DRASTIC (Book 4 of the Soundcrush Series)

Chapter 63: Smart Girls Play Never Have I Ever

Marley

The bus ride is my golden time.

My favorite part of the day, except for the show, of course.

Specifically the time on the bus immediately following the food stop. These rock stars call it breakfast, but that doesn't stop Adam from wanting cheeseburgers or Leed and the girls from insisting on kale and sweet potato salads. Or Trace from trying to tempt Kat and Ashlynn off their strict new clean eating program by calling for the ingredients to make chocolate drizzled popcorn in the tour bus microwave.

Bodie is the only one that typically hankers for breakfast food—omelets and bacon cheese grits and toast smothered with jelly. And gallons of coffee. Darius usually falls in line with him, at least in terms of the restaurant source. He asks for chicken and waffles or sausage biscuits.

The mom in me wants to tell these rock stars that they are too big for their britches and demand they order from one fricking restaurant like normal people.

But Doc Gorgeous? Her job is to keep the talent happy. As my boss reminded me several times in the first week when he traveled with us to get me up to speed on how to handle the morning press junkets. After seeing me scold them all for acting somewhat less mature than my 13yo son, Riley said:

Don't sweat the small stuff that keeps them feeling pampered. Touring looks like hard work for management and the crew and fun and games for the five of them. But that's not true. The vibrancy they have to summon for morning press? The sheer energy they put on stage every night? The green room networking? The ways they show their appreciation for the fans? The leadership and gratitude they exhibit to the crew?

It's a war of attrition they are waging. In a few weeks the five of them will be more exhausted than any crew member. Leed's voice will be shot by week six and he'll battle on, weighing the worth of every word he speaks off stage. Mac? She's still breast-feeding a four month old. The next sixteen weeks might even be harder for her than touring pregnant. Certainly they will be harder for Adam, who isn't doing well with less sleep. Or less sex. And Trace? He suffers the burden of leadership. And this time? Touring with Skid Marcs? Big shoes to fill every night.

Then there's Bodie. No one works harder every day on tour than Bodie. He can't stop himself from being a volunteer roadie...that's just the nature of a drummer—always the high energy work horse of the band. Not to mention the show. Mid-tour has always been where he ran into trouble with pills, Marley. Needing some speed to amp up for the show. A few sleeping pills after. An oxy here and there for the pain in his hands? You need to figure out how to help him cope before it becomes a problem...

So Doc Gorgeous? She took all that to heart. She insists on their riders. She never complains about the "breakfast order" she dutifully records at morning press and hands off with apologies to Wynter, who rides ahead with a security guy, figuring out how to fulfill their gastronomical whimsy at precisely 11am in the middle of nowhere.

Doc Gorgeous keeps Leed and Mac's throat soothing teas and Trace's popcorn ingredients stocked. Doc Gorgeous insists that Adam gets a mid-morning nap with his daughter as soon as we hit the buses after morning press, but honestly, he loves a good motherly scolding. Makes him feel taken care of, because he's far too busy taking care of Mac and Len most of the time to worry about his own physical needs.

And Doc Gorgeous has a lot to do when we hit the venue, but she manages to keep the drummer boy from pitching in so hard with roadies by having him teach Darius how to roadie instead. It's a win-win. Bodie conserves some of his energy as he walks around verbally instructing, and Darius expends his pent up energy by hauling drums and crawling around threading cables and setting mics.