BILLY: Teddy came and visited us in the hospital. He brought this big bouquet for Camila and stuffed animals for the girls. As he was leaving, I walked him down to the elevators and he told me he was proud of me. He said I’d really turned it all around. I said, “I did it all for Camila.”
And Teddy said, “I believe that.”
CAMILA: When the twins were just a few weeks old, my mom had taken them for a walk one afternoon and Billy asked me to sit down. He said he’d written another song for me.
BILLY: It was called “Aurora.” Because Camila…she was my aurora. She was my new dawn, my daybreak, my sun peeking over the horizon. She was all of it.
It was just a piano melody at that point, but I had all the lyrics. So I sat down at the piano and played it for her.
CAMILA: The first time I heard it, I cried. I mean, you know the song. It would have been impossible for me to not feel bowled over by those words. He had written me others but…this one…I loved it and I felt loved listening to it.
And it was pretty, too. I would have loved that song even if it wasn’t about me. It was that good.
BILLY: She got teary and then she said, “You need Daisy on it. You know that.”
And you know what? I did know that. Even as I was writing it, I had known it. I wrote it to be a piano and vocal harmony. Before we even got back into the studio, I was writing for Daisy.
GRAHAM: That period of time when Billy was with his girls and Daisy was coming on board…well, it was a great opportunity for me to step up and take more of a center role in things. I was coordinating getting us all back together to start talking about a new album. I was discussing time lines with Rod and Teddy. It was fun.
Actually, it wasn’t that fun, it was just that I was happy. Everything seems fun when you’re happy.
KAREN: The money was rolling in. I wanted to make smart decisions with it so I went out with a realtor for one day, and found a pad in Laurel Canyon and bought it.
Pretty soon, Graham unofficially moved in. We spent that spring and summer just the two of us together. We’d grill on the patio for dinner and go see shows every night and sleep late in the mornings.
GRAHAM: Karen and I spent whole weekends high as shit, rich as hell, playing songs together, and not telling anybody where we were or what we were up to. It was our little secret. I didn’t even tell Billy.
People say that life keeps moving, but they don’t mention that it does stop sometimes, just for you. Just for you and your girl. The world stops spinning and just lets you two lie there. Feels like it, anyway. Sometimes. If you’re lucky. Call me a romantic if you have to. Worse things to be.
BILLY: I trusted Graham to handle everything with the band. I knew it was in good hands and my head was elsewhere.
DAISY: Simone left to make the rounds on another tour.
SIMONE: I was hitting the road for the Superstar album. And in between shows, I was going to be based more in New York than L.A. The disco scene was really about doing the Hustle at Studio 54. So that’s where I was going.
DAISY: She seemed worried about me. I told her, “Go on. I’ll see you soon.” I was excited about everything I had in front of me. I was joining a band.
GRAHAM: I had everything straightened out. I’d talked to Rod and Teddy. Billy said he was ready to get started. And I had come up with a date to reasonably deliver an album. So I called a meeting.
WARREN: I was starting to live large from the money coming in. I’d bought my boat by then. I had a one-bedroom Gibson that I docked in Marina del Rey. Lots of cool chicks hanging out around there. Kept my drums at the house in Topanga and wasted away my nights and weekends drinking beers on the water.
EDDIE: Pete had spent our downtime with Jenny back in Boston. They were getting really serious.
Me, I didn’t like being home. I liked being on the road, you know what I mean? So I was ready to get back to work. I didn’t even mind the idea of dealing with Billy that much. Now, that’s saying something.
When Graham called to say it was time for us all to get together, I couldn’t get there fast enough. I called up Pete and said, “You got to get on the first flight back out here. Vacation’s over.”
DAISY: We all met up at the Rainbow—the band, me, Rod, Teddy—and everybody was catching up. Warren was talking about his boat and Pete was talking about Jenny Manes and Billy was showing Rod pictures of his twins. Everyone was really getting along. I mean, even Eddie and Billy seemed like they were doing all right. And Rod got up and he had his beer in his hand and he gave a toast about me joining the band.
ROD: I think I said, “The seven of you are only headed higher and higher,” or something like that.
BILLY: I thought, Boy, seven people in a band sounds like a lot.
DAISY: Everyone was clapping and Karen hugged me and I felt really welcomed, I really did. So I stood up as everyone was talking and I picked up my brandy and I held it out for a toast and I said, “I am so glad you all invited me to join you on this album.”
GRAHAM: Daisy starts doing this little speech and at first I think it’s nothing major.
DAISY: It was tough to get a read on Billy. He hadn’t called me since I’d been offered a spot in the band. I hadn’t heard much from anyone about how this was all going to go or how he was feeling about it. I just wanted to make sure everything was clear. I said, “I’m coming on board officially because I want to be a member of this team. An important member. I hope you all see this album as mine just as much as it’s anybody’s. Graham’s or Warren’s or Pete’s and Eddie’s or Karen’s…”
KAREN: “Or Billy’s,” she goes. I looked right to Billy to see his reaction. He was sipping a soda out of a beer stein.
BILLY: I thought, Why does she need to start trouble already?
DAISY: I said, “You all brought me on because when we work together, we make better music than what we do apart. So I want a say in what music we’re putting out. I want to write this album with you, Billy.”
Teddy had told me I could write my second album and this felt like that chance. And I wanted to be clear out of the gate, that’s what I was chasing. I wanted to stand up in front of a crowd, like I had that night singing “When You Fly Low” a cappella. I wanted to sing songs from my heart right to the people in front of me.
If The Six didn’t want me for that, I didn’t want whatever second prize they were offering.
GRAHAM: Daisy didn’t want Billy throwing a temper tantrum every time she tried to contribute something of her own. She was laying down the law early. Probably the way the rest of us should have from the beginning. If we wanted any sort of meaningful say.