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 about her romance and relationship with McCade, her style, as she was swiftly becoming an icon, and frankly, with her resolute refusal to rise to any bait and her stalwart support of McCade and the band, her substance.
I hear you.
But do that to another woman, she would have been chewed up.
I’m not gonna thank Josh for bein’ an asshole and I’m not gonna thank the press for raking a twenty-year-old woman over the coals for no reason whatsoever. That’s not news and the size of the jeans she wears is nobody’s fuckin’ business and anyone’s opinion on it isn’t worth dick.
I’m down with the idea that the band formed a reputation of looking after its own.
Because, we did.
The rest of them still can go fuck themselves.
Night Lies enjoyed good sales and good reviews. Like a Desperation and its sold-out tour established a strong foothold. But would you agree that Audie and Lynie Live On, especially its overwhelming critical acclaim, put you on the musical map in the sense that you were a force to be reckoned with and nothing was going to take that away?
Yeah.
Oh yeah.
Those two years of recording, promoting and touring for Like a Desperation then digging into Audie and Lynie were rife, sister.
Audie was getting sicker and sicker.
Lynie’d had her stroke. Then she had her next one.
Lyla had graduated, but Julia was still in school.
Preacher was mostly on the road, and when he wasn’t, his work was in LA.
They were flying all over every-fuckin’-where to have time together and deal with all the shit that was piling on them.
In the mix, my sister Penny gets married to her first husband, and he’s an asshole. I’m worried. Mom’s worried. Tim’s worried. Preach is worried. Lyla’s worried.
And jacking that up further, this is when Nick Pileggi rears up again, a very unwelcome blast from the past, and we gotta deal with his shit in the press, handle Penny, the assholes who come forward, convinced they can get somethin’ outta the band ’cause they say they’ve adopted Penny’s kid and Nick’s bullshit lawsuits.
So obviously, that goin’ on, Lyla’s the one who’s torn ’cause she’s worried about Penny and Mom with all this shit, but also Preacher and me.
And now that Lyla’s out of school, what’s next?
Does she leave all that’s going down in Indiana and find a teaching job in LA, living in a town her man is rarely in, and when he is, he’s got people pulling him every which way?
Or does she stick by her family? And, to be honest, Penny, who she’s also now looking after, not to mention my mom.
But if she does that, her chances to be with Preacher are practically nil.
Preacher wants to build a studio on Audie and Lynie’s property.
I’m down with that so I can keep an eye on my sister.
But before we can even think about it, the label wants a follow up and they’re talking about another tour, and since our reach is growing, they want it starting in Asia, then Europe, then back in America.
We’re nominated and a couple want us to present so Lyla’s flying to LA to go to awards shows.
And when she does, she’s got mics in her face because everyone wants to know who’s dressing her and who did her hair and she’s saying shit like, “I got this at a vintage store.” And “Me.”
[Off tape]
Isn’t it during this period when McCade had his first altercation with the paparazzi?
[Sighs]
Yes, and it is rare I’ll call that man stupid, but that was not smart.
In his defense, those incidents were close to the beginning, Lyla was getting shit on in the press, and he was protective.
But Shawn sat him down, had a word with him and explained what Preach had already figured out.
The minute he got up in their shit, it got worse.
So, after the first, the next two happened because the photographer touched her.
Preacher learned to block them with his body in a way that wasn’t aggressive and we all learned a variety of tricks to deal with that shit.
And they ended.
Audie and Lynie Live On is still our most raw, emotional album.
Audie was gone by then, Lynie would die when we were on tour for that album, and it was good and bad we did that.
Good because two people who would have gone quietly into that goodnight without anyone outside those closest to them knowing what solid, decent, good people they were would have sucked.
Bad because we had to perform those songs at every gig and be gutted when we did.
And I’ll tell you what, I never really got it, because the people that gutted the most were Preacher and especially Lyla.
As great as that album was, as meaningful as it was, to the band, to music, to those two and Sonia and Jules [shakes head] I just never got it.
It was like a new death every time, you know?
Like losing them over and over again.
And then I saw Laurie Anderson accept for Lou Reed when he was inducted into the [Rock and Roll] Hall of Fame.
And I sat there and listened to Anderson talking about how you die three times. When your heart stops. When you’re buried or cremated. And the last time someone says your name.
I watched that, her saying that, and the audience chanting, “Lou, Lou, Lou.”
[Turns head, takes a moment, coughs, looks back]
[Quietly] This is it, sister. Listen carefully.
This was the kind of man Preacher was.
This was the kind of thing that Preacher knew.
It was right there in front of me and I was so close to it, I did not fuckin’ get it.
It was all in the title.
Audie and Lynie Live On.
No matter it cut him to the bone to do it, he gave them to the world, but especially to Lyla and her sisters, in a way that they will never die.
That was Preacher.
[Clears throat]
That was Preacher McCade.
When their declining health made the decision easy for her, Lyla decided to move to LA.
Preacher found a house…
Strike that, Tom found Preach and Lyla a house a lot like that first one we had out there that Tommy rented, except smaller, more secluded, whole fuckin’ place was surrounded by green, even the front, and it didn’t have a view, but it had a pool.
[Chuckles]
So not like that first house at all, except it had a pool. But it felt like it since we were all there so often.
We all had our own pads by then, but it felt like we were always with Lyla and Preach at their crib.
Maybe because that’s the only place we could get good, home-cooked food and we all liked our food.
[Bursts out laughing, then quiets]
But mostly, we liked bein’ around Lyla and Preach.
She got a job in the school system, which was a disaster from the start.
First, she’s famous and living with a famous guy and you cannot be the first one of those and have a job in the Los Angeles Public School System.
Second, being a teacher was her mother’s dream, not Lyla’s, and she didn’t take to it.