The two of us walked a bit slower behind the rest of them, talking about how much we both loved Van Morrison.
Billy: We got to the hotel lobby and said goodbye to Jonah.
Jonah Berg: I excused myself and went back to my hotel. I knew what I wanted to write about and I was eager to get started.
Karen: I told everybody I was going to bed.
Graham: I got off the elevator and acted like I was going to my room and then I went straight to Karen’s.
Daisy: Billy and I walked back to our rooms, still talking.
Karen: I’d left the door open a crack for Graham.
Eddie: I was so glad to be rid of Jonah and not have to pretend I could stand Billy anymore. I smoked a bowl with Pete and went to bed.
Daisy: Billy and I were walking down the hall and as we got to my door I said, “Do you want to come in?”
I was just enjoying the conversation we were having. We were finally getting to know each other. But when I said it, Billy looked down at the floor and said, “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
When I shut the door behind me, alone in my room, I felt so stupid. It was so obvious that he thought I was hitting on him and that made me so sad.
Billy: When she took her key out of her pocket, she also took out a bag of coke. She was going into her room, and she was gonna, at the very least, have a bump. I … I didn’t want to be around it.
I couldn’t go into that room.
Daisy: I had thought for a moment that he and I could be friends, that Billy could see me as an equal. Instead, I was a woman he shouldn’t be alone with.
Billy: I knew myself. And it just wasn’t an option. So it all had to stop right there.
Daisy and I had just put on this great show together. And we’d had a great night together. She was a knockout. She really was. There was no denying it. Her eyes were big and her voice was gorgeous. Her legs were long. Her smile was … it was infectious. You’d see her smile and then you’d watch smiles open up on the faces of the people around her like a virus passing through.
She was fun to be around.
But she was … [pauses]
Look, Daisy was barefoot when it was cold, wearing jackets when it was hot, sweating no matter the temperature. She never thought before she spoke. She seemed sort of manic and half-delusional sometimes.
She was a drug addict. The type of addict that thinks that other people don’t know she’s using, which is maybe the worst type of addict of all.
There was no way—no matter what was happening, even if I wanted to—that I could let myself be around Daisy Jones.
Daisy: I didn’t know why he insisted on rejecting me time and again.
Billy: When someone’s presence gives you energy, when it riles up something in you—the way Daisy did for me—you can turn that energy into lust or love or hate.
I felt most comfortable hating her. It was my only choice.
Jonah Berg: From my vantage point, the biggest part of what made that band original and first-rate was the combination of Daisy and Billy. Daisy’s solo album was nothing compared to what The Six was doing. And The Six without Daisy wasn’t anything near what they were with her.
Daisy was an integral, necessary, inescapable part of The Six. She belonged in the band.
So that’s what I wrote.
Daisy: Rod brought us the article before it came out and when I saw the headline I was so excited. I loved it.
Jonah Berg: I knew the headline before I even finished writing it. “The Six That Should Be Seven.”
Rod: It was a great cover. A clear shot of all of them onstage together, Billy and Daisy singing into the same mike, Graham and Karen looking at each other. Everybody else really rocking out. In the foreground were about four or five people holding up lighters in the audience. And then there was the headline.
Warren: We were on the cover of Rolling Stone. Rolling Goddamn Stone. I mean, you get jaded about a lot of things when you’re ascending. But not that.
Billy: I grabbed the paper from Rod.
Graham: I don’t think Billy was happy about it.
Billy: “The Six That Should Be Seven.”
Rod: I believe Billy’s exact words were “Are you fucking kidding me?”
Billy: I mean, are you fucking kidding me?
Daisy: I knew not to say a single thing about that article. None of us acknowledged it except Rod and I when no one else was around. Rod told me that if I wanted to officially join The Six, I should just hang tight and the opportunity might present itself.
Rod: Billy started to calm down after a few days. By the time we all got back on the plane to head to L.A., he was downright reasonable.
Billy: I wasn’t trying to be … ignorant. I was aware of the fact that our biggest hit had been with Daisy. And Teddy had been floating the idea of another song or two with Daisy in the future. I knew that we were more mainstream, more marketable, with Daisy—obviously I was aware enough to see that. But I was taken by surprise at the idea of having her formally join the band.… And also that the suggestion was made so publicly.
Graham: The article was about how good we were with Daisy. Sure, it was with Daisy but I really felt like the takeaway was how good we were.
Eddie: By the time the article came out, the tour was over. The seven of us, Rod, the engineers, the roadies … we were all headed home.
Warren: We had to take a commercial flight, back to the States. I felt like a pauper.
Billy: I got out of my seat pretty soon after we took off. I walked over to Graham and Karen. I said, “What would it look like, do you think? Letting Daisy join the band?”
Karen: I thought the article was right. She was an honorary part of the group. Why not make it official? Why not have her on all our songs?
Graham: I told Billy to let her join.
Billy: They were no help.
Warren: At one point in the flight, Billy was sitting next to me making a list of pros and cons, you know, whether Daisy should join the band or not. And I see Karen coming out of the bathroom looking like somebody’s balled her. All flushed and her hair messed up. So I turn around and who’s mysteriously gone from his seat? Bones.
Eddie: I’m sitting in the back of the plane and I could see Graham getting up, Karen’s walking around, Billy’s talking to them. I’m watching, trying to figure out what the hell’s going on. I turn to Daisy and I say, “What do you think they’re doing up there?”
But she’s got her nose in some book and she goes, “Shut up, I’m reading.”
Warren: I looked over when Billy was writing his little list about whether Daisy should join the band, and he didn’t have that many cons and it seemed like he was really searching his brain for some.
I said, “Make sure you write ‘Gives you a hard-on you’d rather not have’ in the cons section.”
He told me I didn’t know what I was talking about. I said, “All right, you don’t want my opinion.”
He said, “Yes, I do.” And I looked at him and he said, “Fine, I don’t.”
So I sat back, sipped my Bloody Mary, and went back to reading the instructions on the barf bag.
Karen: Billy came back to where Graham and I were with this list. He’d slowly come to the conclusion that he wanted more hits and Daisy would bring us more hits.
I said, “You know, she might turn us down.” That thought never occurred to Billy or Graham. But Daisy had more hype than even we did.