Chapter 3: A New Album, a Centerfold, an Island, and Career Changes

I slept between Crystal and Ellen the night we got back from Minnesota. I think we were sexed out because uncharacteristically no one made any overt gestures to any of the others regarding sex. We were cuddly and happy, and even went to bed early making up for the sleep deprivation we'd suffered when we opted to keep messing around until the wee hours while at Brite's home. I remember wondering what each of the women was thinking or dreaming as I drifted off. Were these moments a calm before a major storm? I didn't want to see a Crystal versus Ellen face off, particularly over me. I wasn't worth breaking up their kinship.

I woke before dawn and slipped out of bed from between my two nude bedmates. In the dim light coming into the bedroom from the nightlight we had left on in the bathroom I stood and studied Crystal and Ellen – two of the most beautiful women in the world. They each had a large place in my heart.

I put on my running togs and headed out the door. I ran the streets until the light was bright enough to maneuver safely on some of the woodland trails near our home. After an hour, I found my favorite clearing and stopped to meditate. I sat and studied a knot on a log until I elevated from the face of the planet, and entered some other dimensions billions of light years away. I knew that to return to the real world all I needed to do was unfocus my concentration on that knot, yet I hesitated since the spiritual place I'd gone to was so calm, peaceful, and showed me so much about my inner being.

Eventually, I blinked a few times and looked around me – I'd come back to the real world. A few weeks earlier a fawn and doe had visited with me about this time of day in this clearing. As I trotted back to the house, my mind turned so easily to Crystal and Ellen. Each of them had gone out of their way to pledge their deep love to me during our trip. For Crystal, this was not unusual; we deeply loved each other. For Ellen, her sister, she'd never confessed her love to me in the deep, committed, and the personal way she had this trip.

Ellen hadn't made a secret of how she felt; I think Crystal knew before she did. Crystal accepted the situation, but there were under currents that seemed to have been swept under the rug before the Minnesota trip. Could we exist as a triad for the long haul? I'd never lived in a ménage-a-trois, but I had developed friends that lived that way. Crystal had urged the three of us not to do anything rash for at least six months. We knew that was a long time and that there would be major changes in all our lives in that interval. I knew Crystal was the wisest of the three of us about all of this.

Of course, the ménage-a-trois was only a euphemism for the three of us, because in reality we lived in open relationships that included many others, among them Terry, Brite, Nikki, my sister, my sister-in-law, and Kim, to name only a few.

Monday morning, Ellen had to connect with Terry and do some concert planning for Crystal, me, and another lesser-known band called The Hobo Palace that Terry had recently signed on. Since we'd reconnected with Tina Devoe in Texas during my road trip, there had been talk of more CDs and movie deals for Crystal and me, so Terry and Ellen had a lot to work on. As it turned out from that day forward and for months afterwards, we each started to put in long work hours every day, even on weekends.

Terry gave Crystal and me a list of fifty-two new songs he wanted us to perfect. For about half of them, he had rough music accompaniment tracks on a couple of CDs. He promised he'd mail us the background music for the rest in the next day or so. He said his new band would lay down the tracks for us.

Crystal and I spent a long day in her studio, working on various renditions of only two of the songs, practicing both duets and singles. I thought back to what I knew of the music industry before Crystal pulled me into the side of it because she fancied me. I used to think a good singer could knock off an entire album in an afternoon without rehearsals. How wrong I'd been.

The fifty-two songs Terry had given us were new and unreleased. About a third were from our new friend and composer, Jake Randall. After a month, when we had passable versions of each song, Terry, Jake, and a team of others from Sony Records, joined us as we sat and listened to a playback of the songs we'd made in one of the large Nashville studios. Over three weeks, we did a critique, even playing back and listening to each song again and again, often collecting comments on what might move that particular song to the top ten list in the country. After that, we whittled the number we liked down to less than twenty over three days.

