BITTERSWEET TRAGEDY-DAISY JONES AND THE SIX

005: seveneightnine

ARACELY: When Daisy sand honeycomb with Billy, everything changed. The band, Billy—nothing felt the same.

DAISY: I felt like I was on top of the world when I was with the band. It felt right, like I finally found where I belonged. I went so long feeling alone, and suddenly I wasn't.

I knew Billy wasn't too found of me singing the song he wrote in a different way, but what can I do? I just sang what Teddy told me to. I sang them as opposed to statements. Billy didn't even let me finish before he popped up and hit the talkback.

BILLY: She sang the words wrong. It didn't make sense to have her keep going with the words wrong.

ARTIE SNYDER: Billy would never have allowed someone to interrupt him like that. I was genuinely surprised when he did that.

BILLY: The song was about a happy ending after turmoil. I didn't think doubt worked in that context.

KAREN: Billy wrote that song trying to convince himself that this future he saw with Camila was a sure thing. But he and Camila both knew Billy could relapse at any moment. I mean, the first month he was out of rehab, he gained ten pounds because he was eating chocolate bars in the middle of the night.

ARACELY: Everyone knew what honeycomb was truly about. It was his message to Camila, but to me it felt as if he was trying to convince himself he's better. When Daisy sang the different verses it made Billy upset, it changed the meaning of the song.

ROD: Billy was trying. This was a guy who made so many things seem easy. But he was trying very hard to stay sober. And you could see the strain on him.

KAREN: Billy was writing songs trying to tell himself he had got it all under control, that decades out he'll still have his sobriety and his wife and his family. And in about two minutes of singing, Daisy pulled the tablecloth from under the dishes.

ROD: Daisy did a few more takes and it really seemed easy for her. She didn't have to work for it. She wasn't bleeding for every note.
But when Billy left the studio, I could tell he was pretty tense. I said, "Don't take work home with you." But the problem wasn't that he had brought work home with him. It was that he had brought home into work.

KAREN: "Honeycomb" used to be a song about security, and it became a song about insecurity.

BILLY: That night, I told Camila about how Daisy sang it, with the questions.

CAMILA: When you put your life in your music, you can't be clearheaded about your music.

GRAHAM: I think Daisy was just very unexpected for Billy.

ARACELY: Billy always had this control over the band, and Daisy just wouldn't let him have the control he had over everyone else.

EDDIE: They took a rock song and they made it a pop song! And they were so pleased with themselves about it.

ROD: Teddy was over the moon with how it turned out. I liked it, too. But you could see the way Billy bristled as he listened to it.

BILLY: I liked the new mix. But I did not like Daisy's vocals. I said, "Just do the new mix without her vocals.

DAISY: He was so stubborn, he wouldn't even try to give me a chance. Or at least prove myself worthy.

ARACELY: They sounded great together, but a part of me always wished Teddy let me at least attempt to sing the verse with Billy.

GRAHAM: Billy was always in charge, you know? Billy wrote the lyrics, Billy composed and arranged all of the songs. If Billy goes to rehab the tour is over. If Billy is ready to go back to the studio, we all have to report for duty. He ran the show. So "Honeycomb" was not easy for him.

BILLY: We were all a team.

EDDIE: Man, Billy was in such denial of what a bulldozer he was to the rest of us. Billy got Billy's way every time and when Daisy showed up, he stopped getting his way every time.

ARACELY: It was difficult change that's for sure.

DAISY: I did not understand what Billy had against me. I came in and I made the song just a little bit better. What was there to be upset about? I ran into Billy at the studio a few days later, to hear the final cut, and I smiled at him. I said hello. He just nodded his head at me. Like, he was doing me a favor by acknowledging my presence. He couldn't even extend a professional courtesy.

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After a few weeks, the album was ready. On June 1, 1976, SevenEightNine was released to the public. "Honeycomb" debuted at number 86 but quickly moved up the charts. The band was preparing to lead its own national tour while performing an unofficial residency of sorts at the Whisky.

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ARACELY: It was a national tour, how could someone not be nervous?

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Before the tour officially started, Karen decided to call quits on her relationship with Aracely. She believed it wouldn't be right for them to be together, especially not during tour.

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ARACELY: I remember that night, she came into my room and said 'I can't anymore.'  That's it, no explanation—just plain and simple. It was cruel honestly. It's not like I was able to ignore her, we were in the same band.

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GRAHAM: We were playing tight, every song, every note. We had it down. We were putting together a great show.

BILLY: We had the same people coming to see us two or three nights a week sometimes. And the crowds were growing the more we played.

ROD: Billy should have invited Daisy to some of those L.A. shows. I told him that. But it was in one ear out the other with him.

SIMONE: Daisy was frustrated they were excluding her. At least I got that impression, when we talked.

DAISY: Yeah, I was mad alright. He was singing our duet without me! He didn't even try to invite me.

ARACELY: Daisy wasn't with us, and the people wanted to hear the song as a duet. I know I shouldn't have done it, but I sang her verse. I know what you're thinking, i'm a terrible person. But at the end of the day Billy wasn't going to sing the song with Daisy.

BILLY: I liked how Aracely sung, she had killer vocals. I wasn't opposed to the idea of her singing it with me. Anything was better than Daisy.

DAISY: I was there that night, it was there second show in LA. I wanted to sing with Billy, so I thought if I showed up they have to let me. I didn't walk up towards them that night, I let Aracely have her moment. I could tell how bad she wanted this. Maybe even more than I did.