by Carina Lupo
Our days are now filled with rehearsals and working with the show’s crew and engineers setting up the lights and video background for each song. I’m really enjoying creating the visual feel that will go along with each song. There is going to be lights everywhere and a massive screen behind us, it looks awesome and we are all really excited. You definitely get the idea of how big this whole thing is going to be as there is already about 50 people involved in the making of this tour and by the time we start the tour there would be about 150 people involved overall.
“Hey Lorelai,” Susan calls me at the end of the rehearsal. “I have a question for you. I got a call from Fender, they are making that custom Strat you ordered and they offered you that guitar and, well actually, any guitar you want for free if you just play Fenders.”
“Oh no way, I’m not a one guitar woman…. I need my freedom to explore other guitars,” I say mockingly, “ this whole monogamous relationship is not for me, there are too many beautiful Gibsons, Suhr Strats and don’t even get me started with a PRS…” the guys are laughing now.
“Yeah I’ve seen your guitar collection, I didn’t think you were going to go for it but it’s my job to pass it on to you.”
“Ain’t that the pits?” Ted says. “Remember James, when you saved up for a year for that $1,600 dollars Bass?”
“Oh yeah, such a splurge,” James says reminiscing.
“Yeah exactly.” Ted continues. “Now that we finally have money they offer us all these stuff for free! And don’t even get me started with bars. I haven’t paid for a drink in months now!”
We all laugh. “Welcome to stardom guys,” Susan says laughing before she walks off.
In spite our tough schedule, Chris and I manage to keep our romance going in secret. We developed a routine as we are now stationed in LA for the rehearsals. After we were done, he would come over, late at night, to the apartment I had rented back when we were recording the album and stay with me until early morning when he would go back to his own place. It wasn’t the most restful of schedules but we were running on a whole different kind of energy as of late.
To keep any suspicions away from us, I had devised a symbiotic relationship with the press. They wanted to use me to sell magazines and I used them to create a fake romance for myself. It was very simple actually, all I had to do was attend some celebrity filled affair, which here in LA I got invited by the boat loads, and then find some hot bachelor of the hour and strike up a conversation, be seen being overly friendly with him, some pictures are snapped and voila, next day I got a new boyfriend in the latest issue of the tabloids. Chris sometimes would get a bit jealous but it was more of an instinct reaction than any real feelings, mostly we would just make fun of my latest choice. “Really this is the guy you picked?” Chris says to me. “That guy is a douche!”
I laugh. “Oh men! A huge douche! But he is a very famous douche and therefore an incredibly easy target.”
Chris, in the other hand, had a much easier time casting the light in the other direction. With his womanizer reputation and the fact that he was often surrounded by girls… no one doubted his alibi.
While we were very careful at first, the longer we were together, the more passionate we felt and the more stupid we got. We started sneaking off during rehearsals exploring every nook and cranny of that stage. It didn’t surprise me anymore, if when I was walking, suddenly out of some corner, I would be pulled into the dark for some make out time. “I really hope it’s you and not some creepy roadie” I joke and he just laughs. “You do know how incredibly stupid this is right?” I would reason, but we didn’t care enough to make it stop. We were being careless like only love can make you be. Looking back, I’m amazed we didn’t get caught at any given time.
When everything is finally ready we get a few days off before we start the tour. Chris decides to go visit his family as he wouldn’t be seeing them for a while once the tour got going and I joined him. Luckily everyone knew I was close to his family and sometimes joined him on his visits so that didn’t seem weird to anyone. His family knew we were dating. His mom was delighted about it and was very warm to me. They all made me feel part of their family, which was very nice. It was good to be together with Chris freely and for once not afraid of being caught or having to hide our affection. His family was also quite aware that it was supposed to be a secret. I had to tell his mom of the little bait and switch I had going on with the press so she wouldn’t think I was cheating on her son every time she went to the supermarket.
**************
The tour starts out with our first show in LA at the Hollywood Bowl and from there we start to hop from place to place all over the country. It was a tough schedule with lots of concerts per week. Before the tour started, everyone got from our Tour Manager, Kevin Leland, a Tour Guide. In it, we have outlined everything concerning the tour, the route we are going to take, how long it will take to get to each location, all the times we need to be ready to go, rehearsal times, sound check times, hotels we will be staying, check in information, check out information and where we are going next. As the tour gets going that last part is very important as you do lose track of where you are! If we weren’t on the stage doing a concert, then we were in the tour bus going to the next location. There are many nights that we have to sleep in the Tour Bus while going to the next location. The tour Bus is not exactly a bus, as much as it is, a tricked out, huge motorhome. There are bunk beds three high, a bathroom with shower, a kitchen and a lounge, and a whole lot of flat screen TV’s. Our tour caravan consisted of three busses, one for us, the band, and other two with all the crew and equipment. The crew is huge with stage builders, roadies, sound engineer, video and lights engineer, technical director, guitar technician, Tour Manager, Caterers that provide food to everyone, a doctor… and that’s just what I can remember from the top of my head. When we get to a city, the crew goes off to build the stage and set everything up and we usually take on media engagements, then off to the venue for either rehearsals and/or sound check. After that, we get a little rest and down time at our dressing room before the concert in the evening.
