Rock All Night(42)

The crew member basically threw Riley down on one of the front seats of the bus and retreated outside to lick his wounds. Miles walked in and shouted at her, “OI, NOW SIT THE FUCK DOWN AND SHUT YOUR FUCKIN’ GOB!”

With that, the bus driver closed the door, and we were off.

Good times.





31




I had a couple of hours to kill, so I figured I ought to do my job. I pulled out the Zoom recorder and walked over to Killian.

“Hi… Killian?”

He looked up at me with a pleasant, vacant smile. “Yes, luv?”

“Could I interview you? For the article?”

“Oh…” A shadow of concern passed over his face, and then was gone. “…I suppose so. Why not.”

I sat down opposite him and began.

And found out that Killian Lee was about the worst interview ever.

Not that he was mean, or rude, or anything like that. No, he was as pleasant as always.

It’s just that he was very… laconic.

“Oh… I don’t know.”

“This and that.”

“I can’t really say…”

“I don’t remember that well…”

When I asked him about guitarists who had influenced him, he shrugged. “Oh… all the famous ones.”

So I started naming off all the famous guitarists I knew (mostly from perusing Top 10 lists on the internet before I left New York).

Jimmy Hendrix? “Yes.”

Jimmy Page? “Definitely.”

Keith Richards? “Oh, yes.”

B.B. King? “Definitely, yes.”

Eric Clapton? “I’d say so… yes.”

Any others?

“Oh, you know.” And then a little shrug.

After ten minutes of going nowhere fast, I smiled tightly and shut off the recorder. “Thanks.”

Killian gave me an apologetic smile. “Sorry, luv. I’m just not much of a talker.”

So I noticed.

“We’ll do it again,” I said politely.

“Hey Blondie, come and interview me!” a raucous voice shouted.

Oh God.

Apparently Riley had gotten over her temper tantrum and now was bored.

And I was the designated plaything.

I sighed and walked across the bus.

Riley patted the seat next to her with a grossly overt leer.

I winced and sat down. “Okay, so – ”

“To f*ck hot chicks,” Riley interrupted.

I stared at her. “…what?”

“To f*ck hot chicks,” she repeated.

She was very serious.

Too serious.

“What are you talking about?”

“Why I do it,” Riley said matter-of-factly. “To f*ck hot chicks.”

“That wasn’t what I was going to ask,” I said, annoyed.

“Oh. Well, that’s the answer, anyway. To f*ck hot chicks.”

I looked at her. “O-kaaaay… moving on. What’s the best part of being a rock star?”

“Fucking hot chicks.” She acted like she had confused herself – then clarified. “I mean f*cking chicks that’re hot. Not chicks who are f*ckin’ hot. I mean, I want ‘em f*ckin’ hot, but if you don’t get to f*ck ‘em, what’s the f*ckin’ point, right?”

I glared at her.

I knew she was messing with me.

But she was really, really good at hiding it.

“Cut it out,” I said.

“Cut what out?”

“The stupid answers.”

“It’s not stupid, it’s the truth.”

“Let’s move on,” I suggested.

But to paraphrase Riley, what was the f*ckin’ point?

Every answer was ‘to f*ck hot chicks.’ Or ‘f*cking hot chicks.’ Or ‘hot chicks f*cking.’

I finally lost my temper and shut off the recorder. “Never mind.”

She looked shocked – shocked! – that I wasn’t happy. “Never mind what?”

“If you don’t want to do a serious interview, just say so,” I snapped.

She put her hand on my knee and leaned in conspiratorially. “Y’know, Blondie… if you want better answers… we could go in the back… there’s a bed back there…”

I took her hand off my knee and set it back on her leg. “Thanks, but I think I’ve got everything I need.”

“Blondie, I got everything you need!” she laughed as I stood up and walked away. “You just don’t know it yet!”


I sighed and walked over to Ryan, who was fiddling around on a laptop.

He looked up at me and smiled. “Not having such good luck with the other members of the band, huh?”

“Not really, no. What are you doing?”

“Updating our Facebook page… Twitter… Instagram… the blog… basically all the social media.”

“You do that?” I asked, surprised.

“Always have.”

Which made me think of all those Facebook pictures of hot girls hanging off of Derek back in their cover band days.

Which made me automatically irritated with Ryan for posting them.