‘PERMANENT DAMAGE: MEMOIRS OF AN OUTRAGEOUS GIRL’ To Be Celebrated With Thursday, June 17 Event At Stories Books And Café Featuring Co-Author Q&A And Live Music Performances

DATE: JUNE 7, 2021

FROM: MARCEE RONDAN/MITCH SCHNEIDER

THE NEW BOOK ‘PERMANENT DAMAGE:
MEMOIRS OF AN OUTRAGEOUS GIRL’
BY MERCY FONTENOT WITH LYNDSEY PARKER
TO BE CELEBRATED IN
LOS ANGELES
JUNE 17 EVENT AT STORIES BOOKS AND CAFÉ
TO FEATURE A CONVERSATION AND Q&A BETWEEN
CO-AUTHOR LYNDSEY PARKER
AND PAMELA DES BARRES,
PLUS A STARCRAWLER LIVE PERFORMANCE,
AND A DJ SET FROM MILES TACKETT

Lyndsey Parker–co-author of the forthcoming autobiography of the late Miss Mercy, Permanent Damage: Memoirs of An Outrageous Girl (Rare Bird Books)–will celebrate the book’s release with a June 17 in-person event at Stories Books and Cafe in Los Angeles. Set to take place from 7:00-9:00 PM, this very special evening will feature a conversation and Q&A with Parker and Pamela Des Barres (who not only wrote the book’s afterword, but was a longtime friend of Fontenot’s), a Starcrawler live performance and a DJ set from Miles Tackett.

Due out June 9, Permanent Damage: Memoirs of An Outrageous Girl shows us the world of the 1960s and 1970s music scene through Mercy Fontenot’s eyes, as well as the fallout of that era–experiencing homelessness before sobering up and putting her life back together. Written just prior to her death in 2020 with veteran music journalist Lyndsey Parker, Miss Mercy’s journey is a can’t miss for anyone who was there and can’t remember, or just wishes they’d been there.

Mercy Fontenot was a Zelig who grew up in the San Francisco Haight Ashbury scene, where she crossed paths with Charles Manson, went to the first Acid Test, and was friends with Jimi Hendrix (she was later in his movie Rainbow Bridge). She predicted the Altamont disaster when reading the Rolling Stones’ tarot cards at a party and left San Francisco for the climes of Los Angeles in 1967 when the Haight “lost its magic.” Pre-order the book here.

Miss Mercy’s work in the GTOs, the Frank Zappa-produced all-female band, launched her into the pages of Rolling Stone in 1969. Her adventures saw her jumping out of a cake at Alice Cooper’s first record release party, while high on PCP, and had her travel to Memphis where she met Al Green and got a job working for the Bar-Kays. Along the way, she married and then divorced Shuggie Otis, before transitioning to punk rock and working with the Rockats and Gears. This is her story as she lived and saw it.

In a 6/2/21 feature in The Guardian, writer Jim Farber called Permanent Damage: Memoirs of An Outrageous Girl a “raucous new book” that details “the incredible, outrageous life of Miss Mercy.” He adds that “the book reads like a romp, aided by Mercy’s keen sense of the absurd and flair for black humor.”

About Lyndsey Parker:

Lyndsey Parker is the music editor at Yahoo Entertainment and host of the daily SiriusXM Volume show Volume West. Considered an expert in music and pop culture, Parker is an Online Journalism Award nominee and has written for Elle, MOJO, Rolling Stone, NME, and Guitar. She has appeared as a commentator for the ABC special The Show Must Go On: The Queen + Adam Lambert Story, AXS TV’s The Top Ten Revealed, and the documentary I Want My MTV, as well as for VH1’s Behind the Music, CNN, MTV, The Insider, and Good Day L.A.. She is the author of Careless Memories of Strange Behavior: My Notorious Life as a Duran Duran Fan (one of the first e-books published as part of Rhino Records’ all-digital music book series, which went to #1 on the iTunes Music Books chart).