On a few lucky occasions when we have days between shows, we got a good night of sleep on a hotel and got to do a little touring and a little parting before heading off to the next location.
When you spend this much time in a bus with the other people of the band you start experiencing the kind of intimacy with them that can only be found in a marriage. Very soon none of the guys cared about letting out gas or a big loud burp in front of me or telling some crude joke or talking about their sexual escapes… Should have created an all-girls band, I would think to myself sometimes, but I eventually got used to it all. Very few things shock me now.
Another thing happens when you spend that much time together everywhere. One, there is no such thing as privacy anymore and second, there is definitely, no such thing as keeping a secret…
My time with Chris was now extremely limited, the less time we had the more we stretched our luck trying to be together so it was a matter of time until Ted and James caught on to what was going on. One morning we are all together on the bus heading to the next town somewhere in the middle of the USA, I’m sitting comfortably in a chair reading a book, when James approaches me.
“Can we talk?” he asks and in this moment Ted joins him.
“Sure, what’s the matter?” I say putting the book down and looking at the two of them.
“Well… Ted and I were wondering what is going on?”
I’m afraid I know what this is all about but I look at him like I don’t understand. Chris joins us now.
“C’mon Lori. Don’t make me have to spell it out for you,” he says. “Are you two together? Like… romantically.”
I don’t say anything. I just put my hand in my head and rub my eyes. He continues.
“Look we just want to know the truth, we are a band and this, whatever it is, will affect all of us so we would like to know.”
&nb
sp; “Yes we are together.” Chris finally says. There is a silence between us for a moment. James looks at Chris, giving him a face of ‘I don’t like this’.
“It’s not like that.” Chris says directly to James. “It’s serious. I’m in love with her.” Hearing him say it like that with so much confidence made me almost lose my breath.
“Wow, that’s heavy dude…” Ted says surprised.
“Sorry we hid it from you guys,” I say at last.
“Well… It’s not like it is completely unexpected.” James smiles at me. “We’ve been watching you two like an episode out of a soap opera since college.”
“But dude…” Ted says to Chris. “Aren’t you afraid? Didn’t Susan say she was going to cut our balls off or something if we got near Lor?”
I roll my eyes at him and laugh. “She said she was going to kick the guy out of the band. It just sounded like I’ll cut your balls off.” We all laugh.
“Yeah but still, having you kicked out of the band would suck men.” James says.
“It’s a risk we are taking and I’m sorry it would affect you two. But it’s not a choice anymore, we tried staying away…” I say.
“Look Lor, we’ve been best friends for years now and I never seen you this happy, calm and composed and generally, this in peace with yourself, as I have these past months. If this is the reason of all that then you’ve got my support. Your secret is safe with me.” James says and gives me a hug. I have some tears in my eyes now. Ted now joins in the hug. “Same here Lor, you have my word.”
“Thanks men,” Chris says to James giving him a handshake. James looks him in the eyes and says, “If you hurt her… I’ll cut your balls off…” Ted joins in, “yeah good thing you got two because I’ll help.”
“Alright, alright, that’s enough of that. Cut it out” I say.
James laughs, “You’re giving us mixed messages now Lor.”
We all burst laughing on my unintended double entendre. “You two are impossible!” I say jokingly punching James in the arm.
Turned out having the guys find out was a blessing in disguise. With them in the secret, Chris and I had a bit more freedom while on tour. Now when it was just the band on the bus we could be together without having to hide our affection. Also, Chris started joining me in my hotel room, as we no longer cared if one of the guys would see him leaving it.
We still couldn’t have a normal couple life outside the realm of our tour bus and hotel rooms but Chris always would invent a way to make it up for that.
We had arrived in Denver where we would be playing the amazing Red Rocks Amphitheater and we would get a rare day off since our concert was only scheduled for the following day. The guys and I had all gone touring during the day taking a very cool helicopter ride to the beautiful Rocky Mountain National Park. When we got back later that afternoon I had a car waiting for me at the hotel to take me to a local radio station to give an interview. I’m finally returning to my hotel room and I open the door to find Chris all nicely dressed and smelling good holding some flowers that he hands me as I walk in the door and gives me a kiss.
“Well since I can never take you out on a romantic dinner I thought I would bring the romantic dinner to us,” he says happily. Out in the corner of the room, by the window, he has set up a table with candlelight’s and a bottle of champagne is chilling on an ice bucket next to a bowl of strawberries.
I smile at him a bit dazzled by all the trouble he went through to make all this. It is incredibly sweet and romantic. He approaches the table now and pulls the cover from one of the plates.
“Tonight’s menu is featuring the best of room service.”
I laugh. “Smells good,” I say. “Looks good too, thanks… this is very sweet of you.” He gives me a cute smile obviously proud of himself. It’s irresistible. We take our seats at the table and start eating our meal.
