Chapter 80: A Star Is Born and Complications

‘Valentine Sky’ written and sung by Sky Bright became number one on the popular music charts by the end of April. Many disk jockeys acknowledged the rapid rise in the charts of the song by a previously unknown artist. Further, everyone knew that there’d be lots more music by Sky.

Two of the other tracks from Sky’s first album by the same name also made the top twenty, an almost unheard-of event that heralded the arrival of another singing diva and a talented song writer to boot.

I couldn’t turn on the radio to a station with music without hearing one of Sky’s songs. I was so proud of her and that she’d found her calling in life through her artistry.

We talked to Sky a couple of times a week when she wasn’t too busy. She was all over the west coast, too, from Vancouver to San Diego. She was doing TV appearances, usually singing one of her songs and being interviewed. She was also working six days a week rehearsing and learning both new and old songs. A concert tour was being planned. She told me that she’d never worked so hard in her life.

Molliana, a star in her own right, had taken Sky under her wing, and even moved her into her large home – the same home where I’d been with them at the NMA After-Party. There was no Mr. Molliana, so the two of them had the run of the place, plus some maids and cooks, and the security force. Sky confessed that the two of them were often sexual and loved one another.

In a surprise move by Moll, Sky became an opener for one of the popular singer’s large concerts. There were a hundred-thousand people in the outdoor audience at some immense amphitheater. Sky sang her heart out and won every one of them over as new fans before turning the stage over to Molliana.

I was surprised when I appeared with Sky and Molliana in People magazine’s coverage of the NMA Show as the ‘Escort of Choice’ for the two rising stars. By then, the photo was almost three months old. It had been taken the night of National Music Awards when I’d been in L.A. as Sky’s escort. Apparently, handsome older authors with salt and pepper hair that look distinguished in a tuxedo and are in relatively good shape are hard to find. I was also cited as a ‘romantic interest’ for both women.

Sky told me that she’d finally had to tell her parents about her whole life. She’d insisted that they watch the NMAs on television and they couldn’t believe their eyes when their daughter suddenly appeared and knocked a song that she’d written out of the park.

Her parents had flown to L.A. to see her a week after I’d been there for the NMAs, coming all the way from North Florida. Sky told me that she had to do a big apology to them for keeping them in the dark about many aspects of her life.

I said, “Just how much did you tell them?”

Sky sighed. “They knew most of my life until I went to college in Sarasota, so I had to start from there. That meant that I had to tell them about you and the Extended Family, and how I’d stalked you while I took your creative writing course.

“I also told them that I’d done an adult video with you and a couple of other people. I didn’t go into a lot of detail, only that it was a lark and that I loved the thrill of doing it. I tried to build the impression that I’d become a bit of wild child once I left home. That also led to telling them I was kind of oversexed and very hormonal. I think my mother understood more than my father. All those horny genes had to come from some place.

“Anyway, I told about doing the karaoke in your living room and everyone’s reaction, and then having that really launch my singing career because you all thought I was so good. I put the emphasis on how everything happened so fast after that, including filling in at the NMAs and how that was a huge opportunity.

“I had to confess to dropping out of the university without telling them. They were surprised that I’d taken that step. I told them that you were my confidant and the voice of reason in my life. I mentioned Mandy, too.

“I don’t know that they were that happy with each of my life choices, but they are sure glad that I’m into music. They want to meet you, too, so sometime when I’m in Florida for a bit, I’m to arrange for them to visit.

I logged that fact away, and wondered if I should visit them rather – the other way around. If I told Paul Davies, my publisher, that I had some other business there, he’d find all sorts of opportunities for me to appear or be on television in the area to promote my books. I explained that to Sky, and that gave her some ideas.

Columbia Records released another of Sky’s singles with an immense amount of hype leading up to the Friday when the song debuted. The tune, ‘Rainy Love’, shot up to number one, and knocked Valentine Sky into the number two position on the billboard charts. Her other songs in the Top 40 remained in place or moved up slightly.

The public was clamoring for Sky to appear in public. Multiple fan clubs had formed and were demanding that she start her concert tour – and that she appear in more music videos, and that she put out more music. They couldn’t get enough of her.

Sky appeared in a subsequent issue of People magazine, even with a head shot on the cover. This time the feature article was on how she grew up in rural Florida to be the sweet, young singer and song writer. She did have a wholesome image that was being played up.

Sky told us that she’d been recruited to be a judge and guest coach on Nation’s Song – a reality TV elimination show over the summer to winnow down to a young winner of an award. The show was on weekly from L.A., and Sky would also coach some of the contestants and try to help them win. The show was patterned after American Idol and The Voice, but was a shorter summer event.

Nation’s Song would have Sky appearing on TV every week, plus the judges, all of them entertainers, would often sing their own music on the show as part of the effort to draw viewers, and hence sponsors to the TV episodes. Sky was spending part of her time screening contestants for the pre-recorded segments of the show. I learned that she was getting paid ten million to be a judge and performer on the show. Sky said that she couldn’t believe the money being thrown around.

Molliana did another massive concert in Texas, and involved Sky in a big way, both as an opener for her and having her come out later and sing some duets with her. Sony released one of the live duets as a pop single, and it shot up to number four on the charts in two weeks. The country couldn’t get enough of those singers. Molliana and Sky had the number one, two, three, and four songs on the pop charts.

