Page 26 of Broken Melody
Thankfully, the waitress arrives and takes our orders. I hurriedly choose a soup and salad, and then focus back on the guys around me. “What about you guys? I did my research of course before I went to the audition; but-” I know the best way of deflecting the potential trajectory of this conversation is to turn the discussion to focus on them.
“Not everything they say about us in the press is true,” Maddox says sternly, a black cloud seeming to suddenly hang over his head.
“Well I know that. But, what I want to know is more information about how you decided to start the band. The article I read online only said you formed it in junior high school, where you met each other, but nothing else.”
“It was Mad’s idea,” Rocco says.
He shrugs, “I thought singing and playing guitar was cool. Chicks dug it.”
“Yep, we were convinced that we could steal all the girls away from the jocks in school, so what started out as a joke, turned into us actually getting good over time,” Nixon said.
“We all met in band,” Rocco reveals. “We had different teachers and our school was large, so while we knew of each other, we didn’t really talk until we started taking band in sixth grade. One night after a school band concert there were a few girls that had attended with their parents because they had siblings in the band. They were hanging out and talking with us, kind of flirting, and it was awkward because we had no clue what we were doing, yet glorious at the same time,” he says making me laugh.
“Yeah, they didn’t want to talk to the guys playing trumpet and sax, but they were all over the guys playing guitar,” Henley says.
“And drums,” Rocco adds proudly and Nixon rolls his eyes adding, “They talked to all of us.”
“Well sure, put a guitar or drums in the hands of a guy and girls look right past the puberty and pimples and see a rock star,” I tease.
“Exactly,” they agree with a laugh. “That’s why as the girls were walking away from us that night, glancing at us over their shoulders as they went, Mad turned to us his eyes glazed over and said, ‘Boys, I bet you they would kiss us if we were in a rock band’,” Nixon says making me laugh.
“Important goals, I can support that,” I laugh.
“Laugh it up, it worked. We were kings at our school,” Maddox says with a grin and an air of cockiness that makes me suddenly have an image of these guys in high school. All gangly limbs, crazy hair and leather jackets trying to look cool – I’d kill to see a photo. When I say as much they all shake their heads and say no way.
“The funny thing is, when we got together we actually played and discovered that…we were pretty damn good,” Henley says.
“Yeah, and it ended up taking on a life of its own. Before we knew it, once we hit high school, we were getting asked to play at kid’s parties, dances, and as we got older, around town. We loved it.” Maddox tells me.
“What was it like to be offered a recording contract?” I ask.
They all smile but are quiet for a moment as if taking a moment to remember it is required. “It was one of the proudest moments of my life,” Nixon says honestly with a look of wonder on his face. It makes me smile because I can certainly understand why that would be the case.
“We became a regular house band at the club Gaslight,” Rocco begins. “Every Friday and Saturday night for a while we were the featured band.”
“Yeah,” Henley says taking over the conversation. “Then one night, Rick happened to stop by to meet a client and have a drink at the bar on an evening we were playing. He’d never heard anything about us, or had a clue a band would be playing.”
“The funny thing is,” Rocco says picking it up again, “we had tried sending in demos over and over, but we couldn’t get anyone to return our phone calls.”
“That’s not true,” Maddox says. “Remember the guy that told us he could help us kick off our career and get on the radio. All we had to do was pay him something like ten thousand up front to get started.”
“Oh my god,” I say. “Scammer.”
“Yeah, they’re everywhere,” Maddox says.
“Other than that,” Nixon says, “we never got the time of day from anyone. Not until Rick happened to hear us. He approached us after our set and asked if we would call his office to make an appointment to come and talk to him further about potentially signing with Black Lamb.”
“We thought he was lying about who he was at first, and called him fully expecting to see it through and then call the cops about him scamming us,” Rocco adds.
“Imagine our surprise when we pulled up to the Black Lamb Records building,” Henley says with a smile and laugh.
“You didn’t research him beforehand?”
“Well sure, but the professionals have websites and all that. Plus, what are the chances we’d be discovered that way?” Now that I can certainly understand. “So we were prepared for it to be a big lie.”
While they’re telling me the story, our food arrives and we all eat while we continue to talk. “And the rest is history?” I ask.
“Yep, pretty much. It’s been a whirlwind these last two years, but we wouldn’t change it for anything,” Rocco says.
