That was always the biggest tension between Bob and Mandy. One minute Bob would be saying the most serious thing, and the next minute Bob would be saying the most ridiculous thing, and Mandy would always just be like: Which one is it? Which person are you? And Bob would be like: Both! Both! But Mandy always thought that he was fucking with her. And I get it, you know, because when Bob would talk about music or when Bob would talk about art, it would always just feel like he was talking directly to Mandy. It would always feel like a rejection of everything she stood for and everything she was about, because for Mandy, she just wanted people to have a good time and relax and take a load off at her concerts and be happy, you know? Like, most people have a lot of shit they’ve got to deal with, and maybe it’s a little arrogant or a little judgmental to think that you know better than they do what they need at the end of the week. Mandy always just felt like Bob’s position was kind of superior and a little fucked up, because like, I mean especially for her, you know, she grew up in this super-working-class family and like, her parents worked really hard so that she could take singing lessons and dancing lessons and record a demo and move out to L.A., and Mandy really kind of hated it when Bob would say that those people didn’t deserve to be comforted at all or didn’t deserve to be rewarded at all for all their hard work, and like, she REALLY fucking hated it when he said that they were barely even alive, because like, who the fuck was Bob, you know? To Mandy, Bob was just this rich kid aristocrat who was born into a lot of money and had the privilege of spending all his time, like, looking out on the world and going: HMMM, what do I THINK about this? And she’s totally right, by the way. Bob’s family was SUPER-rich. LOL. Like, even though he talks all the time about how they were the deadest people of all, like, the least free people of all, and even though he’s totally estranged from them now, like, Mandy’s still right to say that they totally shaped him and that there are some things about her life and her perspective that someone like Bob—no matter how smart he is or how many books he’s read—could never possibly understand. And I mean, the sad thing is, you know, that Bob was only even talking about all this shit to Mandy in the first place because he really believed in her. I mean, Bob legitimately thought that Mandy was one of the most talented people in the game. He would always tease me about how much better she was than me. And he cared about her a lot because she meant a lot to me. And she did, you know? She does. She still does.