years. When John Gilmore bought it in 1968 and reduced it to 34 rooms, he rented them for a mere $5 ($ in modern dollars) a night. Many of the younger people who were increasingly drawn to Aspen sneaked in to take showers on the third floor. He tried to interest investors in rehabilitating the building, but could not. He was able to add new entrances to the storefronts, however. The influx of newcomers to Aspen at the time were largely hippies and other countercultural types of the era. They were attracted to Aspen by its natural beauty, skiing and remoteness from larger population centers. It had been popularized in the writings of gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson, himself a transplant to the area who had almost been elected Pitkin County sheriff on a promise to put profiteering drug dealers in the stocks on the lawn of the county courthouse. During the 1970s, he was a regular at the J-Bar, coming in from his home in nearby Woody Creek to pick up his mail and then hang out at the bar, drinking, eating and watching television as it had the best reception in the area prior to cable becoming widespread. "It was his office", one bartender from the time recalled. "If people wanted to meet Hunter, they'd come to the Jerome." Early in the decade, a new Los Angeles band known at the time as Teen King and the Emergencies went up to Aspen to perfect their country rock sound before releasing their first album as The Eagles. Their members also became familiar sights at the J-Bar, along with fellow musician Jimmy Buffett and another rising Hollywood star, Jack Nicholson. Aspen's first disco, The Rocking Horse, was opened in the basement along with a Moroccan-themed restaurant featuring belly dancers. Bill Murray stayed at the Jerome in 1980 while filming Where the Buffalo Roam, based on Thompson's life, and the nightly parties that started in the J-Bar continued in his suite. After the Eagles broke up, Glenn Frey took the "large convention of young monsters" at the J-Bar as inspiration for his 1982 single "Partytown". "Everybody getting high on whatever's there, everything, all the time." 1985–present: Renovation and restoration In 1985 a group of investors headed by a local developer, Dick Butera, bought the Jerome for $6 million ($ in modern dollars) and began the restoration Gilmore had tried to begin