Daily Express (UK)
HEIDI JO HINES: I WILL NEVER FORGET MY ROCK 'N' ROLL CHILDHOOD
As the daughter of Seventies rocker and Wings co-founder Denny Laine, Heidi Jo Hines's childhood was anything but ordinary.
Rod Stewart sang her songs in the bath and Lemmy read her bedtime stories. Her playmates were Mary and Stella McCartney, daughters of Denny's Wings bandmate Sir Paul.
I didn t realise how intense our lives were back then, says Heidi, now 37, who is launching her own music career as frontwoman of rock outfit Earth Prayer.
As an eight-year-old it all seemed normal to me. There was always something going on in our house. Roger Daltrey was in the kitchen regularly.
If it hadn t been for rock 'n' roll, Heidi wouldn t have been here. Her mother Jo Jo, a former model and Denny's ex-wife, left her home in Boston, Massachusetts, aged 16, to follow her favourite bands around the world.
A hedonistic rock chick, she went on to lose her virginity to Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock in 1969 and counted Doors singer Jim Morrison among her conquests. She then travelled to the UK to meet her long standing crush ex-Beatle Paul McCartney, who was then happily married to his first wife Linda.
"My mum had the hots for Paul and came over to England from America in 1971 as a groupie at the age of 18," says Heidi.
"She went out with Rod Stewart but then in 1972 she met my dad backstage at a gig and their romance started."
When Jo Jo was 21 she and Denny, who was previously in the The Moody Blues, had their first child, a son Laine, now 38. Heidi arrived a year later in 1974.
By this time Jo Jo was the queen of Britain's rock scene and her court was their home, Yew Corner, Middlesex, where she hosted wild celebrations which included a who's who of the music world.
"We were always having parties around the pool," remembers Heidi, who closely resembles her mother. "Elvis Costello was often there and Liv Tyler's mother Bebe Buell would be chatting away with my mum while they cooked steaks."
Nevertheless Heidi witnessed more than a child should. "I saw my mum with her lovers. I saw all sorts of things and I had to block a lot of things out.
"Even as a child I could see her connection with Rod Stewart and Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler. She used to run down the hallway and jump up on to Steven and swing her legs around him."
Denny (whose real name is Brian Hines) and Jo Jo also regularly took their children to stay with the McCartneys in their home on the Mull of Kintyre. "When I was seven I saw a stage come up out of the ground in his garden. I couldn't believe how cool it was.
"It was such a fun time. They were very nice but as a kid I didn't know how special they were. They were just my parents' friends. My brother and I were particularly friendly with Mary and Stella and they were great friends of ours."
As a small child Heidi even had a bit part in Wings, playing tambourine at the side of the stage when the band played London gigs.
When she was 10 her father tried to teach her piano. "Then he decided it would be better if someone else taught me," she recalls. "He was so busy. It was definitely having a musician dad that shaped my decision to be a musician."
Denny was a liberal father who liked to share his love of music and nature with his children yet his career meant he was not always around.
"My dad was often away on tour," she says. "Occasionally my mum would go too and then my grandmother or aunt would look after us."
When Heidi was five her parents tied the knot on a boat in Massachusetts but before long there were problems. Jo Jo was grieving after the death of her father and Denny began an affair with another woman. The marriage fell apart in 1982, months after Wings split up. "My parents would fight a lot but they were young," says Heidi. "In the end dad felt she had a part in ruining his life and my mother had started drinking."
Shortly after, her parents left Yew Corner. "It made me sad as this was my childhood home," says Heidi. While Denny tried to resurrect his career and eventually filed for bankruptcy in the mid-Eighties, Jo Jo and the children moved into a flat in central London. They stayed there for two years before Jo Jo moved back to America taking her children with her.
When Heidi was 22 she returned to London with her mother who was drinking heavily. "She told me she was an alcoholic one day. She told me not to get into drink and drugs and not lead the life she had."
Heidi has followed her mother's advice. She lives with her partner Jeff Wayling, a music promoter and their children Jaylie, 11, and seven-year-old Jesse. When not chasing her music dream she is a full-time mum.
The family still lives in her mother's two-bedroom flat in St John's Wood and her children are friends with Mary McCartney's children. However, Heidi's relationship with her father suffered as she spent much of her youth with Jo Jo. Father and daughter haven't spoken in years but she says they're in contact via Facebook. "There was so much water under the bridge and after I took my mother's side, there seemed no going back."
When Jo Jo returned to the UK, her colourful lifestyle continued when she became one of the Marquess of Bath's "wifelets". Then in 2005 she was diagnosed with liver cancer and was having treatment before dying aged 54 from a fatal fall down the stairs in her beloved Yew Corner. She had returned there to meet the house's new owner.
"My childhood made me the person I am," says Heidi. "I wouldn't change a thing. I love to tell my children about it but I'm glad our lives are more sober.
"My kids go to school, have friends around and do their homework. Their lives are a little more ordinary and that's no bad thing."
For Earth Prayer's concert dates and to buy their debut album Nine Days visit
http://earthprayer.co.ukhttp://web.mac.com/paul_mccartney/macca_report_news/latest.htm#anchor1438540
