He said her mother wanted her to get that degree and she was damned well gonna get that degree.
Lyla said she one hundred percent was going to get that degree, but she was also taking time off.
He said her grandfather already did not want her with him.
She said her grandfather was going to have to get with the program.
He said he was not going to screw up her life.
She said he was being arrogant, taking responsibility for screwing up her life when it was her who made the decisions about how she was going to spend her time, so if those decisions screwed up her life, that was on her.
And anyway, taking a week off wouldn’t screw up her life, so he wasn’t only being arrogant and bossy, but dramatic.
All this in that big suite over room service right in front of the band.
Guess what?
Lyla went to Cleveland.
And Philly.
And Boston.
[Smiles big]
That woman.
Always the shit.
Just sayin’.
You know, if she wasn’t Lyla, I have no idea what would have gone down when that shit hit with Bobby.
But, you know, I think, after the tour, we would have probably gone our separate ways and maybe they woulda bitched, but…whatever.
But that shit hit with Bobby.
And the last thing Preacher wanted when he finally had her was to lose her by scaring the shit out of her by murdering a rock star.
So, Tom took care of it.
Add five years to Tom’s tenure in the business, he would have destroyed Bobby Sheridan.
With the power he had at the time, he and Preach had to settle for Tom taking Bobby down a few pegs.
Then, in the end, Bobby being Bobby, he did the rest.
Lyla:
[Off tape]
What was your take on Bobby Sheridan?
In the time I had with the band on that leg of the tour, before going back to school, he had several occasions to see me. And when he did, I was with Preacher.
So, what he did, I thought he wasn’t the brightest bulb in the box.
But if I’m being honest, I’d already thought that.
It wasn’t about me. It was about Preacher.
He was jealous as hell of Preacher.
Bobby had heard about the early days, them brawling.
And obviously, he knew of The Breakfast Incident.
So, he thought Preacher had a short fuse.
And maybe he did.
But Preacher was onstage, playing with the band.
And I was offstage, watching him when Bobby made his pass.
I mean, I was maybe twenty feet from Preacher.
And he did it when Preacher glanced over at me.
I was Preacher’s, and Preacher was Tommy’s, so Tommy was there in a flash, in between me and Bobby, backing him off.
A security guard whisked me to their dressing room and stood guard.
And that was that.
I cannot say it felt nice having his hands on me when they were uninvited, and I’m not being unnecessarily mean when I tell you he had really bad breath.
He did.
But it felt like it was over before it even started.
Bobby thought Preacher would tear off his guitar and come after him.
He thought Preacher would leave his fans and the band and fuck it all up by walking off stage during a set to get in Bobby’s face.
The label would frown on that and the Roadmasters would be taken off the tour.
No way Preacher was going to do that.
Josh was one thing.
Bobby Sheridan was another.
They were going to handle him a different way.
And they did.
See?
Not the brightest bulb in the box.
Jesse:
It was all about Lyla.
Her friends drove up for the Cleveland show, and they brought a bunch of her clothes, and I think from the beginning Lyla had her groove. Her own vibe. Even when she was seventeen, her in her Nikes.
And that vibe was to not to be like anyone else.
[Laughs]
She was rock ’n’ roll and didn’t even know it.
So, she’s traipsing around in tight jeans with that round ass, and red pumps that made those long legs longer, and button-up blouses in slinky material that covered her everywhere but hung on her big tits. She’s got this little gold chain with this tiny angel hanging from it at her throat and I think that’s all the jewelry she wore because her grandfather wouldn’t let her pierce her ears.
But it’s more.
She’s into Preacher in a way that was not a groupie way.
If he fucked her over, grabbed another chick’s ass or acted like a dick, she’d walk away and not look back.
Walk away from Preacher, who had it all. Looks, talent, brains, attitude. He could get any girl he wanted.
But he wouldn’t do that because he was into her too, he knew what he had in his hands and he wasn’t going to do shit to jeopardize that.
They were just…tight.
They were just…real.
It was just…cool.
And Bobby wanted that.
And I’ll say it was even more.
Lyla was Lyla.
Bobby was the first, but he wasn’t the last.
There are women who just have…
[Pause]
Something.
Lyla had that.
There are names I could give you, big names, and not just rock stars but movie directors and actors and photographers and guys like that, who met Lyla and wanted Lyla and made that clear.
I mean, one of those names did not make it a secret he wanted her as his muse, and I know you know about that. I know you’ll ask Lyla about that.
Michelangelo was gay, and he’d want to paint her, that’s what I’m talkin’ about.
There’s that saying, one in a million.
Lyla was one in a lifetime.
And most men who knew her, knew it.
Lyla always said Bobby made that play to piss Preacher off and to try to get him to do something stupid.
But she was wrong and that was part of what made Lyla, Lyla.
She had an innate confidence, even though she had her insecurities, she could be timid or shy, but that confidence shone through and it could be intimidating.
So, she’d never think it was about her.
Maybe Bobby also wanted to do that, but he thought he was Bobby Sheridan and he thought she’d drop Preacher like a rock if he sniffed around.
Then he’d have her.
Two birds.
One stone.
You know, what Lyla has, it’s made, it is not born.
Her mother saved those girls from their father. Man beat the shit out of her, stalked her, landed lawsuit after lawsuit on her, custody, visitation, support, which, mind, he did not pay, just to fuck with her.
And if he’d had a free hand, he would have destroyed those girls. They’d never be perfect enough for him, but he wouldn’t have given up tryin’ and makin’ them feel like pieces of shit while he did it.
Lyla’s mom delivered them from all of that. Faced him head on with any shit he pulled. Put herself up as a shield in front of those girls. She couldn’t afford to take them anywhere else, so she moved ’em in with their grandparents, and boom! Two more shields.
Anchors.
A foundation.
You got fertile earth to grow in, you bloom.
Lyla’s mom busted her ass to give her girls that and I’ll remind you, this was in a time when MeToo would have been a joke.