We went back to the band and it felt like I was seven hundred years older.

And that much wiser too.

That was when I noticed it.

We were all ambitious.

We all wanted to play stadiums.

But none of us were as ambitious as Tommy.

And Preacher.

I didn’t think much on it, but after the funeral I did. I figured it out, because we had no money to make posters. We had no money to put ads in the papers of places where we’d play.

I don’t know if he had some payout from the marines or if he’d been socking money away before he saw us play or what. I never asked.

Tommy told you what Tommy thought you should know. We all learned that early, learned not to question it, learned to trust it.

Trust him.

But Tom Mancosa didn’t just manage the band.

He invested in it.

Me and one of the guys would be head to foot in the bed above the cab, sleepin’ off a gig, and the booze, weed and pussy after, and the other in the cab or off in some chick’s bed.

And Preacher and Tommy would be at the table in that camper, heads bent over it, Tom going over his strategy, Preacher okaying it.

Tom Mancosa faced making us the biggest rock band in history like he’d face going to war, ready and equipped to fight battle after battle until you won the whole fuckin’ thing.

You know he’s almost as famous as we are.

So, just sayin’.

He was a great fuckin’ general.

[Off tape]

Isn’t this around the time the band took on Josh Hardy?

Yup.

And the famous Larry Bird speech?

[Laughs for a long time]

Yup.

Josh was keys.

He came to us.

We did a tryout.

He was good.

Really good.

Tommy hated him on sight and Preacher stared at him like he was a bug he was about to crush, so I don’t know why both of them voted him in, but they did.

Looking back, I think it was because Preach’s music was transcending, you know? This is why we’d later take on DuShawn and his horn and piano and talent. Preacher needed more for us to play in a way it was worthy of the songs he was writing.

We were never a four-man band when it came to Preacher’s music.

Not really.

We needed keys, piano, horns, backup singers.

I honestly don’t think they thought Josh would last very long, but he was what we could get at the time and they wanted the band to be more. They wanted more for the music. They wanted more for the audience.

And when the time came, they’d lose him and get someone who worked.

But Josh worked, at the time.