If feels like I’ve finally made the record that was always in my head. I’ve always been working with brilliant musicians, and I’ve been with my beloved Jimmy for about twelve years now. The funny thing is that my life is pretty much the same.

“I know I’m always going to have to be working hard. “I’ve worked really hard to be taken seriously,” Buell says over the phone. So it’s understandable that Buell is okay about finally being hot gossip for making a hot album. Her reputation wasn’t helped when daughter Liv had to discover her real father wasn’t Todd Rundgren but instead Steven Tyler, with whom Buell had a brief fling. The veteran scenester is better known for being a hot girlfriend than a former top fashion model, with a list of beaus ranging from Rod Stewart to Elvis Costello. In an interesting rock ‘n’ roll twist, that’s actually because of Buell’s bad reputation.

The lusty and lovely glam of Hard Love, however, shows why she jumped right back into playing the nightclubs of the New York tri-state area – even if the opening track of “Mother of Rock & Roll” could’ve more accurately billed her as a granny.Īnd yet everyone’s surprised that Hard Love is a great album.

Buell could’ve become a Real Housewife of Anywhere after that. That was back in 1997, when daughter Liv Tyler moved away from home. The former Playboy centerfold (Miss November, ’74) is still striking at 58 years old, and she’s actually been playing live regularly since retiring from a long stint as a busy stage mother. That collection of charming electro-pop was Buell’s first proper album, but it had her sounding like a suburban mom returning to the workplace. It’s all even more of a comeback on the heels of last year’s lightweight Sugar. Hard Love is also a big triumph for the Bebe Buell Band and Buell’s husband Jimmy Walls, who’s helped his bride make an album worthy of his own days fronting ’80s psych-sludgesters Das Damen. It isn’t often that you have to inform someone that everybody’s amazed she made one of the best albums of 2011. “I’m not offended,” says Bebe Buell, and that’s a relief. Taylor on Januat 8:27 pm MILF of Rock ‘n’ Rollīebe Buell Has Something Worth Discovering

Bebe buell playboy cover