Over the next couple of weeks, we worked with our regular live band on each of the twenty songs until we had better versions ready to deliver for review. We then had another studio show with our review team, critiquing each song again, and picking the ones we'd use on the album. Another three weeks got spent rehearsing each song until we had it nailed every time we sang it. We also started to work on choreography too, planning our onstage presence for each song. Sony brought in a pro to help us in that regard.

We then lay down each track in the studio, spending about a day or two per song. The audio engineers took over adjusting the fifty to one hundred variables they had to play with throughout each song. A couple of weeks later, we heard the pre-release versions of each song. Amazingly, everyone on the album team liked the songs and deemed them ready for release.

With the songs locked down, Crystal and I started to shoot music videos on each of the songs in the album. The rationale for doing all of them was that no one knew which songs would become hits, so we did videos for each of them.

Everyone we had talked to liked the song The Naked Truth that Jake had written, so that became the title song for the album. We had fun doing the title song video, specifically because it required much nudity, particularly on Crystal's part. We even got a stage set that resembled the setting at Brite's Minnesota home and studio, including the palomino. This time, the videos had to be either G-rated or PG-13 rated, yet they had to be suggestive of the really adult themes that the song carried.

It took another two weeks to shoot just the video for the lead song, although much of the footage could be edited and used for some of the other songs on The Naked Truth album. We spent another month finishing the other videos working every day including weekends when we weren't in some other city doing a concert or appearance. Concurrently, the dubbing and audio geniuses synchronized the music with our singing in the videos (which usually got tossed because of background noise or our panting in the action scenes).

By now, over a five hundred people had been involved in the production of the album and the videos. This was a big deal.

Sony created a pre-release sampler and sent it to 'friends' at selected media outlets in the U.S., Europe, and Australia. Their opinions of the music and videos counted for a lot and strongly influenced how Sony would promote the album. Although it was rare for a complete album to be scrapped, it had happened. More frequently, a song or two in the mix got nixed and a substitute added. We waited with baited breath to get the outside reviews.

We were lucky. Our entire album and all the videos emerged from the external critiques with rave reviews and a plea from nearly every DJ for complete copies they could start to leak the songs to their listeners. The DJs even got to see the several photos that would be used for the album cover and some of the interior shots on the album insert – pictures that Brite had taken on our sex-filled visit to her Minnesota studio. They wanted those too to use on their websites.

Given the reception, some of our 'leaked' music started to appear shortly before Halloween; the full release of the album came in mid-November. Ours would be the album to buy as a Christmas gift; a careful marketing strategy.

As the album progressed to market, the spread for Playboy also developed. Playboy loved Brite's work and selected thirty photographs to use in the spread. One unusually seductive one of Crystal on a tall stool with her beautiful shapely legs outstretched and clutching the gingham dress near her bared breasts achieved such appreciation from Hugh and his daughter Christie that Playboy decided to use it as the December issue centerfold. Despite the appearance of her landing strip of pubic hair and her full breasts, Crystal acceded to their use of the shot as the centerfold.

About two months after our photo shoot with Brite, a Playboy photographer and interview team arrived in Nashville to do an in depth interview with Crystal, take candid photos during the interview at the recording studio, and do peripheral interviews with Ellen and me. They were around for three intensive days, and left happy.

About four weeks later, we got a mock-up of a twenty-page spread that Playboy intended to use as the center section of the December edition of the magazine. They'd done a superb job in portraying Crystal, and the rest of us where we appeared. The shots were tasteful yet daring, and would surely be provocative to the ultra-conservatives. Crystal's wish for no beaver shots wasn't fully satisfied, but she gave in when she saw how sexy the complete set of photographs made her look. Playboy also told us they'd never devoted so many pages in an issue to one star, so we were breaking new ground.

Terry scurried behind the scenes orchestrating the release of both the album and the Playmate of the Month spread for Crystal. He got both synchronized to 'officially' release on the same day in November; thus, the day the December issue of Playboy hit the streets, Sony released The Naked Truth. Crystal was the talk of every DJ in the country in more ways than one. Because I got to appear in several of the photographs with the naked Crystal and her equally attractive sister Ellen, I was dubbed the luckiest man in the country. I felt that way before that magazine issue.

