Gloria and Dion

Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Dion DiMucci rarely speaks publicly about his close relationship with Gloria Stavers. The young Bronx hitmaker and the 16 Magazine editor 13 years his senior were romantically involved at a pivotal time in Dion's life. In a 1996 interview conducted by Danny Fields for the book "Who's Your Fave Rave?," Dion discussed the impact Gloria had on his personal life and career. I would love to talk to Dion about Gloria some day, but until then, here's an excerpt of that interview, used with the author's permission.

"I loved Gloria, she was wild. I was from the Bronx, and she was a whole different breed of woman. I got a kick out of the way she was so different. I was 19 and she was 32, and we both discovered Lenny Bruce together. She was interviewing me for the magazine, and she told me that I couldn't tell people I was taking drugs, or about any serious problems I had. She told me to smile, put down the cigarette, and don't threaten anyone. She knew the minds of teenagers so well. I recorded 'Wish Upon a Star' after a conversation with her.

"Did I become her lover to get into 16? Definitely not, not at all. That's not my thing. I was naive, and I thought I was really special. I was kind of defiant and arrogant, and it was a time, the early days of rock and roll, of rebellion and revolution, breaking the showbiz traditions. And the magazine was kind of in that showbiz tradition, yet the stars were a lot of the new rebels. I couldn't control what was written in the magazine, so the rebellious side was only hinted at, and Gloria and I understood that's the way it had to be.

"But she was so different from anyone I'd ever known, as if she were from another planet. I kind of, maybe, approached her, and she responded, and we had an affair for almost three years. I used to pour my heart out to that woman. She would come to Baltimore, Philly, Boston, where I was playing, and we would sit in my hotel room and I would just brainstorm, run things by her, visions and dreams, to get her reaction, to learn from her. At that time, all I knew was my neighborhood in the Bronx, nothing too much beyond that. It baffled me. At 19, I had a lot more questions than answers, and it was those kinds of things I could talk to her about. Knowing her was part of my inner life, my real life, and the stuff in the magazine was cool, it made you feel good seeing your face on the cover or having a story written about you, but that was an ego thing, different from my real life.

"I wrote a song about Gloria, called 'The Road I'm On.' Some of my real thoughts are on that. I thought she was one of the most terrific people I've ever known, a really important part of my younger years."