The club is made up of Hollywood rockers such as Cooper, Bernie Taupin (Elton John’s songwriting partner), Mickey Dolenz of the Monkees, and Keith Moon of the Who (often clad in outrageous costumes, including a Queen Elizabeth getup). Whenever he’s in town, Ringo is a welcome member. They all congregate for endless rounds of late-night drinks in the upstairs loft at Hollywood’s Rainbow Bar & Grill, which is adorned with a plaque reading THE LAIR OF THE HOLLYWOOD VAMPIRES.

John finds his way into the club through his good friend Harry Nilsson, the Grammy-winning singer-songwriter famed for his version of the folk-rock song “Everybody’s Talkin’” (from the Oscar-winning 1969 film Midnight Cowboy) and his more recent orchestral smash-hit cover of “Without You,” a ballad by the Beatles’ Apple label signees Badfinger.

Alice Cooper—who’s just covered the Beatles’ “A Hard Day’s Night” during the tour promoting his Billion Dollar Babies album—often falls into the uneasy role of mediator between Harry and John. “They were the best of friends, but when they drank, they liked to get political and talk about religion and everything else that causes fights.”

Cooper notes, “Everybody’s personality changes a little bit when they drink.” In John and Harry’s case, “It was funny because neither one was a fighter; they just had a belligerent streak in them every once in a while. Most of the time they were laughing.”

“The difference between the two was that Harry loved to drink and was good at it,” explains Elliot Mintz. “John also loved to drink, but was no good at it. At the beginning of an evening with the two of them, the conversation would be brilliant…Then suddenly it would flip, and the insanity would start.”

*  *  *

One such night is March 12, 1974, when John and Harry show up at the Troubadour, a favorite nightclub in West Hollywood, for a midnight comedy show.

Sitting next to them is Rat Pack actor (and fellow Brit) Peter Lawford, whose former beach house John is currently renting in Santa Monica.

“Brandy Alexanders for the table!” Harry orders. He and John are already pretty blitzed.

“What’s that?” John asks. He’s never heard of the drink, let alone tried one.

“Brandy and cream with chocolate liqueur. Don’t worry, you’ll love it,” Harry assures him.

“They taste like milk shakes,” John exclaims when they arrive. Several more rounds of the unexpectedly potent cocktails go down with dangerous ease.

May Pang sits by, helpless. “Harry would keep feeding John drinks until it was too late.”

The Smothers Brothers come onstage to perform a comedy routine.

Tommy Smothers is an old friend of John, having sung in the chorus on “Give Peace a Chance.”

Instead of giving them a friendly greeting, John and Harry start heckling Tommy and Dick Smothers. “I think we almost screwed up the act,” John later admits.