Album sales rapidly spiked in the first week to record levels. The Naked Truth soared into the number one position on the country charts and on the album sales charts, far ahead of any other song or album. The title song became the number one hit in the country, and European and Australasian sales started to shoot to record highs as the releases were made overseas. The videos Sony posted on YouTube and Vimeo went viral, and had over ten million views within the first week. Some of the other songs on the album also made into the top forty if not the top ten.

Every radio station playing pop or country music I could find on the FM or Internet played The Naked Truth once or twice an hour. This just spurred sales even further, plus we got royalties from the plays. Requests from various talk show hosts poured in.

We were hot.

Crystal, Terry, Ellen, and I danced around the studio and the Nashville house every day as the statistics came in about the number of plays and sales. But, of course, we weren't home much, we were on the road promoting the new album, talking about the Playboy spread, and doing concerts, often in different cities from each other, or in multiple cities the same day.

Not all went smoothly; however. The Playboy spread created a huge controversy, most of it centered in Branson, Nashville, and other Bible-belt cities. Two vocal camps emerged: one loved the photo spread and said it was about time a name brand country star appeared in Playboy, and who better than the pretty and shapely Crystal Lee. The other camp condemned the spread and was convinced the pornographic images ensured Crystal's place in hell. Hate mail started to arrive at the studio, but fortunately Crystal, Ellen, and I got insulated from almost all of it by the clerical crew Sony put in place to handle the deluge. We liked it that way.

The December issue of Playboy actually went into a second and third printing to keep up with pre-Christmas demand, and sales were unusually high in, of all places, the Bible belt. I guess many evangelicals wanted to carefully study that photo spread to be sure they were making precisely the right decision in damning Crystal to hell.

The opinion of all of us connected with the photo shoot was that the Playboy spread – twenty pages of interview and photos, plus the centerfold – was tastefully done, especially considering the girl next door image Crystal had before publication. Sony marketing did a survey and found that her home-girl image not only persisted, but improved. I joked that everyone knew the girl-next-door put out, so what's new? The photo spread just confirmed it. Crystal punched me in the arm but did it with a smile and a whispered promise to 'put out' that evening.

As we went into high gear about our music, I got a pleasant surprise one day when Terry called me from his office in downtown Nashville. "Jim, remember you told me about a gal you met in North Dakota – Shaye Sadler – well, she called me this morning. She was a little timid, but I recalled that you raved about her singing abilities, so I spent some time on the phone with her. She was in Sioux City, South Dakota and told me she'd finally worked up the courage to call me."

I asked, "So can you do anything for her? I think it would be worth your effort."

"I can and you can call it serendipity or I know you'd explain it as the universe working in some mysterious way. Anyway, I have a country band that needs a singer, and now, with Shaye, I suddenly have a singer that needs a band. Duh, one plus one equals two."

"So what'd you do?"

"Well, it's a bit of a holding action for both of them until the spring. The band has an unbelievable six month gig at a popular country music place on the edge of Chicago. They're going to meet up there next week and we'll see what happens. I trust your judgment and I also trust the judgment of this band's leader, Jerry McCormick. They call themselves the Raiders, so maybe they'll put together something like Shaye and the Raiders. I expect to hear back from Shaye and Jerry separately next week."

True to form, Terry followed up with me the following week after he'd heard from the two of them. Both were over the moon with the combination. For the first time in her life, Shaye had steady work and good pay, and Jerry's band finally had a top-notch singer they'd been questing for over the past couple of years.

Terry told me he suggested they stick together even after the Chicago job was over. He also told me he had asked for a dozen songs by the new combination and they'd promised him some demo recording within two weeks.

