It wasn't very long, however, before it was time to start thinking of that.
Chapter 5b
The prevailing rumor over the next few weeks was that Darren was a vegetable, languishing on life-support without awareness or comprehension, only waiting for someone to make the decision to pull the plug. This was not even close to the truth. Darren remained on a ventilator because his respiratory muscles no longer had the strength to draw air into his lungs. His arms and legs remained flaccid because they no longer had the strength to move. Darren's brain, however, was still quite in the game. He was kept heavily sedated much of the time in order to spare him the discomfort of having a breathing tube crammed into his trachea, a catheter crammed in his urethra, and a diaper wrapped around his ass, but he was lucid, or at least semi-lucid, in the intervals between drug doses. He could hear and understand and he could even communicate, though not verbally because of the endotracheal tube. He mother had flown in from Heritage and was staying in the downtown apartment Matt rented to sleep in during the workweek when recording or rehearsing was in progress (Matt's house in San Juan Capistrano was too far away for convenient daily commuting). She visited Darren for at least four hours every day, sitting beside him and reading to him or talking to him. One of Darren's fellow band members or Pauline visited every day as well, although usually only for an hour or so. Darren could nod or shake his head slightly for yes or no responses and his eyes could track a conversation. There was no gauging how his spirits were actually doing though because of the drugs he was on.
As the date began to approach for release of the new album public interest in it began to swell unlike any of their previous releases. Crow didn't even have to let slip that the title cut was the song that had prompted the breakup between Michelle Borrows (now Rourke) and Jake. Michelle herself took care of that quite nicely.
"That song is the vile and disgusting condemnation of The Bible that finally forced me to pull myself away from Kingsley and back to The Lord," she stated during an appearance on Wake Up USA. "If there was any decency left in the country it would be illegal to sell such an offensive and obscene lyrical arrangement to anyone, especially children."
The proverbial shit really hit the proverbial fan when National began to advertise the up and coming album in various magazines and the ads displayed a picture of the album cover. Within forty-eight hours every major Christian organization in the country was up in arms over what they considered the worst kind of blasphemy.
They have the nerve to actually show the holy cross on their album cover, read a press release from one such group. They mock the most sacred symbol of Christianity in order to sell albums to our children. There was now mention in this tirade, or in any other, that this particular cross had been cemented into Jake's yard in the middle of the night by alleged Christians.
Putting out of context biblical verses on a satanic band's album cover is completely over the line, read the press release from the national Family Values Coalition headquarters. There are times when the First Amendment simply allows too much. I hardly think this is the sort of speech our Founding Fathers were worried about protecting. This album needs to be banned from release to the public and from airplay on public airwaves.
And, of course, Crow and the rest of the bigwigs at National Records couldn't have been happier. They knew there wasn't a chance in hell that any judge would ever rule that It's In The Book needed to be banned but the publicity the furor was producing was absolutely priceless. In the boardrooms of the National Records Building it was thought that It's In The Book might very well be the fastest selling LP of all time. They eagerly awaited its release so they could start reaping their rewards. Their only regret was that Intemperance was operating under their new contract and would siphon a good portion of that profit for themselves.
It was on November 2, two weeks before Book's release, that Crow called Pauline and the remaining band members for a meeting in his office. They started off with the usual preliminaries — Crow offered them drinks and cocaine and they all refused, settling instead for soda, water, coffee, or tea. Finally, with a look of trepidation, Crow got down to the business at hand.
"We need to start putting the tour together," he told them.
"What fuckin' tour?" Matt asked. "Haven't you been reading the goddamn newspapers? Our bass player is in the hospital on fuckin' life support."
"I'm aware of that," Crow said. "I'm also aware that he is going to be in there for at least six months, maybe more. It will be more than a year before he regains enough strength to stand up to the rigors of touring... if ever."
"So what are you saying?" Jake asked.
"The show must go on," Crow said. "We need to start looking for a replacement for Darren."
The argument over this raged for more than three days. At times it seemed like everybody was pitted against everyone else. Initially all four band members and Pauline completely rejected the idea of replacing Darren — even on a temporary basis.
"He's a fuck-up and a heroin addict," Matt said, "and sometimes it seems like a roomful of houseplants with the right sort of fertilizer might be able to outthink him, but he's our fuck-up, our heroin addict, our dumbshit. He's been with the band since day fucking one, even before Jake and Nerdly. We owe him some fuckin' loyalty, Crow! I ain't gonna go hiring some fuckin' hacker to replace him just because he's sick."
"Didn't you tell him that if he ever used heroin again he was out of the band?" Crow asked. "Well... he's used it again, hasn't he?"
"That was a threat, Crow," Jake said, glancing at Coop nervously. Coop had been given the same threat. "It wasn't a completely empty threat, mind you. If he had started missing meetings or showing up to rehearsal loaded, we would have carried through with it. But it was not intended as an absolute."
"Yeah, man," Coop agreed. "He just had a little slip back into the shit and then had some bad luck with this botulism thing. That don't mean we gotta kick his ass out."
"I won't vote to replace him under these circumstances," Nerdly said firmly. The rest of the band agreed.
Pauline was the first to change her mind. It wasn't really changed, per se, but forced into transition by the realities of the situation. The band was contractually obligated to go out on tour. Their new contract gave them the right to plan their tour, to veto any act proposed by National for their tour, and to come up with the song order and list for their tour, but it did not give them the right to refuse to tour.
"What the fuck do you mean we have to go on tour?" Matt demanded when she shared this uncomfortable news with him. "We can't control the fact that our bass player is sick."
"That doesn't matter, Matt," Pauline said.
"What the fuck do you mean it doesn't matter?" he yelled.
"Look," she said, remaining her usual calm, cool, and collected self. "I understand how we all feel about Darren. I'm talking about things from a strictly legal standpoint and from how a judge and jury would look at this thing if push came to shove. If there were a reasonable prohibition from touring that would be one thing. National wouldn't be able to demand you go out there."
"Not having a bass player is not a reasonable prohibition?" Jake asked.
"No, it is not," she said. "Darren is not a key member of the band and he is easily replaced. If Matt or Jake or possibly even Bill were the one laying on life-support in a hospital we could make the argument that you were irreplaceable to the band. That argument simply does not stand up with the bass player or the drummer — sorry, Coop, but that's the way it is."