Chapter 10

Liz was already immersed in her duties by the time security showed us back to the VIP area. I had expected a handful of local politicians and their families. I didn’t expect to be among the last of about 100 people to arrive.

A quick glance around the room told me that most of the people invited for the event were dignitaries. Of course, I saw the mayor of San Diego and her family. I saw the head coach of the NFL’s San Diego Chargers with his wife. A few of the people looked ... normal.

They were mostly adults with children in their early to late teens.

“Oh, good, you made it,” Jill said from over my shoulder. “She’s been watching the door since we started.”

“We made him go home and change clothes,” Sarah said, gesturing to me. “He didn’t seem to understand that an ‘Iron Maiden’ T-shirt and ripped jeans might have been appropriate for an 80’s hair band retrospective but not for a Liz Larimer concert.”

“I did not have on an ‘Iron Maiden’ T-shirt and jeans,” I said through gritted teeth. The rest of her statement, however, was true. I had been convinced that I might want to dress a bit better than shorts and T-shirt for a meeting with my prospective employer.

“You guys are true friends,” Jill said, smiling. “You’re not just coworkers that are friendly. Liz was right about that. I love how you guys pick on each other.”

“Each other?” I asked with raised eyebrows.

“Well, she didn’t want to be rude and come right out and say that she likes how we keep you off balance by busting your chops,” Sarah chimed in.

“You just remember this the next time you want ‘Uncle’ Travis to keep your little hellions overnight,” I pointed out.

“Even I know that’s an idle threat,” Matt said as he clapped me on my healthy shoulder. “You can tell his mother is a preschool teacher. He’s great with those boys. Sarah and I will threaten all sorts of retribution when they misbehave. Travis just tilts his head and lifts and eyebrow at them ... instant contrition.”

“You totally should have brought them,” Jill said.

“They’re still a bit small for something like this,” Sarah said. Her voice had changed from her playful work banter to her serious mothering tones. “The oldest is only seven. His bedtime is nine o’clock on school nights ... and even ‘Uncle’ Travis won’t let him stay up past then. They would wear down about midway through and they get a bit cranky when they’re tired.”

“Like their mom,” I offered. “Tell her their names.”

This time it was Sarah that blushed.

“Lucas and Brandon,” I said when it became obvious that she was going to remain silent. I hadn’t made the connection until Liz had pointed it out to me. Jill was a lot quicker.

“You did not!” she said, her eyes wide with mirth.

“They were sure Lucas was going to be a girl,” Susan added, reveling in the chance to increase her friend’s discomfort. “It was going to be Melissa and Brandon.”

“That is too awesome!” Jill enthused. “Wait until Liz gets the chance to offer that tidbit. Those two will love it!”

“They’re friends?” Eric wondered.

“Of a sort,” Jill said. “Liz and Melissa are the same age even though Liz has been on the charts a lot longer. Melissa opened some shows for Liz a few years ago. They keep in touch. All three of them have so much going on that it is really hard to do things together. But they always hang out at the awards shows. Once Liz is...”

She leaned in closer and her voice went into a whisper.

“Once she’s free, she’s going to try to do projects with a lot of singers she likes,” she said softly. “She’s thinking of having her next album be all duets with female singers or female groups.”

“That would be ... awesome,” Sarah said, appropriating Jill’s vernacular because she couldn’t think of another word.

“She’s not thinking about, you know, just big stars,” Jill continued, looking over her shoulder to make sure that no one could overhear. “She’s thinking of Melissa and Conny, of course, but she’s also hoping she can get some newcomers like Kacey or Kelsi. She’s going to try to get female lead singers from bands, too.”

“That’s a perfect summer made-for-TV event,” Rick noted thoughtfully. “Yeah, the disc is a must but I can see a two-hour primetime network special to kick it off. Is she thinking of trying to book a tour? It could be as big as Lilith Faire in the early 2000s.”

“Maybe,” Jill said. “It’s not something we’ve talked about. TV was out of the question with RFN. They relented for the major awards shows but they would never let her perform unless she was up for Entertainer of the Year and it was outside the genre. She could do a song on the Billboard Awards if she was the only country performer they let sing. If another country act was already signed then they would block her. They usually wouldn’t even let her attend. There was no way they’d let her perform on any Nashville-related awards show. That stopped back in... 2009 ... I think she said.”

She shook her head when we frowned as a collective group. Even the outsiders – Matt, Chris and Eric – knew a televised performance was a huge source of free advertising to a targeted audience.

“Yeah,” Jill said sadly.

“It obviously didn’t hurt her popularity any,” I noted.

“It did to some,” Susan countered. “For the first six years or so, Liz was pretty much universally loved by the country audience. She was accessible ... like now ... but all the time. I guess RFN started to see her as saturating the market or something because in about 2010 they really pulled her back. I didn’t realize that it was them, of course. I thought it was her idea. It’s only in hindsight that I can see how everything was orchestrated. She started to show up with models and movie stars at Hollywood premieres and fashion shows. She started to accept country awards via video instead of in person. She used to show up on every chart countdown show at least once a year and she came off as really ... friendly and funny. Then she stopped doing those altogether. Rumors started that she was going to do a pop album when a couple of her songs crossed over to those stations.”