Sky’s first solo concert was at Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater outside Denver. The promoters were skeptical that she could draw that many people, so they were hesitant to book a larger venue. Red Rocks held 9,500 people.

Near riots broke out to get a ticket. Scalpers were getting $3,000 to $4,000 per seat. Red Rocks sold out within twenty minutes of going on sale. One estimate was that Sky could have easily filled the 80,000 seats in the Broncos stadium, and there still would have been at least twice that in demand.

After that the promoters scrambled to lock up arena after arena for a Sky Concert. Sky did a week night concert at SoFi Stadium in L.A. – a sell-out at 72,000 seats including some SRO tickets. After that, she started doing other week night concerts since many of the arenas were already booked for Friday and Saturday nights for sporting or other concert events.

I told Sky to hire an accountant to work with her agent to be sure she was getting what she should. She asked for my help, and with Ken Healy’s help we put her in touch with a small accounting firm that handled a few other celebrities. Daniel Reese became her financial man. A lawyer with his firm, Laurel Lane, became her personal attorney. They meshed well with Jane Chechik, Sky’s agent, and took over the management of her money. She also got an investment advisor in the deal so she had safe places to squirrel her money away.

By the end of September, Sky had paid off the mortgage on her parent’s home and set up a paid-up educational fund for her younger brother. She was also sponsoring a national crisis center for abused women, and had donated over a million dollars to the fund. She told us she still remembered Lynn’s story about her abusive husband in Ohio.

Sky came out with a country music song entitled Country Sky midway through the summer. Like her other songs, this shot up the country music charts to the top and stayed there. It was on the pop charts, too, as a cross-over hit. She’d also been signed up to sign at the Country Music Awards in November, and her original song was even one of nominations.

I went to the CMAs with her, impressed because I also got to meet so many of my favorite artists in the pre- and post-show parties.

I found a much different Sky than the one I’d left in L.A. eight months earlier. Sky had become a force to be reckoned with. She’d easily let people push her around before, but not the New Sky. She was in command.

She was more confident, more aware, alert, mature, tuned in, hyped up, and turned on to everything going on around her. She’d become an amazingly sharp dresser. I found out that she’d lured Bev to advise her about her entire image and wardrobe from her underwear on out to what showed. I hadn’t know that Bev did that, but I guess she did it out of her love for one of her ‘sisters’ in the Extended Family.

Sky had become one of the most popular and personable people that I’d ever met. She was constantly yearning to learn new things and, when applicable, put them into practice in her life.

Sky begged me to teach her about meditation and mindfulness. Thus, during my week in L.A. for the CMAs, we did spend an hour each day on those activities, and I coached her in the whys and wherefores of those and related spiritual practices. I was amazed as how fast she adopted the practices into her daily life, and I could see it reflect in her interactions with some of the people I met with her towards the end of that week. I started to think of her as ‘calm’ AND ‘in control’.

While Sky could have gone off the deep end in terms of booze and drugs, she’d decided to abstain from both. Molliana had been a good influence on her in those areas. She learned she could have even more fun at some of the parties being another sober one there with Moll.

I stayed at Molliana’s house the week I was in L.A. for the CMAs. Sky was living there, too, and I joined them. I learned that the two stars also had round the clock security inside and outside the house, plus the house staff. I guess this was one of the complications of fame.

Sleeping arrangements during my stay had me in bed with the two stars every night. Moreover, I was in high demand as a sexual partner for both women. I could also see the affection the two of them had for each other.

I was starstruck when I first got to L.A., and connected with the two women at their house. I expected some affection from Sky although our only contact over the summer had been electronic via video calls and cellphone. Sky was passionate and within seconds of my arrival at the house, she had the two of us naked and making love in her bed.

We’d no sooner finished than Molliana appeared and joined us. She was as passionate and loving as Sky, recalling the sexual moments we’d had together ten months earlier. While Sky was near and participated around the fringe, Molliana and I also made love. It was making love, too. She was so sweet and tender, just as Sky had been.

As it turned out, both women were my dates for the CMAs. I sat between the two of them and we held hands through the awards. Sky did sing Country Sky to a great ovation. My pride and love for her must have been evident because later I was told that one of the cameras had watched me, and I’d been ‘on the air’ as she sang.

The media noted that I held both women’s hands during the show, but not too much more was made of the occurrence. None of us seemed to care about the fallout, if there was going to be any.

Tuesday after the CMAs, the shit hit the fan, and it wasn’t about holding hands.

We were sitting in the living room when Molliana’s publicist, Doris Monnik, arrived unannounced at the house with an arm full of magazines and newspapers that had come out since the award show. She laid three of them out on the coffee table facing the three of us and dropped the rest beside them. The three magazine covers had unflattering pictures of Sky, one with the headline ‘Porn Queen?’. The headlines on the other two scandal sheets were ‘Newest Pop Star Also Does Porn’ and ‘Miss Purity Isn’t So Pure’.

Sky was devastated. Molliana wasn’t too happy either since her friend and mentee was being smeared. She’d also been cited as Sky’s mentor and housemate in all three articles. Their wagons were hitched together.