“Mom,” I whispered, staring up at her.
“I know baby, I know,” she replied.
Right then and there, we both knew I would follow in my father’s footsteps. Uncle Tony met us at the unit with his truck and we loaded everything up and headed back to the house. Mom and I spent the night going through each box, reminiscing. Seems she needed the closure as much as I needed an outlet and to feel like I always had a part of my dad with me. I would say ninety percent of the concert shirts I wear belonged to him, the rest I got at the shows I went to. She let me have everything that was in there and to this day, I still have it. Some of it is with me on the road, my good luck pieces, but the bulk of it sits untouched in my childhood room. Dad was a bit of a hot mess, but Mom says he was the love of her life and no matter what the newspapers and weekly trash mags printed about him, I should always remember they get paid more when it’s bullshit gossip versus the truth.
My dad was Sage Horne, drummer for the band Elemental Beast. He overdosed when I was three and sadly, I don’t remember much about him aside from the stories and pictures Mom and Uncle Tony have shared with me. From time to time, a glimpse of his face will pass through in a blurred memory. Mom says all I need to do is look in the mirror because I’m the spitting image of him. My mom was young when they met and had me right after her eighteenth birthday. Fucking broke her when Uncle Tony, who was also their lead guitarist told her Dad was gone. Elemental had been on a long-ass road trip across the southern US playing bars and small venues. Uncle Tony said my dad had been complaining about his back bothering him and he was popping Vicodin like breath mints. According to him, my dad died pain free in his sleep. We should all be so lucky.
Uncle Tony played a dominant role in my life, he has always been there for me. We get together for the usual family shit, birthdays and holidays which is pretty cool, so I never felt like I was missing out on anything. But my mom, she never dated again. Said her heart was buried with Dad, where it belonged. Elemental Beast immediately disbanded upon my father’s death. None of them wanted to go on without him. Said he was their founder and the backbone, and it would never be the same and I totally understood that. Having been best buds with David, Seltzer and Chase since middle school like my dad and Uncle Tony had been, it would wreck us to go on without the original four amigos. My bandmates are brothers from other mothers to me and we’d be shit if something happened to one of us.
Dad left enough money for Mom to pay off the house, and for us to be comfortable but not Rockstar crazy money. Dad’s band was just breaking through when he passed so they weren’t rolling in gold-record dough by any means. Mom went back to work full time in the office at my grade school when I started kindergarten and is still there to this day. For the most part, having her there was okay but when I got into trouble, well then it sucked. I did my best not to but like my grandma Jean always reminded her, boys will be boys. But damn, that guilt trip when I got home was far worse than if I had received swats at school — which was still on the table in the public-school sector back then. I got no preferential treatment in fact, it was quite the opposite.
Why was I reminiscing? Nerves I suppose. That’s about the only way I could justify it. Selzter, Chase, David and I were literally sitting on the bus right now that Sal and Easton Masterson, our management team, sent to collect us, with my bandmates and our guards, Sikes and Snipe. Guards. We have guards, how crazy is that shit? Blankly staring out at the barren desert as we make the eight-hour trek from Las Vegas to Black Rock City, Nevada to play at Rocktoberfest. In my eyes, this was the show that will make or break us since it’s on home turf. Europe was great, don’t get me wrong ‘cause it fucking kicked ass, but playing in the US was what would get us noticed. This would be the true beginning of our careers in the music industry.
“Guys,” Chase called out, holding his phone in the air. “It’s Easton.” After getting us into Battle of the Bands, we officially made Chase our go to man. Not only was he the lead singer, but he seems to be the one doing most of the marketing, well, before Masterson took over, so to us it just made sense.
We took a seat around the table, Chase put his phone on speaker and placed it down. “Hey guys, how are the mobile accommodations?” Easton asked us.
“It’s great man, thanks for sending the bus for us,” I said to reply.
“Good, cause that’s where you’ll be sleeping until Sunday,” Easton laughed. “I’m calling to let you know there’s been a schedule change.” We groaned in unison. Surely, we were all thinking the same thing — we’d been axed from the Rocktoberfest lineup. “Now, they’ll be none of that boys. I wanted to let you know your slots been moved from Friday at noon to Saturday night.”
“Wait, what?” Chase asked. The same mixture of confused excitement was written across our collective faces. “That means…”
“Exactly,” Easton said. “You’ll be going on before Social Sinners, then Maiden will follow. Congrats boys, that’s a positive but with the change you’ve now been added to Friday’s interview mania. I’ll email you the new agenda so you can better prepare yourselves. Security has it as well, so they know when and where to escort you to and from. Diamond and I will arrive around the same time you guys do tonight. Is everyone good with this?”
“Hell yeah!” the four of us cheered.
“Thanks Easton, for everything. We won’t let you down,” Chase reassured him, giving us the evil eye.
“I know you won’t, besides you’re all terrified of Diamond and Shadow,” Easton said.
We could hear Diamond in the background, hollering, “I’ll personally kick their asses if they fuck this up.” There wasn’t a doubt in any of our minds that he wouldn’t follow through with that.
“Also, before I forget,” Easton cut in. “Sal has booked studio time for you so the buses will be taking you from Nevada to Seattle on Sunday.”
We cheered so fucking loud Sikes yelled, what the fuck, from the back of the bus where he was napping while Snipe was on duty. The behemoths heavy footsteps rattled the mobile tin can as he ran through. Snipes shook his head at him, returning to the newspaper he had in hand.
“Ha-ha, okay guys, we’ll see you in a few hours.” We could hear Diamond saying something to him in the background but couldn’t quite make it out. “Diamond said to let you know he brought the band’s tattoo artist, Mash, with us so if you want to book table time shoot Diamond a text and he’ll set it up.”
As soon as he hung up, the email Easton mentioned came through. Chase brought it up on the overhead screen. All the buses management leased had state of the art technology on them, operated via an iPad that was loaded with everything we needed. An Xbox and a PlayStation were onboard with the latest game releases too. There was a television located in both sitting areas as well as smaller ones in each curtained bunk. The majority of the colors throughout were shades of black and grey with stainless steel accents. My guess was the designer new buses used in these settings would be ridden hard and abused beyond their limits. The sleeping areas also had individual lighting, USB charging stations with outlets and storage space. Really wasn’t a bad set up at all and beat the hell out of our old ass van which had seen better days. It was time to give it up to one of the other bands we met at the battle, no love loss there. The eating area was in the secondary sitting area, the two spaces separated by the kitchen. Behind the section surrounding the dining table was our bunk area. The restroom was a jack and jill style with doors leading in from the bunk side as well as from the common area. The kitchen was fully stocked with energy drinks and sweets. I noticed Easton had them throw in some fruits and veggies for good measure. The Keurig was locked and loaded. We lived off caffeine and sugar and they made sure we had plenty of both. This bus was hella nicer than the shitty ass apartment Seltzer and I had shared.