So, Shawn leans to a mic and says, “Any more questions?” And without giving anyone the chance to say dick, he says, “Good. Hope you enjoy the album and the tour. Thanks for coming.”

Then he grabs my arm, hauls me out of my chair…

[Words barely decipherable due to laughter]

And pulls me outta there.

[Continues to laugh until laughter is spent]

Shit.

Our first press conference.

[Smiles]

The label was delighted.

[Again, explodes with laughter]

[Off tape]

It cannot be denied, in retrospect, that all of this served the band far more than it detracted from it. It wasn’t just simply no press is bad press. The closer the band got to each other and the tighter it made its circle of protection around Lyla, the more you won hearts and minds and listeners. Especially considering most people knew many of your songs were about her and the affection, intimacy and romance in them were, there’s no other way to put it…epic.

Yeah, that’s the Brightside.

You take a phone call from your girlfriend who’s having shit said about the size of her ass in magazines.

I’ll happily sell about ten million less albums so Lyla didn’t have to go through that.

I understand. And I don’t want to belabor a point that’s emotional for you. But the dichotomy of the Roadmasters being gentlemen rockers, at the same time the bad boys of rock, this latter coming out solely around looking after their own, was a part of your mystique that endures to this day and has made legend. Your most recent response being indicative of just that.

[No reply for some time, and then a smile]

Well, when you say it like that.

And it cannot really be denied that, Lyla taking the high road, she got hers back. When Audie and Lynie Live On was released, the basis of the fascination with her shifted. It became less about Hardy’s comments, more about her romance and relationship with McCade, her style, as she was swiftly becoming an icon, and frankly, with her resolute refusal to rise to any bait and her stalwart support of McCade and the band, her substance.

I hear you.

But do that to another woman, she would have been chewed up.

I’m not gonna thank Josh for bein’ an asshole and I’m not gonna thank the press for raking a twenty-year-old woman over the coals for no reason whatsoever. That’s not news and the size of the jeans she wears is nobody’s fuckin’ business and anyone’s opinion on it isn’t worth dick.

I’m down with the idea that the band formed a reputation of looking after its own.

Because, we did.

The rest of them still can go fuck themselves.