“So we have half a day off tomorrow,” he says. “If you could do anything what would it be?”
“Hmmm… I think I would love to go to the movies. I love going to the movies, I used to go all the time but now I haven’t been to one in ages.”
“Really? That’s your choice? Ok, well we could do that. We can go to the first showing of the day, there will be no one there, maybe a senior or two… but they won’t know who we are anyways.”
I laugh. “I suppose so.”
“How boring and cliché of us, dinner and a movie.” He mocks me as he pours some more champagne in my glass. I pick a strawberry and take a bite looking at Chris longingly.
“What are you thinking about?” he asks me smiling.
“How much I want to rip your clothes off.” I say honestly and I can see my answer catches him off guard.
“Well I guess like minds think alike…” He comes over and I barely have time to get up from the chair as he immediately takes me in his arms pressing me with his body against the wall. He passionately kisses me and we start ripping each other’s clothes off, impatient with desire, we never make it to the bedroom. At least not for the first time…
We spend the rest of the night chatting, drinking champagne, eating strawberries and making love. The next day he wakes me up with coffee in bed and then drags me out of the bed to take me to the movies like he promised.
It was the happiest I’ve been in all my life.
Chapter 13
We are on the last leg of our North American tour and there are just a few more shows left before we head off to Europe. We are packing up, getting ready to leave the hotel that morning and board the tour bus on our way to the next location when the phone rings the room. I pick up and am surprised to hear Chris’s dad voice at the other end.
“Hi Lorelai, how are you?
“Hi Mr. Henderson, I’m good. Are you looking for Chris?”
“Yeah, is he there? I need to talk to him.”
“Yeah sure. Just a moment.”
I go and get Chris. He picks up the phone, greet his dad but then is quietly listening as his dad is doing all the talking. I can see by his expression that he is not getting good news… he went from cheerful to deeply concern in seconds. I watch him talk, worried, not knowing what is going on until he hangs up.
“What’s the matter?” I ask immediately.
“It’s my mom…” he says in shock. “She’s sick.”
“Sick? Like, how sick?”
“She has cancer.”
I just close my eyes and don’t say anything. I let the wave of that bad news wash over me.
“Apparently it’s been going on for a while now, they didn’t want to disturb us but it’s getting serious and so they thought I should know now.”
“I’m so sorry Chris.” I give him a hug. He has tears in his eyes. We just remain sitting in bed, silent, embracing for a while.
“I need to go home, Lor,” he finally says with sadness in his voice.
“I know... Let me call Susan, and see what we can do.”
I speak with Susan and explain what’s going on. After a while, she calls me back. Chris was to go to the airport where he would take the next flight out to go back to Santa Barbara. We were supposed to go on the bus to Detroit, where Susan would meet us with a guitarist that would cover for Chris while he was away.
We all say goodbye and wish him good luck before he boards the taxi to the airport. It’s horrible to see him so sad and worried. I ask him to keep us posted and we kiss a long bittersweet goodbye kiss.
The rest of us reluctantly hop back on the tour bus. Deep in thought, we all make a very silent journey to our next destination.
**************
We arrive in Detroit and the bus drives us straight to the arena that is normally the home of the Detroit Red Wings hockey team. As we go in we find Susan already waiting for us.
“Everybody welcome Tom, your new alternate guitar player,” she says. “He is a very skilled guitarist and is quite familiar with all your songs. He will be covering for Chris while he is away.”
We all gr
eet him as Susan continues, “I think it would be best if you guys did an actual rehearsal this time to get him acquainted with the set and you can make any adjustments you need before the concert.” We all answer an unenthusiastic, ok.
“Guys… it’s temporary. Just until Chris comes back,” she reassures us.
The rehearsal goes fine. Tom is a really good guitarist and indeed seemed to know all the songs in the set, which made our lives infinitely easier, we got through rehearsal with almost no problems. We are feeling confident we could do a good show so we go to our dressing room to get some rest before the concert. The mood of the band was far from a happy one but in this business happy or sad doesn’t matter. Whatever you’re feeling, you put all that into the music and give the best performance you can give. It may not have been our best show but they can’t all be. What is important is that we give it our best so we know the audience had a good show no matter what.
I watch the crowd slowly streaming out of the arena through the windows of the bus as we pull away. In my mind all I can think is that I can’t wait to talk to Chris…
When we get to the hotel room and I finally have a moment alone I take my IPhone and call him glad to finally hear Chris’s voice.
“How did the concert go?” He asks me immediately.
“Oh, it went fine, don’t worry. It was definitely weird not having you there though. It’s not the same without you. But tell me, how’s your mom?”
“She is ok, very weak. Apparently, she has been on chemo for a while now. I can’t believe they didn’t tell me before.”
“Well, we were on the road, I’m sure they didn’t want you to worry.”
“Yeah...”
“Is she going to be ok? What are the doctors saying?”
“Well she is going through the first round of chemo. After the tumor shrinks enough, they will be able to operate, but it will still be a very risky procedure.”
