The screen changed to a video clip, with sound this time, of Jake up on stage. He was holding a Brogan acoustic-electric in his hands and singing the lyrics to South Island Blur into a microphone. On Jake’s right, Bobby Z was playing the piano. On Jake’s left, the redheaded bitch he was boning was playing a straight sax. Behind them were a drummer and some dweeb playing a fucking standup bass. The clip played for nearly twenty seconds. The sound quality was not the best, but Matt could hear that Jake’s voice was still strong and carried well.
“Can you believe that shit?” Matt said, shaking his head. “He actually got up on stage and played with that fucking faggot!”
“Bobby Z is a faggot?” Steve asked.
“Of course he’s a fuckin’ faggot!” Matt said. “Don’t you know anything?”
The clip came to an end and the commentator came back on. The graphic behind her changed once again, this time to a shot of a black man with dreadlocks. It took Matt a moment to recognize the face. It was Bigg G, the rapper.
“Playing on stage with Bobby Z is not the only side project that Jake Kingsley had been working on these days,” the commentator said. “Rapper Bigg G, who grew up on the mean streets of East Palo Alto, California and turned his talent for rap and hip hop into four multi-platinum albums, just released his latest effort this week as well. And the first cut on this new album, a tune called Step Inside, represents a new direction for Bigg G’s musical style and it features none other than Jake Kingsley playing acoustic guitar on the cut while Bigg G sings the vocals and his band and DJ accompany.
“Jake Kingsley and Bigg G doing a song together?” Steve asked, astonished. “Have you heard of this shit, Matt?”
“No,” Matt said, just as astonished. “How the fuck can you put an acoustic guitar into a rap song? How does that shit work?”
The graphic changed again, this time showing several still shots of Jake and Bigg G in a studio, both with headphones on their heads, Jake sitting in a chair with his guitar, Bigg G with his mouth in front of a microphone. It was obviously a staged publicity shot since there was no way that Jake and Bigg G would have been in the same room during the actual recording process.
“Pauline Kingsley,” the commentator went on, “Jake Kingsley’s sister, is the former manager of Intemperance and the current manager of both Kingsley himself and Celia Valdez. She tells us that Jake and Bigg G have known each other for several years now, having met in the National Records studio back when both were signed with that label. They became friends and socialize with each other on occasion, and that was how Bigg G came to ask Jake if he felt like helping him out with an experimental cut. Jake agreed and the rest is history. The tune has only been getting airplay for a few days now, but, so far, critics seem to enjoy it. Roger Eagle of Music Monthly magazine declares Step Inside to be ‘a delightful and thought-provoking merger of rap and rock music for which there is no precedent’.”
“No precedent?” Matt yelled at the screen. “That’s fuckin’ bullshit! My song Grandeur on Lines on the Map is a mix of rap and rock! I pioneered that shit!”
“That is a cool fuckin’ tune,” Steve said. “One of your best from those days.”
The graphic changed back to the collective band photo from Lines on the Map.
“Now the question that everyone always has,” the commentator said, “is whether there is any possibility of an Intemperance reunion. While that seems very unlikely, as Matt Tisdale has been quoted as saying many times that he will never play with any member of Intemperance again, Pauline Kingsley tells us that the other four members of the group—Kingsley, Nerdly Archer, John Cooper, and replacement bassist Charlie Meyer—have put together a little reunion without Tisdale. Jake and Celia Valdez are both about to enter the studio to begin recording their second solo albums and they are using the former Intemperance members as studio musicians to lay down the tracks for those recordings.”
“It’s fucking true,” Matt said, feeling anger, and another emotion he was not completely familiar with: jealousy.
“Can they do that shit?” Steve asked.
“Apparently they can,” Matt growled.
“That Charlie Meyer motherfucker is a real freak-o-rama, isn’t he?”
“That doesn’t even begin to describe him,” Matt said.
“Pauline Kingsley stresses to us,” the commentator said, “that we should not expect anything like an Intemperance album from this reunion. ‘Jake and Celia are both fully committed to the new direction they’ve taken their music,’ she says. ‘Nerdly, Coop, and Charlie are there as studio musicians only, chosen because they are quality musicians that Jake has familiarity working with and professional respect for. They are not attempting to recreate Intemperance and will be performing or recording no Intemperance material’.”
The graphic changed once more to a silent clip from the In Action video. This time it was showing the entire band at once, again in Detroit, and playing the hard-driving bridge portion of Living by the Law.
“So that’s the inside story on the former death metal band Intemperance and the different circles the members of that groups paths have taken them on since the break-up. This is Maureen Willow reporting for AE. Stay tuned for our next segment, where we’ll discuss the latest exploits of sultry, controversial actress, Mindy Snow.”
The show cut to blue screen as a commercial came on. Matt picked up the remote and turned everything off. He was no longer interested in the television. His emotions were now in a state of turmoil. Jake Kingsley out performing with Bobby Z? Ludicrous. Jake doing a rap recording with Bigg G? Insane. The members of Intemperance getting back together to be studio musicians for Jake and that Venezuelan bitch with the nice titties? Infuriating!
There was nothing he could do about any of it. He wasn’t even sure why all of this made him angry. But it did.
Jake had been with the Bobby Z tour for seven days now. They traveled from Amarillo to El Paso, from El Paso to Albuquerque, from Albuquerque to Phoenix, from Phoenix to Tucson, and then, an extended travel day from Tucson to Las Vegas. Through it all, Jake was a part of the band, with all the rights, privileges and misery that such a position came with. He rode on the bus with them (he and Laura had indeed managed to pull off a fairly decent coital encounter in her bunk on the second road trip). He stayed in the cheap motels with them and ate the greasy catered food with them. And each night, at each venue they visited, he stepped up on stage and played music with them to the delight of the crowds.
Word of mouth and through the media had quickly spread to each upcoming venue that Jake Kingsley was going to be a special guest at the performance of Bobby Z and ticket sales increased exponentially. National Records’ management, which had been opposed to Jake performing with Z and the band on general principals when they first heard about it (but who had no legal way to stop it since Z was operating on a second contract that gave him power over performance lineup and decisions), suddenly became extremely enthusiastic about the guest appearances. So enthusiastic that Steve Crow himself actually called Jake on the phone one night to try to get him to keep touring with them.
“I can’t, Steve,” Jake told him. “I’m just here for a visit. I have to be in Obie’s studio on the 11th to start laying down the basics for my next album.”
“Put it on hold!” Crow nearly begged. “It’s worth it, Jake!”
“Worth it for who?” Jake asked him.