A Box Of Rocks Pt. 04

The bills were going to be far more than the insurance coverage, even though they were generous, and Neil was worried. Then Mason stepped in. "You don't need to worry about any of this. We got it. You're on paid leave as of right now, and your job is to take care of your wife, If you guys need anything, anything at all, tell us. We'll cover you."

"Why would you do that?"

"Because Maddie is like a daughter to me. I've had her since she was sixteen, and even though she's grown up now, all I see every time I see her is the cute kid with so much potential, busking with an old beat up guitar. April's a good mother, and she deserves every chance at a good life."

Neil was sobbing by then, and everyone in the studio clustered around him, giving him hugs and support. The local hospital soon got used to seeing famous people in their waiting rooms. She was going through a treatment one day, and when I got there the whole band was there. Sometimes the treatments took hours, and they never wavered. Word got out, and total strangers would show up to wish her well. The bass player for the Avett Brothers showed up one day, completely out of the blue. They were in town and he had read the newspaper, and it touched him. He almost lost his daughter at an early age, and he remembered the support he had gotten. "I won't say it gets easier," he told Maddie, "But hope, and prayers, will get you through."

Before he left, he asked that he not be recognized on social media. "This is one person to another who has been through what you'e experiencing. Please don't trivialize it."

Over the weeks, whoever was in town seemed to show up. Derek Trucks came one day with his wife Susan. Joe Bonomassa was a complete shock, as was Chad Smith. Eric Church and Chris Stapleton were just two of the country people that showed. I think the biggest surprise was Two Chains and Eminem. It seemed no matter how rich you were, cancer had a habit of affecting everyone. The hospital was considering a bigger security presence.

Chapter 35

I came out of my office one day to find Mason with his head in his hands, looking like the weight of the whole world was bearing down on him. We'd just talked to Maddy, and she was near hysterics because the cancer was getting worse, not better. I immediately snuggled him and then thrust his son into his arms, knowing that would calm and cheer him at the same time. "What's wrong, honey?"

"This disease! Do you have any idea how many women lose their lives to this? Even with the best doctors in the world, there is no guarantee April will survive. I need to do something."

"Like what? Money?"

"Oh, we'll give them money, I just wish it could be more."

"Do a benefit."

"What?"

"Do a benefit. Entertainers have been doing that for years. The Concert for Bangladesh, Farm Aid, Live Aid, the list is pretty long. With the star power we have in our organization, we could sell a ton of tickets, and make some serious money for their cause."

He put Robbie down, and picked me up, swirling me around. "I keep forgetting you're more than a hot piece of ass, honey. Let's make some phone calls."

They planned three concerts. One in Chicago, one in France, and one in Brazil. Each country would get the proceeds for cancer related research. Each venue they would use could hold a minimum of 50,000 people, and all were sold out in under four hours.

It took three months to put together, and at the last minute we added a pay per view stream, again, all profits going to research.

Gwen and I set them up on talks shows, individually and as a group, to promote the concerts. They added another show, to be held in England, because of intense public demand. They made sure they knew the theme. The playlists were all covers, from the Covered Up project, as well as some they hadn't recorded. Titty, with her normal over the top attitude, pushed it hard. "It may be covers, but we might as well call it : Box Of Rocks, Uncovered, Uncensored, And Uninhibited. You'll look at us in a whole new light when this is over."

When we did the announcements, other acts offered to participate, but we wanted to keep it inhouse, with just the acts in our sphere. As it was, the logistics would be a nightmare. The stage would have to be enormous to hold all the musicians.

The amount of equipment we'd be using would be staggering, and it would have to be leased everywhere but at home. They would be shipping their guitars, drums, and keyboards, everything else would be leased on site. They could have leased the instruments as well, but choose what they were comfortable with. Between all the bands, they were shipping 58 guitars, 36 basses, six drum kits, and 40 keyboards. Add in the horns, the extra percussion like congas, timbales, and roto-toms, Jon's full size xylophone, and it filled a big rig.

