led Zeppelin`s Jimmy Page and that other prominent British guitar strangler of the day, Jeff Beck. Josette approached them, trembling. Page took her by the hand, pulled her on to his lap and asked her to come up to his room later. She consented. "What else was I going to do?" she says now. "Here I was on Jimmy Page`s lap; it was my fantasy come true." Josette stayed with Page for several days knowing full well that her single mother – whose only child she was – would be desperately worried.

When Led Zeppelin came back to New York to play Madison Square Garden, Josette asked her mother to meet the band and bring her some clothes. She expected to be dragged home immediately. Instead, her mother was all smiles and went home apparently quite content for her daughter to cuddle up with the group. "Years afterwards I said to her: why did you let me do that? Her answer brought tears to my eyes. She said she was afraid that, if she didn`t let me, I would leave her."

Other bands followed when the Zeppelin tour finished. "Before then boys had not really been part of my life, but suddenly it just snowballed," says Josette. "There was always a new band coming into town. I met Deep Purple, Ten