The whole short episode with Shaye reminded me of the one-night stand I did with her singing at a road house named Bucks. The beautiful pleasure of our meeting came later than night when we made love on a stormy night in a room over the bar. I left a piece of my heart with Shaye and she with me. I felt so glad that some force of nature had worked in her favor. I hoped that maybe our paths would cross in the not too distant future.

In the months leading up to Christmas, I periodically examined the relationships between the four of us: Crystal and me, Ellen and me, Ellen and Terry, and the sisters. I could tell Ellen had checked her emotions – she was holding back. Sure, she told me she loved me, but it was in the way she'd done before she confessed her deeper love for me in Minnesota. I could feel her pain at not wanting to cross over some line in her adoration for me. Often, I'd fine her just staring at me in a dreamy state; she'd catch herself, give me a loving smile, and change activities.

Crystal seemed the same at first; however, as the weeks went by and we were wrapped up in the album and appearances, she became more demonstrative and vocal in her affection and love for me. Every day, she made sure I knew she loved me deeply, and that she felt she'd found her soul mate in me. "Our meeting wasn't an accident," she said one day. "You were led down that road by fate – and right into my arms. You needed me, and I needed you. We are destined to be together." The way my heart beat for her, I had no trouble believing that.

I saw nothing but normal behavior between the sisters too. When we were in town, Ellen stayed at the big house about half the time, and at her condo near the Nashville offices the rest of the time if she were in town. She had started to travel on Terry's behalf, doing arrangements and setup in prep for the album release and a string of concerts we did including the Dallas arena and Denver's stadium – all sell out crowds. Occasionally, she worked on the movie deals along with Terry – he wanted us on the big screen, a move that if it were successful would catapult us further into stardom and boost our album sales into the upper stratosphere, even on our older albums. The movies were far fetched since neither Crystal nor I had ever acted and were lukewarm to the idea; so it seemed a long shot unless we were doing a cameo and singing some of our usual stuff.

The most noticeable change involved Terry and Ellen. She subtly distanced herself from Terry, but only slightly. He had begun working sixteen to eighteen-hour days and had little time for Ellen, or any of us, unless it directly involved one of our projects. Where he used to be with us hours each week, we now only saw him a few minutes when he flew in for a consultation or signatures on some deal, and then bolted away immediately. He also made several trips to the west coast, ostensibly to work on our movie deals. Ellen called to our attention that he was not entirely involved in work. Terry also had developed a cozy relationship with the attractive lead female singer in The Hobo Palace band, Cindy Wonder.

Cindy sounded a bit like Stevie Nicks, and would catch anyone's eye because she was so cute. She was a dynamo blond bombshell with a cute figure and a chest that rivaled country star Holly – whenever I saw her at the studio; I found it hard not to stare. She was more than just attractive; she was alluring in the same way as Crystal. Cindy sang more pop than country, loved ballads, and with Terry's help and hype the band had their first single recording in the top fifty. Terry asked what Crystal and I would think about her band opening some of our concerts; neither of us had an objection – they were good.

Despite the mixed feelings of the population about the Playboy spread, Crystal became an even hotter commodity. Suddenly, she was on the road every day of the week from dawn to midnight doing PR work to promote the album and the Playboy issue in some way. Two more concerts got slipped into the busy schedule right before Christmas. I appeared at all the events, but she was the sexy star. Once, she was in Cincinnati and I heard her being interviewed on a country station: she was engaging, funny, witty, relaxed, and even brilliant. So natural; I thought how much I loved this woman.

Terry reappeared in our lives about two weeks before Christmas, asking all sorts of suspicious questions about what we planned for the holidays and making secret phone calls. Crystal and Ellen had invited both of us to visit their parents for Christmas. I'd accepted, but Terry begged off to be with his own parents outside of Chicago. He did make us promise not to accept anything for the New Year's holiday week; he finally admitted he had a surprise brewing for us. When the time came, we bid Terry a happy holiday, as we headed in different directions for Christmas.

