Duran Duran Book Reveals How Band Ensured Their Groupies Were Barely-Legal

A new book by Duran Duran bassist John Taylor only lends further proof that during their '80s heyday the band were indeed wild boys.

According to the Daily Mail, Taylor's new book In the Pleasure Grove says while Duran Duran were on their 1981 U.S. tour they were given information by tour organizers as to what the legal age of consent was in each state on their call sheets.

"In the left-hand corner of each page of the US itinerary, there was a number, usually 18, 21, or 20," Taylor writes in the book, an excerpt of which the New York Post received. "It was months before I was let in on the secret. The numbers referred to the legal age for sexual intercourse in that particular state."

The book also details some of the partying and drug use, with Taylor claiming he's "lucky to be alive." He also discusses recording at the famed Power Station recording studio with a large number of drugs available.

"The access to cocaine was unlimited," he writes, adding that Mick Jagger, Bryan Ferry and Bob Dylan were just down the hallway.

"I didn't want to be lonely, and the drugs ensured I never was," Taylor writes. "I'm a pinup on thousands of bedroom walls, but the fear of loneliness is turning me into a cokehead.

"Everyone wanted to party with me, but behind the party face, I was caught up in a vortex of fear, arrogance, loneliness and extraordinarily popularity."

Taylor also described Madison Square Garden as being the "biggest ego venue in the world."
The book is expected to be released this fall but Taylor said July 10 on the band's site he "read the manuscript to In the Pleasure Grove, which had arrived for my perusal, and made some last minute notes."

Duran Duran is currently on tour in Europe and has a show this evening in Verona, Italy. The band released a live DVD entitled A Diamond in the Mind earlier this month. Taylor also announced on Twitter the group would be playing for 50 minutes during the upcoming Summer Olympic ceremonies in London.