She was a model, I was on drugs. We were in love, but our marriage didn’t last

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Evan Dando is best known as the frontman of the Lemonheads. Here, the 58-year-old talks about the important women in his life, including his tumultuous first marriage, and how he has found lasting love with a woman he first dated briefly 28 years ago.

“Being in a band meant
there were always girls around. It didn’t matter what they looked like, I liked all kinds of girls.”

My maternal grandmother, Hazel, was born in Sweden and migrated to the USA before she had children. She loved to tan at the beach and would drink beer at home after a day in the sun. She was tough, had a funny side, and was a little crazy, too. She died in 2000.

My paternal grandmother, Margaret “Peg” Dando, was a talented painter who lived to 104 and died in 2015. She taught drawing and history of art and her brother was a famous painter, Ray G. Ellis. I started painting because of my grandmother and get my artistic side from her. She was a Christian, very conservative in her views, and into eating well and health food before it was a thing.

My mother, Susan, was a fashion model who appeared in Vogue Italia. She started modelling after she had kids and is an incredible physical specimen – pretty and athletic, a natural beauty. She never wanted to do cigarette ads though – a very principled woman.

Mom started surfing in the 1960s and whenever I wanted to go skiing, surfing or do any sports as a kid, she was the one who took me. When I was 18, we’d walk the street together and people thought we were a couple. She is 86 and still looks great.

My parents met in their 20s. Mom, who was a few years older, was the hot art teacher at Alfred University my dad, Jeffrey, fell in love with. They separated when I was 10. I wrote a song about them called Confetti.

I’ve had my share of dalliances – it was fun. Sometimes it was only about sex, and sometimes about the companionship of a woman.

Mom never really wanted me or my sister, Holly, to go away to summer camp when we were kids. She would take us on adventures herself instead – I went to Aspen twice with her in the 1970s.

Holly’s three years older than me and came on the road with the Lemonheads and to Glastonbury with her boyfriend. But she grew out of the scene and became a social worker, while I got f---ed up for years. Our relationship was dynamic, then difficult for a while.

My first kiss happened in second grade with a girl in sixth grade, my best friend’s sister. She perved on me one day and, much to my happiness, we started making out. It was a sustained French kiss.

My fifth-grade teacher, Mrs Williams, was the first teacher I bonded with – she was an Englishwoman who just got me. I was in a bad way, with my parents acting crazy and close to separating. She told me that I was one of those people who read pages fast and took it all in quickly.

Being in a band meant there were always girls around. It didn’t matter what they looked like, I liked all kinds of girls. I was girl crazy! I got to the point where I was like, ‘OK, f--- this’. I was celibate for eight months while I was being described as a pin-up boy.

I’ve had my share of dalliances – it was fun. Sometimes it was only about sex, and sometimes about the companionship of a woman I really liked.

I got married to English model Elizabeth [Moses] in 2000 and we had the celebration in New York’s Central Park. We were totally in love, but the marriage wasn’t great. She did a lot of modelling on international runways and I was doing drugs. Our relationship didn’t last – we were together for 10 years.

I married Antonia Teixeira on December 30, 2024. She’s a video-maker and the daughter of Brazilian singer-songwriter Renato Teixeira. We dated for a night or two in 1997 and then, on the third date, I went off with some groupie. We’re a good match, really different. I love that she’s super smart.

Rumours of My Demise: A Memoir (Allen & Unwin) by Evan Dando is out now.

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