Picture Perfect (2 page)

Cole
's dad passed our demo CD out to everyone he came into contact with at the studios.  Within weeks, the local DJ for a morning rock show was playing our song, "Now the Rain" on heavy rotation, and when fans went crazy for it, other stations followed suit.  Cole and I were nineteen and Gavin and Tyson were eighteen when we got signed.  Our debut CD, "The Unknowns" dropped seven months later, and things went wild after that.  To date the CD has sold twenty-one million copies and is one of the biggest selling albums of all time.

A
lot of shit went down in the years between the release of "The Unknowns" and now.  As hard as it is to believe, it's been a decade.  The first four years after the release of that album were brutal, and a lot of ridiculous shit happened to each of us.  At some point, we all started coming undone, caught up in the race for more success, more parties, more sex, and more bullshit.  We lost ourselves, plain and simple.  Drugs, alcohol, near-death experiences, sex with strangers and bad behavior became part of lives in a way that none of us ever could have predicted, and it almost destroyed us all. 

You
can come from the best family in the world, and millions of people can love you and sing your songs back to you word for word, but when you're in the machine, all you do is sell, sell, sell.  People think its glamorous and that all your dreams have come true, but what they fail to understand is that it becomes a nightmare.  The dream that’s held up as an ideal is just that- a dream.  The reality if far from glamorous and involves taking a lot more shit than you would believe. 

Fame can be a form of torture, no matter what people think.  Being on the road for years at a time, even with people you consider brothers, is one of the loneliest form
s of life imaginable.  For three hours a night you’re held up and loved by your fans and everything is great.  When you’re on the stage it’s loud and in your face.  Then you get off the stage and the silence is deafening.  Security and safety concerns keep you in a bubble, and it’s very surreal.  Everyone wants a piece of you, but no one knows who you really are.  For a long time, none of us knew who we really were, and it’s only in the last few years that we’ve begun to evolve into fully formed people rather than rock star pricks. 

Since the day we hit it big, it
has been impossible to maintain relationships. Any of us that tried to have one, failed. 

One of the worst parts of fame is missing
your family when you’re on the road.  No one who hasn't been there can really understand what it's like to wake up every morning wondering where in the world you are, or how disconcerting it is to finally be able to go home only to see all of the things that changed while you were gone.  In a lot of ways, it's like living your life from behind a curtain.  Fame becomes a prison of your own making, and unless you make drastic changes, you can get trapped in that jail cell forever.

To that end,
the band unanimously came to a decision.  We are going on a goodbye tour to celebrate the ten-year anniversary of "The Unknowns."  It will be a big thank you to all of our fans for their support over the years.  We aren't old, but we aren't getting any younger either, and fame doesn't hold any appeal for us anymore.  It's a cold bed partner, and not what we want to keep doing for the rest of our lives.  At heart, we're all just regular guys who want to grow up and have real homes instead of the cold mausoleums we each bought when we made it big.

We
quietly started our own label, Unknown Records, and our plan for the future is to continue to help create music, just in a new way.  After six months of searching, I thought we had finally found the band we've been looking for to launch the label.  I was pretty damn sure before we walked into the club they were playing in, but seeing them live had sealed the deal.

They
were called "The Chaps" and the four of us had flown in from LA to Philly to check them out in person.  The band was the real deal, and their music was amazing.  They had a super-tight sound, and I knew that this was the band we needed to launch our label.  The rest of the guys agreed, and after the show, we headed back into their dressing room to meet them in person.

It was during our meeting backstag
e that their lead singer mentioned that they'd recently had some amazing band photos done.  “I’m talkin’ Annie Liebovitz type shit man,” he said.  I was really just being nice when I asked if I could check them out, but when he thrust his laptop at me a few minutes later, I had to look or I would have seemed like a dick. 

Gesturing to the screen he said, "The chick
that took these pictures is fucking
smoking
.  There are a few pictures of her in there with us, and they are definitely the best pictures we've ever had done.  We’ve been using this picture on our website and in our promo mailers and the responses have been epic."

Looking
at the picture he was pointing to, my mouth went dry. Something about her seemed so familiar, but I couldn’t put my finger on what.  Calling her “smoking” was a
serious
fucking understatement.  In the photo, the girl was lying naked, wrapped around a guitar.  The band was behind her, each of their faces shown in profile.  It was a black and white photo, and it made you feel like you were right there.  It was very rock-n-roll, and totally hot.  I loved it.

C
hecking the web address, I noted it for future reference before starting to click through the pictures.  I was seriously impressed by her work.  She had totally managed to capture to spirit of the band as a whole and as individuals, and I really liked it.

When I was through looking at all of the pictures, I went back to the
first one that she was in.  It was hard to tell for sure because she was lying down, but I'd guess her to be on the shorter side of the spectrum.  Her curves required no guessing.  She had them in spades, and her figure was mouth wateringly hot.  Her hair was blonde, her cheekbones were amazing, and her lips made me a little wild.  Because the picture was black and white, I couldn't tell what color her eyes are.  If I had to guess, I'd say a rich brown.  I couldn’t believe how hard I was studying her because I hadn't put that much thought into a woman, ever.

The longer I stare
d at her, the more I wanted to meet her.  Staring at the web address again, I memorized it so that I could go back and look at the rest of the stuff she had on there when I got to my hotel room.  If the rest of her photos were anything like what I had just seen, I’d found a photographer our coming tour.

Flinging open my bedroom door, I started screaming.  "Jessica! Get your skinny ass out here! I need to talk to you immediately!”

I giggled when the bedroom door
next to mine opened and my roommate emerged with a mock glare. “Damn you hooker, you just made me fuck up my nail polish.  Now it looks like I had a seizure while painting!  This better be good!”

