Audie got so bad, no one could take care of him and he died in a nursing home. That right there gutted all three of those women. He died three times for them. When his mind went, when they had to let someone else look after him and when they finally lost him.

Coupla months after we lost him, Lynie had her third stroke and died in assisted living.

Losing them, Lyla never really recovered.

The foundation of her life, the whole of it, was swept away.

By then, they were his family too. From day one, Lynie treated him like a son, but more, Audie had started doing that before he got sick, and after he did, he forgot Preacher wasn’t his son.

Preacher had never really let anyone be a father to him.

Save Audie.

So, Preacher didn’t recover either.

DuShawn

Jesse:

When Preacher and Tommy fired Josh from the band, the label scrambled to get someone to fill in for him on keys while we were on the road.

No one really worked, and down the eastern seaboard and across the south, we had four of ’em.

It’s an overused joke, but it is because that’s the way bands go and straight up, we thought our keyboard player was gonna be like the drummer of Spinal Tap.

[Laughs]

Bobby tried to get rid of us nearly the entirety of that tour, but only gig we didn’t play was New Orleans because Preacher refused to do it.

He didn’t even let the bus driver drive through that state.

We had to drive around Louisiana to get to Texas.

Kid you not.

Next gig after that was Dallas, and maybe something about being close to home jogs his brain…

But Preach comes down to the band breakfast the morning after the gig and says, “I have an idea.”

There are two things I know in this world Preacher was down to have from Louisiana.

Cajun food, which he consumed with a relish that was downright frightening anytime he could get his hands on it. After which he would review it like he was a goddamn food critic, and I’ll tell you what. Unless the chef was a transplant from that state, it was never good enough.

And Preacher could call that. He could call authentic Cajun cuisine, no joke.

[Smiles slowly]

And the second thing was anyone from the Family Williams.

Including DuShawn.

Shawn could play just about anything, but he was best on horns and piano.

And DuShawn’s granddaddy taught Preacher how to play guitar.

[Off tape]

Band lore is that the Williams family virtually raised McCade.

[Stares steadily]

They were neighbors.

When Preacher’s baby brother died, DuShawn’s momma saw how that went down, and yeah. That woman went in.

But you be a black woman in the seventies in the south and try to take over the raising of a white boy.