Weeks of planning were necessary. I wasn't going to get involved because of our baby, but they insisted, and Mason solved the problem by hiring a full time nanny. Inga was a complete professional, from Sweden, a country with a reputation for producing top flight nannys and au pairs. She had a college degree in Child Care, and was studying, in between assisgnments, for a degree in Child Psychology. Mason never revealed what he paid her, and I suspect it was probably twice the going rate.

When he told me, my mind flashed to a platinum haired, big breasted siren, intent on stealing my husband, but that disappeared when I met her. She was a little older than us, slender, with dark hair and breasts that it would be generous to call a B cup. Still, she was attractive, but more importantly, she was one of the smartest people I'd ever met. Our first interview lasted almost two hours, and we agreed almost on the spot to hire her.

It took a few days to get used to her being around, but Robbie responded well to her, and after a while I relaxed. She had a room in the house, a car we leased for her to use, a top of the line cell phone, everything we thought would help her do her job we gave her. Her phone was satellite capable, making it easy and inexpensive to keep in contact with her friends and family at home. She told me after three months it was the best job she ever had.

I think a lot of it was the way we treated her like family. It took her a while to get used to dining with us, especially since we cooked. She started doing breakfast once in a while, even though she didn't have to. We told her that and she grinned. "So then, no more crepes?"

We never brought it up again.

I started spending six hours a day in my office. There is a lot more to managing talent of any kind than the average person would suspect, and I was almost out of the loop thanks to my pregnancy and the birth of our son. Both Mason and I had a hard and fast rule. It didn't matter what we were doing, we always had lunch together, and it was usually a long one. I would stop a little early and nurse Robbie, then we'd put together a simple meal and talk about our day so far, then back to work.

Aaron was hot enough now to be filling any venue he was booked into, but he took our lessons to heart and chose the ones he thought would enhance his career, with our advice. Zelda was on a tour with one of the biggest name singers in her genre, and it wasn't going as well as hoped, because the headliner was jealous of the attention she was getting. I'd sent someone with her, a personal assistant/bodyguard, and I gave him instructions, then called her manager. I got straight to the point.

"This shit stops now, understand? Zelda can't be threatened, abused, or ignored. Either you stick to the terms of the contract or I pull her from the tour. Don't think I can do it? Look at her contract, asshole. You tell that bitch to stop, because if you don't, it'll be really bad. Zelda is on a upward trajectory, and your client hasn't had a hit in a year. Pretty soon, if we let her, she'll be opening for Zelda. Fix it!"

I hung up and grinned. Our whole group had a reputation in the business. Fuck with us, and bad things happened. Mason engineered and produced a recording for a client, including writing him the biggest song on the album. It revitalized his career, but instead of being grateful, he turned into a jerk, taking credit for everything, hinting he should have gotten cowriter credit for the song. Mason just smiled, and never worked with him again. His manager tried to do damage control, and called me.

"It's just business, you know? Greg hadn't had a hit lately, and two years is a pretty big drought. He's just trying to get back on track. Can you guys cut him some slack?"

"Then Greg shouldn't have talked shit and lied. I'm afraid he's burned that bridge, Jack. Right now, as pissed as Mason is, he wouldn't give him the time of day if he owned a clock factory. His contract was just for the record they did together, and Mason is uninclined to sign another. Good luck, Jack. I think you're gonna need it."

The singer crashed and burned after that. He made two more albums, and there were no hits on either, and he was currently on the 'has been' circuit, bundled with a couple more artists who were famous in the past, playing small venues and not filling them that well. I figure he'll end up in Vegas.

Chapter 36

The songlists were as varied as I suspected, with a few surprises. They praticed a lot of songs, so no concert would be exactly the same, and as I listened to them in the studio, playing with small amps, I knew that when they hit the stadium, it would be intense.

The PR blitz was enormous, and the first venue, in France, sold out in three hours, crashing their computers for a while. The tickets were high, the equivalent of $150, but it didn't stop the frenzy, and all 76,000 sold, with people clamoring for more. After paying everything, the net would be just over 11 million, the pay per view bumping it up to an estimated 24 million. Not bad for three and a half hours of work, if you don't count the massive amount of effort and long hours that went into preplanning.

Titty came in grinning a few weeks before the concert. She had been working with a famous designer and had outfits she wanted them to wear. When she handed them out, they looked at them for a second before laughing so hard they were crying.

