Jimmie Tramel
Tulsa World Scene Reporter
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Leon Russell penned two songs, “Pisces Apple Lady” and “Hummingbird,” about Chris O’Dell, who was raised in Owasso and Keota.
Two Beatles, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, also wrote songs about O’Dell. Harrison’s song, “Miss O’Dell,” called her out by name.
Who is this Miss O’Dell? Her place in history is bigger than being the being the inspiration behind songs crafted by legends.
You can get the details in her 2010 memoir.
Or you can watch the documentary film “Miss O’Dell” that was released earlier this year. It’s available on streaming services.
Or you can get the story straight from her.
O’Dell, who traveled the world while working with the biggest names in rock music, is returning to Oklahoma to take part in a “Q&A experience” at The Church Studio, the former church that Russell transformed into a music studio in the 1970s.
The event is scheduled Saturday. Oct. 4 in the studio’s live room. Doors open at 2 p.m. The Q&A and book signing will begin at 3 p.m. A book is included in the purchase price of a ticket. For tickets, go to thechurchstudio.com and click on the “events” tab.
“I’m excited to come back,” O’Dell said in a recent phone interview. “And I’m really excited about coming to The Church Studio. I have never been there, but my relationship with Leon, though short as it was back in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, we did keep in touch pretty much throughout our lives — just ‘hello, how are you?’ That kind of thing. I have a very deep spot in my heart for him, so coming back and speaking at the studio is kind of like a full circle.”
O’Dell hasn’t lived in Oklahoma since she was in the fifth grade. Her father. who was a teacher and basketball coach in Owasso, relocated the family to Arizona. He loved Oklahoma so much that he and his wife kept moving back and forth between the two states.
Feeling adventuresome after finishing high school, Miss O’Dell moved to Los Angeles, where she shared a flat with not-yet-famous actress Teri Garr. In 1968, a friend tipped O’Dell to the news that the Beatles’ press officer, Derek Taylor, was in town. Hey, you should go meet him. She did just that. And it was life-changing.
Taylor, on his way back to London to head the press department of the Beatles’ new multimedia company (Apple Corps. Ltd.) suggested O’Dell also fly to London and work with Apple.
​O’Dell had to sell her record collection (argh!) to pay for the trip, but her experiences afterward were priceless. She was in the studio when the Beatles recorded “The White Album,” “Abbey Road” and “Let It Be.” She sang in the chorus of “Hey Jude.” She was present when the Beatles played the 1969 rooftop concert that would also be their last concert. She was living and working at Harrison’s mansion with George and then-wife Pattie Boyd when Harrison learned, via newspaper, that Paul McCartney was leaving the band.
Listen now and subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | RSS Feed | SoundStack
During O’Dell’s two years at Apple, she encountered many other musicians, including Russell, Bob Dylan, Joe Cocker and James Taylor. Afterward, she was hired by the Rolling Stones to help with sessions for “Exile on Main St.” She’s the “mystery woman” pictured on the back of the album and she worked as the Stones’ personal assistant during a 1972 tour.
From her book bio: From 1974 to 1984, she oversaw Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young’s 1974 reunion tour and Bob Dylan’s 1975 “Rolling Thunder Revue” tour in addition to tours for Harrison, Fleetwood Mac, Phil Collins, Linda Ronstadt, Queen, Electric Light Orchestra, Led Zeppelin, Santana, the Grateful Dead and others.
“I wasn’t famous,” O’Dell said in her memoir. “I wasn’t even almost famous. But I was there.”
O’Dell wrote that she initially found Russell to be intimidating, but her perspective changed after they began seeing each other socially. She fell for Russell after he wrote the song “Pisces Apple Lady“ about her.
Said O’Dell in a 2023 Tulsa World story: “I can’t think of anything better that you could get as a gift other than a song for you that honors you, because it can’t be taken away. It’s art. It’s creativity. It has lots of memories. I mean, every time I hear that song, I’ve got lots of memories that will never go away that are associated with it.”
The 2023 story said O’Dell was so taken with Russell that she left London and returned with him to California, where he was living at the time. She was thinking “picket fence” before she made the trip. Instead, she was greeted by a house full of hangers-on, some that she chose to jettison.
“There was somebody in every room, including the closet,” she said.
In the more recent interview, O’Dell said Russell broke her heart.
“You know, there is that one that gets away,” she said. “But I have to say that when I read the book about him, the biography about him after he passed, I thought ‘Oh my gosh. We would have never made it.’ We were way too different. The reality hit me.”
When O’Dell was interviewed in 2023, the documentary about her was a work in progress. She said this about the finished product: “I think it’s great. First of all, I never imagined that anybody would say ‘I would like to make a documentary about you.’ That was like the furthest thing from my mind.”
O’Dell said the documentary (she intends to have DVD copies available at The Church Studio) is a lot about the time she spent with the Beatles.
“That was a pretty important part of my career. We did it in London, so it has kind of got that feel and it is kind of funny and it’s warm and really relaxed.”
While in Oklahoma, O’Dell (who lives in Arizona) wants to revisit Owasso and Keota. She said her parents are buried in Fort Gibson.
“We’re going to drive by there and say ‘hi’ and go down to Stigler and drive into Keota,” she said. “I’m doing it mostly because I don’t know that I will ever get back there again.”
jimmie.tramel@tulsaworld.com
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Jimmie Tramel
Tulsa World Scene Reporter
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