Page 67 of His Last Chase
“Sorry, my brother. I know how much that hurts. My dad was the same after mom bailed then when I broke my arm, Stoli’s mom ripped him a new one and he did a total turnaround. Now he’s remarried and we have a great relationship. Stoli and I go over and have dinner with them often. Hey, want to hop on with us and ride the rest of the way? I was thinking we could do a duet at Rocktoberfest.”
“Are you fucking kidding me? That would be fucking awesome!” Joey laughed when I realizedhow many fucks my reaction included. “I mean, ya, man, that would be cool.”
Joey laughed his ass off. “Way to bring it back around. Did you ever hear about the first time I met my hero, Jonathan Davis?” I shook my head. “Ask Stoli, he recounts it best, but it equals me being a total idiot. I scared the shit out of Jonathan screaming in lieu of using my big boy words.”
“Yes, he did,” Stoli squeezed my shoulder. “Grab what you need and meet us on our bus. It’s a seriously funny story and oddly enough it happened at our first outdoor festival.”
Joey and Stoli were seriously the coolest fucking A-list rockstars I’d ever met.
My band brothers went back to their buses so leaving David and Jordan alone was likely appreciated. I grabbed my notebook and phone charger and jogged back over to Joey and Stoli’s bus, then we were LA bound.
“Let me grab my acoustic and we can work on some of the music if you want,” Stoli offered, then headed to the back and grabbed it.
“That’s totally dope. You guys are seriously cool as fuck.”
“We started out just like you did, more or less. Saw some seriously fucked up shit along the way.” Joey stared off, likely recalling those moments. “Enough of that. What song do you want to do? One of yours or one of ours?”
I knew every. Single. Social Sinners song. “Let’s do one of yours. What do you think about doing it when the fan who won the contest comes up on stage?”
“I think that would make for a killer media stunt. All right, which one of our songs do you want to do?” Joey asked again.
“How about ‘Black?’” I fired off a text to the Embrace band chat to let the guys know. Pretty sure they all knew the song already, but they had to be prepared so we didn’t fuck it up.
“Way to make it easy on me.” Stoli strummed the opening chords and the three of us jammed.
Felt great to keep up with them and not fuck up the lyrics. Helped too that it was my favorite Social Sinners song, so the words were imprinted on my brain.
“Not sure you know the history behind that song,” Joey said as he stared at the man he loved. “It was written during a really dark time in my life and I almost lost Stoli because of it.”
“You almost lost your life because of it and a life without you, my love, is a life I don’t care to live.” Stoli’s words blew me away. The love these two had for each other was amazing. Childhood best friends to lovers. Their families intertwined and you rarely saw one without the other.
The buses pulled in and around to the private fenced-in parking area hidden away from thegeneral public. There were restrooms with showers and a cool pond with a small dock attached. Nothing you could put a boat in but still something cool to Zen out beside. Who knew there were nice, relaxing areas in LA?
“Whoa, this is cool,” I said as I stepped off the bus. “Wow.”
“This place is freaking dope,” Seltzer announced as he stepped up beside me. “Nice choice, Easton and Jeremiah.”
“This was all Jeremiah. Good job,” Easton told him.
“Fizzbo wasn’t happy.” Jeremiah shook his head.
“No, I wasn’t,” the wall of scowly muscle said as he and a couple of unfamiliar guards approached. “But we’ve got eyes everywhere. No perps will get within a hundred feet of you guys.”
“Excellent, thank you for diligent commitment to the safety of our talent,” Jeremiah replied in such a professional manner I nearly bowed.
“Guards, take your stations and keep your eyes and ears open,” Fizzbo commanded his troops.
A handful of guards escorted Ely, Jordan, Rhone, and David to the kitchen area for dinner prep. I was inspired by the area and started snapping pics and fired them off to Daddy then flipped the camera around so he couldsee my face.
Me: Daddy, look how beautiful it is here at the Hollywood Bowl.
Daddy: The most beautiful part of that picture is my Songbird’s smiling face.
Me: Wish you were here. Guess what?
Daddy: Me too, my love. What?
Me: Joey asked me to do a duet with him at Rocktoberfest. I am totally fanboying out!