Fast Lane - Kristen Ashley Page 0,6

think solely with their dicks. Put that heart in their music. That’s why they’re still around. And that’s why they were authentic rock. Take them out of the decade where the likes of Crüe pissed all over the genre, they’d still have respect.

And then there’s Def Leppard.

Now that’s a band who knows brotherhood. They stood by Rick Allen and he worked his ass off not to let them down.

And they pulled no punches they didn’t want to change the world with their music, they just wanted to have fun and make others do the same. And they did. The lyrics to “Pour Some Sugar on Me” are not gonna hit any poetry books, but to this day, that song comes on, no matter what I’m doin’, I turn it up.

Now those guys, Bon Jovi and Def Leppard?

That’s rock ’n’ roll.

But I’ll say, my opinion, the only real thing was Lita Ford and she had no hope, havin’ a vagina and a guitar. But if you asked me, hair bands shoulda meant women rockers because there were some chicks who could seriously play that no one knows now, you know?

Lita is one of them.

But us, back then?

We’d been together awhile. We had Preach and his looks and his guitar, his voice, his songs. We had Dave, and that man was mean with a backbeat, guy had Bonham-style licks, and first thing he did was set himself up a cowbell. Now that’s rock ’n’ roll. [Smirks] Tim gettin’ older, comin’ into his own. Nick had that Italian stallion thing goin’ on, that is, he had it if you asked him.

And I could play bass. Nothin’ to look at, but, I mean, now people talk about Flea. Back then it was Geddy Lee, Jack Bruce, John Entwistle, Chris Squire, John Paul Jones, and of course, McCartney.

And there’s me.

I could play, I was in a rock band, I didn’t have to be good-lookin’. Rock’s all about that.

Mick Jagger?

Point made.

So, you know, we’re good to go. Toss off those graduation robes and hit the fuckin’ road, Springsteen-style.

Then…

[Trails off]

It’s not a surprise, or at least I thought at first it wasn’t a surprise, how Mom and my sisters took to Preacher.

He had it.

For women, they couldn’t fight it, he was that guy.

He banged Heidi’s ballbuster sister the whole time since I met him to when we hit the road.

And anyone he wanted whenever, wherever.

And I heard Heidi’s sister lost it when he took off and left her behind.

But my sisters? My mom?

Especially my mom.

Not like that, of course.

It was later, when it went down, I realized how different it was.

It took Preacher a while to share with me, yeah? I mean, you could listen to his music and know he did not grow up with the Nelsons. But he didn’t share at first.

But my mom was a mom.

She knew without him having to say dick.

Preach started havin’ dinner with us after practice and before he’d take a girl out on a date because no one said no to my mom, but also because she needed to do that, you know?

Be a mother to a motherless son.

Instant she knew he was adrift, she dragged him in.

And Preach was also that guy. Especially with certain women.

He knew she needed it way more than he needed it.

So, he gave it to her.

I’ll tell you something about Preacher McCade you might not know.

If you were a woman, and you meant something to him, he’d twist himself into knots to give you what you needed.

My mom needed to be a mom.

Last place he wanted to be, sitting at our table, eating my mom’s lasagna, and not because Mom didn’t make kickass lasagna. She did.

It was just…

[Pause]

There were a lot of things that made Preacher McCade.

Doing that for my mom was one of them.

Doing what he did for Penny was another.

My sisters, both of them, had crushes on him. But it was candyland stuff. He was too old, he was in the band, he thought of me as a brother even when I didn’t know he thought of me that way, and they got that vibe. Chicks, they get those vibes.

So, they were his little sisters too.

So, when Nicky knocked up my sister Penny.

Yeah, that was not gonna go well for Nick.

Not with me.

Not with Preach.

No fuckin’ way.

[Off tape]

Nick Pileggi alleges McCade put him in the hospital.

No clue. Preach messed him up, all right. Asshole should have gone to the hospital, but don’t know if he did. After that, never saw the