I was so excited that I couldn’t contain myself.  Instead I yelled, “
I just got hired to take the official tour photos for the Renegade Saints!"

Letting out a loud scream and a cheer, Jess grabbed me in a bear hug. "Holy shit
Tessa!  I'm so fucking proud of you!"  I was pretty fucking proud too, and the two of us jumped around and screamed like fools for a few minutes.

Renegade Saints are
one of the hottest bands in the world, and landing the gig to take the official pictures for the tour that coincides with the tenth anniversary of their first CD, "The Unknowns" was going to be a huge boost to my photography career. 

When I got the call from their manager
, John Benner, offering me the job, I almost passed out.  I've only been out of art school for two years, and I'm a total unknown.  After stumbling all over my words and saying as much to him, he laughed. 

"That's the whole point. If you know anything about the guys and how the band took off, you understand why they
choose to use new talent whenever they can.  Flynn saw a series of photos that you'd taken of The Chaps.  After seeing the photos, he saved your web address and shared it with the band and me.  We did a little research, saw a ton of other things from your portfolio, and that was that.  The jobs yours if you want it.  What do you think?"

What I thought wasn't acceptable to say in the course of a professional conversation.  Holy shit!
Flynn Rand liked my photos?  I was blown away.  Flynn Rand!  He's the hottest singer on the planet, and I've been a fan since the moment I heard their first single, "Now the Rain" on the radio when I was in junior high.  Back then my bedroom was covered in posters of Flynn Rand, Dave Grohl from The Foo Fighters and Chris Cornell from Audioslave. Looking at those photos was what inspired me to choose photography as a career.  I couldn't believe that of all the people in the world, it was Flynn Rand that though I had talent.

Clearing my throat, I tried
to sound professional.  "I'd be delighted to take the job Mr. Benner.  It goes without saying that working with Renegade Saints is an amazing opportunity."

"That’s great Miss Hamilton.  Flynn was adamant that you were 'the one' for the job, and I know this will make everyone very happy. I see that at the current
time, you self-represent, but I'd suggest hiring a lawyer to go over the contract that I'm going to send over to you by courier.  You should have it by tomorrow afternoon at the latest.  The first tour meeting is being held in two weeks, in LA.  You'll get all of the info on that, along with the tour dates and deadline lists in the contract package tomorrow.  After I've got your signed contract, my secretary will contact you to make flight and hotel arrangements for you.  You'll also be hearing from the tour manager, Joe Martin.  He'll need a list from you of things that you need for the road, and his team will provide your tour credentials. The tour kicks off six weeks after the all hands on meeting, and you'll need to have your passport ready for the three weeks we’re in Europe toward the end of the tour.  I’ll look forward to seeing you in LA at the meeting. Good day Miss Hamilton."

I hung up the phone in a state of shock, blown
away by what just happened.  I was going on tour with Renegade Saints! Flynn Rand liked my work!

My body was buzzing with excitement and I was about to burst.  I needed to share with Jess right away, and that's when I ran
into the hallway screaming and made her mess up her polish job.  For the record, she was right.  It was totaled, unless she told people she’d purposely been painting her nails while she was running from a pack of dogs.

We spent a ridiculous amoun
t of time dancing and giggling before finally flopping down on the floor to get our breathing under control. Poking me in the side Jess asked, “Oooh… do you think Flynn will sing to you again once you’re on the road with him?”

Palming my forehead, I blushed from the tip of my head to the bottom of my feet.  Six years ago when I was seventeen, Jess and I
were fortunate enough to get front row seats at a Renegade Saints concert.  That night I was the lucky girl in the front row that Flynn sang damn near every song to.  Only Jess knows that that night quickly became the one memory sure to make me crazy horny in less than ten seconds. 

Rolling over onto my side, I smacked her arm.  “Jessica! Don’t bring that up again.  I can’t have that in my head when I’m working for him.  I’d make the biggest ass out of myself!”

Giggling, she pinched me in the arm.  “That night would be pretty hard to forget Tessa, especially since I bought the video of it for you from eBay and we’ve watched it at least a hundred times together- eighty of those times being in the months following the show.  We’ve been to over a dozen Renegade concerts, and that will always be the one that sticks out.  Don’t worry- I won’t tease you about it anymore.  Best friend promise.”

Once I had myself
calmed down, I called my parents to share the news.

As expected, my dad thought it was the coolest thing he'd ever heard.  I grew up in a house that was filled with music, rock music to
be specific, and my dad loved Renegade Saints.  "That's awesome Tessa Belle!  I'm so proud I could bust.  I can't believe my baby is going to be taking pictures of the biggest band in the world.  I can't wait to tell all my friends!"

My mom asked for a lot more detail than my dad had, and I filled her in on what I knew.  Like me, she was blown away that Flynn Rand was
the one that find me.  "My goodness Tessa!  That's so bizarre.  I think you wrote Mr. and Mrs. Flynn Mason Rand on every piece of loose paper you got your hands on during your freshman year of high school.  That it was Flynn, of all people in the band, to have discovered you is too funny.  I'm so proud of you honey!  You're living your dream."

After hanging up with my mom, I groaned in embarrassment at the reminder that I'd been all but obsessed with Flynn when I was younger.  Hell,
everyone
I knew had been obsessed with Renegade Saints back then.  They came out of nowhere, a bunch of kids only a year out of high school that got enough money together to record some songs.  A local DJ in LA had started playing their song, "Now the Rain" on heavy rotation, and within two months they had a record deal. They released "The Unknowns" a few months later, before any of them were legally old enough to drink, and the rest was history.