But I’m not at one with Mystery Preacher.

I had Mystery Preacher once and the end result was not one I wanted to relive, you hear what I’m sayin’ to you?

We drive down the coast.

He’s renting a little bungalow.

He gets out the bourbon.

We sit out on chairs that are on his back patio, but we got our feet in the sand.

And I say, “Preacher, I fucked up. I know it, man. But—”

He stops me by sayin’, “It wasn’t that. And it sucks you thought that. I hate it. Knew you’d be thinkin’ that and it ate me up while I was gone. But I had to go, brother. I had to go and be neck deep in nothin’ but me to find out who I was as a man whose brother’s body is now finally where it should be. In a grave with a tombstone.”

Then he says more.

He says, “And I had to go, I had to cut ties, it had to be a clean break without anyone able to get to me. I had to do this for Lyla.”

The Boys

McCade:

It’s cleared out for us.

I’m sorry?

The bar. It’s cleared out for us.

I’m a regular, they appreciate it, they know I never do this. I wanted a space we’d both be comfortable in without distractions.

So, they cleared it out for us.

[Bartender serves McCade what looks like an iced tea]

You’re a regular at a bar and you no longer drink?

[He is not sitting a stool but leaning well forward from his significant height into his forearms on the bar, he turns his head toward me, and he’s smiling]

Darlin’, it’s three thirty in the afternoon.

Of course.

[Clinks the bottom of his glass against mine, which is not iced tea]

Not judging.

[Gaze drops to my notebook]

You’re writin’ a lot.

Well, I find you fascinating.

[Roars with laughter]

Jesse:

So…

As I shared, Preacher reaches out to Shawn.

Shawn wants to do something for this legal aid place.

He comes up with the charity concert.

Preacher wants the band back together and making music.

Of course, the band’s all in.

And thus, Tom does not fuck around with going to our label.

And they offer and it’s good. It’s respectable. It isn’t a fuck you, your lead disappeared for six years when you were at your peak.

But it was not what we were used to.

That doesn’t matter.

What matters is…

The band is back.

We recorded the new album in this place Tim wanted to hit that was out in the middle of nowhere in the desert.

Timmy also tries to talk us into doing peyote before we get down to business. Go on some spiritual quest or something. Do it together as a band.