"Seriously?"

"You want to make a splash, right? I think this fits the bill."

Titty had been listening to a group out of Italy, Maneskin, and one of their trademarks was the woman playing bass being topless, with stars covering her nipples. The three men in the group went mostly shirtless. Not hunks, but not unattractive. She'd played with them on Lollapalooza, with her side band.

The outfits were in shiny spandex, with fringes that looked slightly sixtyish across the vests and pants. The tops were held together with silver looking chains, giving plenty of shots of the starcovered nipples of Al and Titty. The cherry on top of the flash show were the pants. They weren't pants, they were chaps, with speedos for the men and tiny panties for the women. Yeah, that would get their attention.

They immediately put them on, laughing hysterically. I still marveled at how comfortable we all were naked with each other, but it was like we were all in tune with each other, and while we admired each others' bodies, nothing would ever come of it. Once Al asked if Mason was as good as she remembered, so apparently they had a past, and all I could tell her was he was the best lover I'd ever had. She grinned. "Mine too, well, so far anyway."

The time came, and we all went to Europe. Inga came along, planning on going home for a few days in between the concert in France and England. While all the artists involved practiced separately, Mason rented a huge hall and they held two practices a day for three days, refinining the sound.

The day of the concert was insane. I was up at four in the morning, armed with a laptop and a multitude of lists, and was working by six. I took a break at one to have lunch with my family, then it was back to the grind. I had three veteran road managers helping, and we still barely got everything squared away before show time.

Chapter 37

Ther hall was packed, the sound all ready a low roar, and when the lights went up the decibels went way up. They started playing as soon as the lights hit. Maddie was on stage with Aaron and Titty. Al and Maddie were burning their guitars up with the riff to Blow, the Ed Sheeran, Chris Stapleton, Bruno Mars compilation. Titty roared out her best scream and they were off to the races, their blazing guitar work supported by Mason on bass, and Jaime on drums, Jon playing an organ, while the women took turn with the lead vocals. They had turned it into an eight minute jam, and even I was breathless when it was over.

They just barely stopped when the next song launched. this was from the '70s, I'm A Man, by Chicago. Aaron came out, in the same outfit as the rest of us, and shared the vocals with Mason and Jon. It was thirteen minutes long, with every person on stage playing some kind of percussive instrument, congas, maracas, wood blocks, cowbells, tamborines, whatever could be used. Then the horns kicked in. They weren't in the orginal version but they sounded damn good.

Zelda strutted out, and they did Heat Wave, by Martha and the Vandellas. Titty had gone back to her drums, while Maddie and Al handled the background vocals.

Then they had a little mercy on the crowd, and Aaron did Dream A Little Dream Of Me, with the full big band treatment. The panties started flying onto the stage, and I looked over to see Mason grinning. I hoped they wouldn't be a tripping hazard.

Most of the audience understood English, but since we were in France, they did four songs in French. Jon played us some music by The Avalon Jazz Band, an acoustic outfit with an amazing singer, and we covered their version of Somewhere Beyond The Sea, to a roaring audience. Zelda did the lead on that one, then a few songs later Aaron came on and they did Aisha, with Jon singing the Arabic parts. It was an old song but it seemed everyone knew it, because they were singing when the intro was played.

They went wide open the whole four hours. It was supposed to be just over three, but they had to do three encores. The final song had everyone who participated on stage, While Mason sang lead, everyone with a microphone helped out. Uncle Johns Band, the Indigo Girls version. It was sweet, mellow, and left the crowd floating out of the venue on a wave of happiness.

I had three massage stations set up, four technicians at every station, and most got one before retiring for the night. Inga had Robbie in her bedroom on the bus, so we crashed, sleeping until ten. Then, while I held Robbie, they gathered to do a post morten of the performance. Youtube had exploded, the songs were the top draw of the following week. All the proceeds we got from advertising and fees went to the cancer fund. The pay per view was a huge success, three million people worldwide had tuned in to watch, at $12.95 apiece. Once it was tallied, the band presented a big mockup check to the French foundation that was picked. The outpouring of donations went up quite a bit for about a month, before going back to normal levels.

Five days later, we were off to London.