Zooey Deschanel to Star in HBO Series About Rock Groupies

She and Him singer and (500) Days of Summer actress Zooey Deschanel will essentially merge the two aspects of her career by starring as the title character in a pilot for HBO's upcoming dramedy I'm With the Band: Confessions of a Groupie, Deadline.com reports.The series will be based on the 1987 memoir of the same name by former groupie Pamela Des Barres, with Deschanel playing the role of the author.

Check out photos of Johnny Depp, Juliette Lewis and more actors who rock.

In the memoir, Des Barres reminisces about her adventures in '60s/'70s-era rock & roll, starting out as a nanny for Frank Zappa before eventually becoming the love interest of Mick Jagger and Jimmy Page. Des Barres was actually a member of a group of groupies that labeled themselves "the GTOs," which likely served as the inspiration for the "Band-Aides" in Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous. To bring this whole thing full circle, Deschanel also appeared in Almost Famous, but played the young reporter's cool older sister and not as a Band-Aide.

As Rolling Stone previously reported, in addition to building on her acting resume, Mrs. Ben Gibbard and M. Ward will release She and Him's Volume 2 on March 23rd. Read more of Rolling Stone's In the Studio interview with the duo here:

• In the Studio: She and Him's Sunny Folk Rock Returns on "Volume 2"

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• She & Him Set to Cover NRBQ on March 23rd Album "Volume 2"
• Zooey Deschanel on Tackling the Smiths in "(500) Days of Summer"

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Song Stories

“1999”

Prince | 1982

“I don’t consider myself a great poet,” Prince told Rolling Stone. “I just know I’m here to say what’s on my mind.” In the case of the apocalyptic party anthem “1999,” he was worried about then-president Ronald Reagan’s foreign policies. The song’s melody is based on a riff borrowed from the Mamas and Papas’ “Monday, Monday,” and Prince originally envisioned the first verse with three-part harmony but later split the vocals between himself and members of the Revolution. Because Warner Bros., with whom Prince was locked in a contractual battle, owned the original’s masters, Prince rerecorded the song and appropriately released that version in 1999.

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