WARREN: I don’t consider myself to be very high on the list of good people. But you don’t tell other people’s stories.
DAISY: I did so many stupid things back then. Basically for all of the seventies. I did a lot of things that hurt people or hurt myself. But that one has always stuck out to me as one I particularly regret. Not just because of Billy. Although, I did feel badly that I shared something he told me in confidence. But I regret it more because I could have hurt his family.
And I just…[pauses] I would never want to do that. Truly.
BILLY: You know, one of the things you learn in recovery is that self-control is the only control we have. That all you can do is make sure your own actions are sound because you can’t control the actions of others. That’s why I didn’t do what I wanted to do, which was take the bottle of ketchup and throw it at the window. And I did not reach across the table and wring Jonah Berg’s neck. And I did not get in the car, find Daisy, and start screaming at her. I did not do any of those things.
I stared right at him, and I could feel my breath growing really hot. I could feel my chest expanding up and down. I felt like a lion, like I was capable of destroying him. But I closed my eyes and I stared at the back of my own eyelids and I said, “Please do not print that.”
JONAH BERG: That confirmed for me that it was true. But I said, “If you can give me something else to write about, then I won’t.” I mean, I told you. I don’t like printing secrets when they’re sad. I got into journalism to tell rock ’n’ roll stories. Not to tell depressing ones. Give me rock stars sleeping with groupies, give me the crazy shit you did on PCP. Great. But I’ve never liked publishing depressing shit. People’s families falling apart and all that. I said, “Give me something rock ’n’ roll.” That felt like a win-win.
And Billy said, “How about this? I can’t fucking stand Daisy Jones.”
BILLY: I will tell you exactly what I said. It’s right there in the article. I said, “She’s a selfish brat who’s been given everything she wants her entire life and thinks it’s because she deserves it.”
JONAH BERG: When he said, “Talent like Daisy’s is wasted on people like Daisy,” I went, Oh, wow. Okay. Here is a great article. It was a way more interesting story to tell, in my opinion. What’s gonna sell more copies? Billy Dunne used to be an alcoholic and now he’s reformed? Or the two lead singers in this hip new band loathe each other?
It was no contest. The world was filled with Billy Dunnes. So many men in this world missed their daughters’ births or stepped out on their wives or whatever else he did. Sorry to say it but that’s the world we live in. But not many people are so creatively in sync with someone they despise. That was fascinating.
My editor loved the idea. He couldn’t have been more amped about it.
I told the photographer what I wanted for the cover and he said it would be easy enough to splice together from the photos he had taken. So I went back to New York and I wrote that article in forty-eight hours. I never write articles that fast. But it was just so easy. And those articles are always the best ones—the kind you swear wrote themselves.
GRAHAM: The entire point of having Jonah Berg out with us was so that he could write an article about what a smart move it was to have Daisy join the band. And, instead, he writes about Billy and Daisy hating each other.
EDDIE: It felt like those two assholes let their own personal crap taint the band and the music and all the hard work we’d all put into it.
ROD: It all landed so perfectly. The band just couldn’t see it. They couldn’t see how great it was.
We released “Turn It Off” as the first single. We booked the band on Midnight Special. We had them doing radio spots all over the country leading up to the album dropping. And then, the same week Aurora hits the shelves, so does the Rolling Stone cover.
Billy’s profile shot on one side, Daisy’s on the other, their noses almost touching.
And it says, “Daisy Jones & The Six: Are Billy Dunne and Daisy Jones Rock ’n’ Roll’s Biggest Foes?”
WARREN: I saw that and I just had to start laughing. Jonah Berg always thinks he’s one step ahead when he’s two steps behind.
KAREN: If there was any chance that Billy and Daisy were going to put the pettiness behind them and work together, really work together, over the course of the tour, I think that magazine interview ended it. I don’t think there was much coming back from it.
ROD: Is there any headline that is going to make you want to see Daisy Jones & The Six perform live more than that?
BILLY: I didn’t care if Daisy was mad at me. I didn’t care one bit.
DAISY: We both did things we shouldn’t have. When someone says your talent is wasted on you and he says it to a reporter knowing full well it’s going to make it into print, you aren’t really inclined to mend fences.
BILLY: You can’t claim the high ground when you go around throwing other people and their families under the bus.
ROD: There’s no diamond record without that Rolling Stone article. That article was the first step in their music transcending the limits of music. It was the first step toward Aurora not only being an album, but an event. It was the last kick it needed to blast off.
KAREN: “Turn It Off” debuted at number 8 on the Billboard charts.
ROD: Aurora came out June 13, 1978. And we didn’t hit with a splash. We hit with a cannonball.
NICK HARRIS (rock critic): This was an album people had been waiting for. They wanted to know what would happen when you put Billy Dunne and Daisy Jones together for an entire album.
And then they drop Aurora.
CAMILA: The day the record hit the shelves, we took the girls down to Tower Records. We let Julia buy her own copy. I was a little wary of it, to be honest. It wasn’t exactly child-friendly. But it was her dad’s album. She was allowed to have her own copy of it. When we left the store, Billy said, “Who’s your favorite member of the band?”
And I said, “Oh, Billy…”
And Julia pipes up and goes, “Daisy Jones!”
JIM BLADES: I was playing the Cow Palace the day Aurora came out, I think. And I had a roadie go down to the record store and get it so I could listen to it. I remember sitting there, before we were about to go on, listening to “This Could Get Ugly,” smoking a cigarette thinking, Why didn’t I think to get her to join my band?
The writing was on the wall. They were gonna eclipse all of us.
With that cover, too. That cover was perfect California summer rock ’n’ roll.
ELAINE CHANG (biographer, author of Daisy Jones: Wild Flower): If you were a teenager in the late seventies, that cover was everything.