Page 38 of Crimson Desires
“Speaking of your career, you’ve got an interview with Kaleidoscope Radio in two hours. The rest of the guys are already in the green room eating lunch. KR’s marketing team was nice enough to order catering for you all. I think it’s Mexican fusion.”
“Sounds good. And Ava?”
“What?”
I cracked a grin. “Try to get some sleep. Those energy drinks are going to kill you.”
Ava rolled her eyes. “Cheers to that.”
She downed the rest of her energy drink in one go.
***
Kaleidoscope Radio’s marketing team outdid themselves.
Outside the green room, a server manned a burrito bowl bar. I ordered a burrito bowl loaded up with rice, steak fajitas, and half-a-dozen toppings.
When I walked into the green groom, Zephyr and Kane were already prepping Axel and Damien for the interview. Out of the five of us, Axel and Damien had the least experience working with the media.
I plopped down on the couch to stuff my face with Mexican fusion goodness while Zephyr went over the importance of plugging our remaining tour dates.
I didn’t worry about Axel’s ability to handle the press. The guy had the personality of a golden retriever.
But Damien was a different story.
Damien’s standoffish personality and his dark sense of humor tended to rub people the wrong way. On top of that, he was overly guarded. He didn’t take nicely to the way that interviewers badgered him.
I’d tried to explain to him that ‘badgering’ was just what interviewers did, but it had gone right over his head.
Yet, Damien could manage if he was with the rest of us. I think our presence made it easier for him to relax. But it was no coincidence that he was the only member of Wicked Crimson who hadn’t done a one-on-one media hit yet. The good news was that, unless you were Dave Grohl or Travis Barker, people weren’t really fighting tooth-and-nail to book exclusive interviews with drummers. So, most of the time, Damien was able to fly under the radar.
As a career celebrity since childhood, I had the opposite problem that Damien did.
My interviews were too polished. I’d been media trained since age eleven—and so my interviews tended to come off as inauthentic.
Back when I was a family-friendly pop star, I had to be careful about what I said. I couldn’t be too controversial. I couldn’t even swear.
Now that I was an adult rock star, I was finding those habits difficult to break.
After I finished eating, the band and I headed up to the amphitheater stage.
Two representatives from Kaleidoscope Radio—an interviewer and a tech guy—were setting up the interview space on the stage. There were six chairs set up. One for the interviewer and five for us. The tech guy was setting up tripods, cameras, and microphones.
The interviewer smiled when he noticed us approaching. He was short and thin, with elfish eyes and a greasy mop of black hair.
“Jack Maverick! It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m Cal. Thanks for agreeing to do this interview with us,” Cal said. He extended his hand to me. I shook it.
He didn’t offer his hand to any of the other guys.
“Excited to play Raleigh?” he asked, easing into his chair.
“Hell yeah,” I said. “I love Raleigh. Minus the traffic, it’s one of my favorite cities.”
Here’s a tip: whenever you’re meeting someone new and you want to immediately get on their good side, all you have to do is tell them that their hometown is amazing—and then jokingly complain about the traffic there. One thing I’ve learned touring around America is that almost everybody thinks that their hometown has the worst drivers.
The truth of the matter is that people are bad drivers regardless of where you are.
Cal grinned brightly. “Hell will freeze over before Raleigh natives learn to use their turn signals. Anyways, this is a prerecorded interview. So, if you need to take some time to think about a question or want to redo an answer—feel free.”