Miss O'Dell: My Life with The Beatles, The Stones, Bob Dylan, and the Women Who Loved Them

by Chris O'Dell with Katherine Ketcham

I wasn’t famous. I wasn’t even almost famous. But I was there. I was in the studio when the Beatles recorded The White Album, Abbey Road, and Let It Be, and when Paul recorded “Hey Jude,” I sang in the chorus on the final cut. I lived at Friar Park with George and Pattie, typing the lyrics for George’s first solo album and shopping with Pattie for furnishings to fill the 120+ rooms. I was there the day George opened the newspaper to discover that Paul was leaving the Beatles due to “personal, business and musical differences.” I was alone with George in a house on the Pacific Coast Highway near Malibu when he sang the song he had written for me, which he titled “Miss O’Dell.” I was in London’s Olympic Studios when Leon Russell recorded “Pisces Apple Lady,” a song he had written to woo me. I toured with the Rolling Stones as their personal assistant. This book will follow my adventures over the twenty years that I worked and traveled with some of the greatest artists ever, which also include Queen, Santana, Earth Wind and Fire, Linda Ronstadt, Jennifer Warnes, Fleetwood Mac, ELO, Led Zepplin and more.

Chris O’Dell is a Licensed Professional Counselor and Licensed Substance Abuse Counselor in Tucson, Arizona where she has a private practice. She has a Master’s Degree in Counseling. In her current position as an addictions counselor in private practice, Chris often uses music therapy as a way of helping young people put words to their feelings.

From 1968 to 1984 she worked in the music world as an assistant and tour manager for the most influential musicians of that era. She has appeared on television, radio, and print media over the years relating her stories of her years with the Beatles and The Stones.

Katherine Ketcham is the coauthor of thirteen books, including The New York Times bestseller Broken: My Story of Addiction and Redemption with William Moyers (Viking, 2006, over 100,000 copies sold, excerpted in People magazine) and the bestselling classics Under the Influence with James Milam (Bantam, 1983; over one million copies sold), and The Spirituality of Imperfection with Ernest Kurtz (Bantam, 1992; 185,000 copies sold). Over 1.4 million copies of her books are currently in print and her books have been translated into thirteen languages.
For the last seven years she has worked part-time as a youth and family advocate for the Walla Walla Juvenile Justice Center. From 2001-2003 she wrote a bi-monthly column on addiction and recovery for her hometown newspaper, The Union Bulletin. She has appeared on local and national television and radio programs to promote her books.