I'd stayed with Lees once before, shortly after Crystal and I first started going together. This visit went smoothly, and they welcomed me with open arms and lots of hugs. Crystal's mother especially catered to my every need, plus she got extra touchy-feely as our visit progressed, sitting especially close to me on the sofa or at meals.

Crystal teased me later when we were alone, "Mom would love it if you threw her over the arm of the sofa and ploughed your big dick into her pussy. She doesn't know it, but she is horny for your attention." The words rang true after all the casual touches and strokes as we sat around their home.

I responded to Crystal, "I have my hands full with Ellen and you; I don't need another Lee complicating the picture – plus, this one seems happily married." Crystal smirked at me.

Somehow, despite openly living and loving both their daughters, I had been accepted. At first, things were awkward when they figured out that I also had a loving sexual relationship with Ellen, but the girls had worked their magic and made things acceptable first with their mother and then their father. I suspected that Ellen and Crystal had a graphic discussion with their mother about some of our sexual romps; maybe that was why she'd come on to me sometimes.

I listened attentively to a discussion between Crystal and her parents about the Playboy spread. Her father wisely kept his mouth shut; what was he to say after seeing every square inch of his sexy daughters' skin. He just smiled, yet I could see the seeds of lust in his eyes. Her mother expressed awe and fascination with this side of being a star. I heard her mother ponder whether she'd be a candidate as a Playboy model. She did have most of the physical credentials needed and there was no doubt she'd mothered Ellen and Crystal – both beauties were a reflection of their mom.

We took the Learjet from Knoxville back to Nashville late the day after Christmas. The weather was foggy, rainy, and cold.

Terry reached us as he'd promised the next morning. "OK. Here's the deal, you put your smallest bikinis and Speedos in your pocket and meet me at the general aviation terminal at Nashville Airport in ninety minutes. And trust me, that's all you'll need – oh, except your passports. A limo will be picking you up momentarily." Ellen and Crystal surged into action without the slightest idea of where we were going except they deduced it must be warm, so they over packed, complete with evening dresses and spike heels. I tossed a few things and a shaving kit into a duffle bag, figuring that Terry knew what he was talking about.

Terry had rented the Learjet for the four of us and flew us to the British Virgin Islands. After landing and customs, we transited to a marina, and started an hour's boat ride to our own well-equipped and stocked, but totally private islet in the middle of the Caribbean Sea. In the distance, a few other islands dotted the horizon. The temperature was balmy; the sun brilliant; and the palm trees swayed in a gentle breeze.

Terry had a grin from ear to ear as we got out of the boat. "We're here for a week, ladies and gentlemen. This is a reward for all the hard work and long hours over the past months, plus for being the best Playmate ever and for being the best and sexiest cowgirls and cowboys in that spread, AND, of course, for The Naked Truth – one of the best selling albums in history if I'm not wrong. Everyone loves it. The music is timeless and will be played for years and centuries to come." He waved his arms around in exaggerated style as he was prone to do.

I looked up the jetty from the open pilot boat that had brought us to the island. Through some trees, I could see a magnificent house. I started to study the house and landscaping when I saw some motion from inside the home. Two figures emerged, magnificently nude and aglow as they sashayed towards us with swaying hips. The captain of the boat did a double take and then tried not to stare further.

My sister Anna and my sister-in-law Lauren strolled down the path to the dock arm in arm and lathered up in suntan lotion. Wow! My heart beat faster, not because of how sexy they looked – although they were, but because of the flash reminder of the deep love I felt for the two of them. This would be the perfect vacation.

After dispatching the tender that brought us and our welcoming hugs, Anna explained to me right away that she had brought a 'semi-serious' boyfriend to the island – Mark Thorne. She waved her hand in front of her face dismissively, "He knows all about you and me and us, and us making love and he's cool with all of it. In fact, last night Mark, Lauren, and I had a nice threesome until the wee hours, so you have some catching up to do." She gestured up at the house as she held onto my bare arm, her naked breasts and excited nips pushing against my skin.

