It was Harry's relationship with Stein that provided the main driving force for Blondie. The couple met when Stein spotted Harry in a New York club when she was singing in a three-girl group called The Stilettos. He became her guru, mentor and lover, and when in 1982 he was hit by a rare, life-threatening skin disease called pemphigus, Harry nursed him through it. A year later the band, minus Stein, imploded, and although Harry likes to tell you that "reports of my sainthood are greatly exaggerated", she disappeared from the music scene to look after him for nearly four years. Stein survived but the relationship did not, suffering, as Harry later admitted, from the fact that its dynamics had drastically changed. "He had always been the mentor," she said, "the funny, positive one. Suddenly, it was not so light-hearted. Suddenly I was holding everything together." The couple eventually split after 11 years and it is perhaps telling that while Stein is now on his second marriage, Harry, the eternal rebel, resolutely resisted walking up the aisle.