He was nineteen, man. He sings “You make a grown man cry,” with the rest of us, it was like we’d been on the road together for twenty years.

Dave was the shit.

Wild man.

Christ.

Dave.

[Smiles and keeps smiling]

[Off tape]

Will you talk about what happened with Nick Pileggi?

[Stares silently]

You don’t have to.

It isn’t shit nobody knows, you know? Because he has a big, fat mouth. Fuckin’ asshole.

[Long pause]

Preacher—

Yeah, back then, Preacher took care of his ass. But the damage was done. Nothin’ Preach really could do.

[Taps with fingers on arm of armchair]

One thing in my whole life that my mom and dad were in accord on was what Preacher did to Nick, you know?

Nicky stayed with the band after Ricky was out. Few months. Heading into graduation. Preach and Dave were already at work finding us gigs. Real gigs. Paying gigs. At bars and clubs all over the Midwest. Anywhere that would take us, they got us on the schedule.

I did not apply to colleges, neither did Tim.

Mom was pissed.

Dad got it.

Neither of Timmy’s parents gave a shit.

We were takin’ it on the road.

Preacher had songs before he came to us, worked them out with the band. They were good. You know ’em. Everyone does.

“Give Then Take” was a hit before it was an actual hit, and we all knew it. Angsty, dark, pissed-off rock ’n’ roll. So dark, man. Deep in a pit, pitch black, sister.

Band defining, you know?

This was before Guns ’n Roses really hit. If you weren’t Petty, Springsteen or Mellencamp, rock was hair bands. Mötley Crüe trash. Thinkin’ they’re badass because they put dots over vowels. What the fuck? I mean those guys were imbeciles, assholes and imbeciles. Clowns. Serious.

That is not rock ’n’ roll.

Ratt. Poison. Cinderella. Warrant. Okay, maybe some talent, mostly hair.

Best of the bunch? Bon Jovi. Dudes had heart as well as hair and didn’t think solely with their dicks. Put that heart in their music. That’s why they’re still around. And that’s why they were authentic rock. Take them out of the decade where the likes of Crüe pissed all over the genre, they’d still have respect.

And then there’s Def Leppard.

Now that’s a band who knows brotherhood. They stood by Rick Allen and he worked his ass off not to let them down.

And they pulled no punches they didn’t want to change the world with their music, they just wanted to have fun and make others do the same. And they did. The lyrics to “Pour Some Sugar on Me” are not gonna hit any poetry books, but to this day, that song comes on, no matter what I’m doin’, I turn it up.

Now those guys, Bon Jovi and Def Leppard?