Mark was a genuinely nice man about my age and stature. He had demurely put on a Speedo that hid little, but passed for modesty's sake for our initial meeting in the middle of the Caribbean. Mark owned a small estate planning and tax preparation company in San Diego near Anna's home. He explained that they'd met on the Internet at a dating site, but later after they knew each other Anna had come to him for help in managing some of the millions I'd sent her as part of the new family wealth based on my country music career. (Anna later informed me that he was wealthy in his own right from a series of wise investments and a sizable inheritance.)

Anna and Lauren gave us a tour of the house and grounds. We were the only home on the islet, a tropical islet about a mile long and a half-mile wide. A few other outbuildings dotted the premises, additions by the owners who were pleased to share their quarters with us, according to Terry.

Less than an hour later, the seven of us were stretched out on luxurious chaises on a white sandy beach, nude and slathered up with suntan oils and protection. Ten feet from us the Caribbean Sea lapped at the shoreline. We'd all been in swimming.

I watched Mark checking out Crystal very carefully after she appeared nude to go down the manicured pathway to the beach. Every step she took she shimmied and shook her beautiful boobs, or her ass moved in the most seductive of ways. Recently, she'd manicured her pubic hair to resemble a small arrow pointing at her bare slit; now that caught his attention too.

She checked him out too, and I watched the two of them smile seductively at each other. He was about a five or six on my ten-point hardness scale, right about where I was around all these naked women. Mark later confessed that he'd never seen a Playboy Playmate up close let alone a naked country music star, and he'd studied Crystal's entire photo spread and was comparing what he remembered from the magazine with real life.

Crystal whispered to me as we went into the water a little later, "You won't mind if I try Mark a little later do you? You know I like strange, and he looks like he'll be a lot of fun and very satisfying." I laughed and nodded my consent, although she knew she didn't need it. While she'd asked for approval, it wasn't mine to give. She was her own person. Besides, I figured I would be occupied with my sister and Lauren, and I suspect Mark knew that too.

Lauren looked just like my late wife, almost as though they were twins; however, Lauren had been two years older. The thought of her sister Karen made me pause after I watched Lauren's naked body stroll by to the chaise next to me. I stared out at the horizon. My life with her seemed so far away now – in another universe. I'd been a grind-it-out technical geek, working with computers every day and doing fancy things on the Internet for my company's customers. So much had changed since her death; some days I thought I could be in some crazy dream and that I'd wake up and go back to work on some website for a new client, left to only think about the dream I'd had as a popular country music star with the top country diva and her sister as my regular girlfriends. Now, the resemblance between Lauren and Karen only reminded me of the loving years I'd had with her sister.

Over the past year since I'd met Crystal and Ellen, I tested myself whether my relationship with them was a rebound of some kind. Each time, I always came back to the same decision – no, definitely not. Maybe it was that Crystal had been and remained so unlike Karen, and my life had changed so much to meet the new challenges she helped push me to in music and onstage performances, not to mention a robust and open sex life and set of relationships. I loved my new life. I loved Crystal. I loved Ellen.

Karen and I had been straight. Later, from Lauren, I learned that my wife had been more sexually liberated than I was – a lot more liberated. I guess that knowledge helped me loosen up too, after I got over the shock of Karen's previous group sex relations, her bisexuality, and occasional promiscuous and slutty behavior. None of that bothered me now, particularly since similar activities had become a major and routine part of my life.

I'd carried my own angst during my road trip about my apparent indiscriminate sexual liaisons with various women. By the end of my trip, I'd slept with eighty women. Somewhere along the trip, I labeled myself a manslut and castigated myself for my behavior. In one of those times when I bared my soul to someone, Kim pointed out to me that I was doing nothing wrong. I'd had a model of relationship behavior passed on to me – a meme. I was uncomfortable by those old standards, but there were other options and new standards I could adopt that included exactly what I'd been doing. I felt love, compassion, and something significant for every one of the women I romanced, even the fun loving and sexy debutants at the Oklahoma orgy.