“At the same time, her tours started to focus on London and Berlin and Tokyo instead of Oxford, Mississippi, or Kalamazoo, Michigan,” Sarah said. “This is her first stadium tour but it’s been rumored for years that she wouldn’t play a venue that couldn’t seat 40,000. That’s when the ‘haters’ started to pop up on the Internet. She had abandoned the traditional country format and started to make them come to her.”

“The stand she ... or, I suppose it was her label ... the stand the label took on streaming music made things worse,” Rick added. “Her live shows went from 40 a year to 25 and the ticket prices tripled right after she pulled her library from MusicMayhem and MP3Town. It almost seemed like they were trying to wring every dollar out of the pockets of the hard-working public.”

“The streaming thing was her idea,” Jill clarified. “And you’ll agree with her when you hear the reasons. The ticket increases were out of her control, though.”

“You can’t hit your fans in the pocketbook more than once without them noticing,” Eric said.

“Yeah,” Jill said. “She fought hard to make sure prices for this tour didn’t increase. The label wasn’t about to lower them but she managed to keep them the same by taking a lower percentage of the gross. The streaming thing was a fiasco. The label just didn’t understand her message and they completely screwed it up. They are ... they are like everyone else in this business. They want to dig in their heels and fight change tooth and nail.”

“That’s how people get left behind,” I said. “I remember the streaming thing. It is a perfect example of a reasonable message getting muddled because too many voices said too many different things. She wasn’t the only one to lift her library. She was the biggest but she wasn’t alone. If everyone had put out the same message: “We’re doing this because the streaming services are raking in billions and giving us pennies,” people would have understood. Instead you had the most vocal people saying it was about royalties without really explaining the concept to the public. I don’t know what royalties are. I don’t receive them from anyone and neither does anyone I know.”

Sarah cleared her throat and gestured with her chin to where Liz stood talking to a pair of teenage girls.

“OK, one person I know,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Liz told me last night that she was really fighting for the session musicians and the songwriters. They’re the ones living paycheck to paycheck most of the time. It wasn’t about the headlining acts. It was about the acts that are just trying to make it or the ones that have seen their stars fade over time. It comes back to our motto: ‘Clear, Concise, Constant, Controlled.’”

“Why don’t you table the business discussion until there aren’t hundreds of ears around,” Chris suggested. He had strategically placed himself behind Jill in order to intercept anyone that might come up in a blind spot and overhear something they shouldn’t.

For the thousandth time, I wondered exactly what he did for the United States Department of Defense.

We only got to spend a few minutes with Liz before she hurried backstage to get ready for her show.

She flitted around from group to group, taking pictures and shaking hands with everyone. I decided that Liz must have some sort of internal chronometer because she never spent less than two nor more than three minutes with any single person or group at one time. Half an hour after we arrived, the first group of VIPs exited and a new group was shown in. We were the only ones still in the room and I looked to the others to see if we should depart, as well.

We exchanged shrugs and started making for the door. Ryan caught my eye and gave me a slight shake of his head. He was stationed at the door, making certain that everyone who entered had the requisite credentials. I saw him give everyone a critical look as they passed into the room and I saw Chris nod appreciatively.

“Visual inspection for weapons,” he said softly when he saw me continuing to stare as I tried to discern what was going on. “Anyone with an odd bulge would be followed closely. That’s what those three guys are for. If we had worn jackets or overcoats, I’m sure a room is set aside so we could remove them. The guy is good. I noticed it when we walked in. I mean, he was OK with you but the rest of us got a quick once over.”

“I met him this morning,” I said. “He’s ... normal. I mean, he makes no bones about what his job is and how seriously he takes it.”

“If you can do it without being obvious, look at his shoe,” Chris said.

I gave my shoulder a good pop and looked downward for a moment. Then I looked questioningly at Chris.

“Is that... ?” I asked.

“A mirror,” he said.

“That’s pretty fucked up,” I said. I had read stories about what guys with mirrors on their shoes were doing. They were used in public places to look up women’s skirts or dresses. Susan and Sarah both had on skirts and I was amazed Chris wasn’t pissed. I was pissed and I wasn’t married to one of them.

“No,” Chris said, shaking his head. “It’s for the wheelchairs. I saw it when we were first coming in. It’s why I moved in front of Sarah and Matt. If he was perving ... well, we probably would have been kicked out of here by now. Likely, a bunch of people would have gone to the hospital and the rest of us would have gone to jail for the night. The group in front of us had a girl in a miniskirt. He didn’t give the woman a second glance.”

“I would have given the woman a lot more than a second glance,” I said. “She was...”

“Yeah,” Chris said with a laugh. “I’ve never seen anyone actually shake their butt when they were standing still but she managed. Anyway, he saw that she couldn’t be carrying anything so he turned his attention to us.”

“Still, it seems a little ... obsessive,” I said.

“Three years ago ... maybe four ... a guy snuck a weapon into a high-level meeting in Ghana under the seat of a wheelchair,” Chris informed me. “He killed six people, including a U.S. envoy. I’m sure that guy has pushed for portable metal detectors but those are unwieldy. Besides, a wheelchair would set it off every time and isn’t like you can just dump the occupant on the floor while you check it out.”

We were still talking about the security precautions when Stephanie broke free from her duties and came over.

“I’m sorry, I was supposed to tell you to stick around when the first group went out,” she said. “I got waylaid by the mayor and...”

“Say no more,” I said with a laugh. “You should have motioned for Eric. She’s been after him for years to develop a park on some property he owns down near the waterfront.”