Fast Lane - Kristen Ashley Page 0,21
seventy degrees.
I sat in that booth with Preach and Dan and Hans because that was where Preacher wanted me.
But I wanted to be out with Dave and Tim in LA.
Because for the first time ever…
I was in love.
[Off tape]
That album was dark.
Like I said, caught between the light and the dark.
[Laughs sharply]
And yeah. That album was about Preach’s time in Louisiana to how he’d been led astray by Lyla and it was dark. Angry. Bookended by “Give Then Take” and “Night Lies.” Preach’s journey from being seriously fucked over by his parents to being fucked over by a sweet, quiet, seventeen-year-old girl who he spent one night with and didn’t touch except to hold who was more woman than the countless women he’d fucked.
Yeah, it was dark.
And Lyla didn’t miss it.
[Shakes head]
No, Lyla didn’t miss it.
No one fuckin’ missed it.
Now, I know you know this, but it’s important to say it.
This was after Guns ’n Roses hit.
But before anything big came out of the Seattle scene.
Our sound wasn’t an LA sound.
And it wasn’t Mellencamp.
We’re from Indiana, and Louisiana, and there’s anger and anguish in this album, yeah?
Before Nirvana.
Pearl Jam. Soundgarden. Alice in Chains.
This was the sweet spot of the death throes of the hair band.
This was beyond “Welcome to the Jungle.” And it was nothing like “Sweet Child o’ Mine.”
It wasn’t “Smells Like Teen Spirit” or “Alive” either.
It stood alone.
In that world, it was important to stand alone.
You found that place, you had the talent to back it up, that place was your place.
Forever.
We found that place.
Now, I don’t know how Tom maneuvered that gig so a scout could come out and see us in our element, even if we were new to that particular scene.
And we’d been on the road years, workin’ our asses off.
But that shit there.
[Taps arm of chair with one finger]
Yeah.
That was straight-up serendipity.
Daniel played that album for the label with the band there, and I’ll never forget their fuckin’ faces.
[Smiles broadly]
Oh no, I’ll never forget that.
The big dude, three-piece suit, sitting back in his chair behind his big desk, smoking a cigarette that was rolled in black paper, I’d never seen anything like that.
“Night Lies” finishes, he reaches out, wears a goddamn pinkie ring with a big-ass diamond in it.
Hits a button on his phone.
Then he says, “Linda,” or whatever the fuck his secretary’s name was, “get the Roadmasters on open for Bobby Sheridan and the Mustangs.”
Bobby Sheridan.
Big name back then.
We heard that, we thought we’d hit the mother lode.
[Chuckles]
Bobby, decent guy, at first.
Didn’t know what was about to hit him.
[Off tape]
There’s quite a bit of animosity between the Mustangs and the Roadmasters.
The Mustangs, yeah.
The Roadmasters, we’re above that.
[Laughs]
You outplayed them.
[Gets up, moves to the stereo cabinet, opens door. Pulls out album. Comes back. Flips album to show cover of Night Lies. Sepia. The band walking down a deserted road, their backs to the camera, McCade the closest, Josh Hardy the farthest. Flips cover, sepia of band closeup, head and shoulders, all in a line, leaning on each other one way or another, except Hardy who’s standing removed.]
That went gold, eventually went platinum and beyond.
But in the beginning, we sold twice that many posters of that cover, sister.
[Laughs loud and hard]
Preacher had a great ass.
[Returns album and resumes his seat. Sits back.]
[Quietly] But yeah, fuck yeah, we outplayed them.
[Grins]
Practice.
[Off tape]
There’s been a good deal of speculation that “Dirtbag” was about Nick Pileggi and what he did to your sister but no one in the band has confirmed or denied that.
It’s all in the name, sister.
[Stares steadily]
It’s all in the name.
[Off tape]
It’s known that Lyla comes back to the band around this time. Is that correct?
[Nods]
Chicago.
We’re on tour, opening for Bobby and the guys. Before the tour launched, they’d released “Give Then Take,” there’s a lot of push behind it, it hits the charts. Gets up to number eleven.
They follow that up with “The Back of You,” that hits seven.
And we are, [draws out] fuckin’ hell.
We are on fire.
Preacher walks onstage every night and he’s a man with a goddamned mission to make every girl cream her panties and every guy contemplate suicide because they aren’t as cool as him.
I mean, I don’t know if this was a conscious thought, but this is what he did.
I knew he could command a stage but there’s a big difference between a bar or a club and an arena, you know? You gotta have some serious shit to command that kinda space, you know?
I was right, way back when,