Fast Lane - Kristen Ashley Page 0,55

I’ll tell you what.

He was right to be pissed.

We all were.

Press is sitting in on a sound check, you should know press is sitting in at a sound check.

Press is anywhere near you, you should know press is there.

The end.

And this is where what Josh pulled starts to escalate.

Because, if he doesn’t blab his lies to a reporter, no one knows who Lyla is.

Sure, she’d eventually be on Preacher’s arm at awards shows, and the woman she was, way she dressed and carried herself, she might get attention.

But Josh made her a curiosity.

The girl who was fuckin’ two members of a band, maybe both of them together at the same time, and starts that shit when she’s not of age, people are gonna wanna have a look at.

We were all powerless to protect her.

And obviously, the person who felt that the worst was Preacher.

I’ll tell you this, when we finished Like a Desperation, I was fuckin’ elated.

Not that it was done.

That it was that fuckin’ good.

That feeling lasted about five minutes before I was fuckin’ terrified.

Because we gotta play it for the label, and what if they don’t agree?

[Grins]

They did, but then you release it, or when you release the singles from it, that whole thing cycles back.

Never ending.

Now, we’re sitting down to announce our tour, talk about Like a Desperation, something we’re all proud as fuck of, talk about Night Lies, about our music and the show we’re taking on the road, our first headliner, about the band and how we got where we are and what we think about it.

Two questions in, reporters are asking about Lyla?

[Shakes head]

I was sitting next to him and I could actually feel the fury beating off Preacher.

I was with him, and not a member of the band didn’t feel some level of the same.

Tommy and the guy from the label try to deflect, get them back on track, some asshole gets up and asks about Lyla’s weight.

[Shakes head again, now appearing to be getting angry]

Her…fuckin’…weight.

[Suddenly starts speaking through chuckling]

So, Preacher leans forward to his microphone and says something like, “I done fucked the skinny ones and they were no good at it. Maybe it’s because they needed a sandwich. I’m keepin’ what I got. Finally found one who’s got a brain in her head as well as a body that looks good in jeans, and incidentally, she also doesn’t think with her twat.”

[Explodes with laughter and continues speaking]

He gets up and stalks off.

Dave leans to a mic and says, “Fuck y’all.”

Then he gets up and stalks off.

Tim just flips them off and then he’s outta there.

I’m sittin’ there, because if I move, I might punch somebody.

So, Shawn leans to a mic and says, “Any more questions?” And without giving anyone the chance to say dick, he says, “Good. Hope you enjoy the album and the tour. Thanks for coming.”

Then he grabs my arm, hauls me out of my chair…

[Words barely decipherable due to laughter]

And pulls me outta there.

[Continues to laugh until laughter is spent]

Shit.

Our first press conference.

[Smiles]

The label was delighted.

[Again, explodes with laughter]

[Off tape]

It cannot be denied, in retrospect, that all of this served the band far more than it detracted from it. It wasn’t just simply no press is bad press. The closer the band got to each other and the tighter it made its circle of protection around Lyla, the more you won hearts and minds and listeners. Especially considering most people knew many of your songs were about her and the affection, intimacy and romance in them were, there’s no other way to put it…epic.

Yeah, that’s the Brightside.

You take a phone call from your girlfriend who’s having shit said about the size of her ass in magazines.

I’ll happily sell about ten million less albums so Lyla didn’t have to go through that.

I understand. And I don’t want to belabor a point that’s emotional for you. But the dichotomy of the Roadmasters being gentlemen rockers, at the same time the bad boys of rock, this latter coming out solely around looking after their own, was a part of your mystique that endures to this day and has made legend. Your most recent response being indicative of just that.

[No reply for some time, and then a smile]

Well, when you say it like that.

And it cannot really be denied that, Lyla taking the high road, she got hers back. When Audie and Lynie Live On was released, the basis of the fascination with her shifted. It became less about Hardy’s comments, more