Jordan

Jordan

By

Retta Michaels

Disclaimer:

If you are under the age of eighteen, or live in a locale which doesn't allow you to read these sorts of stories legally, then please don't. Come back when it's legal for you to do so and it will be great with us who are here legally. In fact, we'll support you and in the right circumstances help get you laid. Now, skedaddle and shut the door on your way out!

Now, for the rest of you who are supposed to be adults, act like it!

Chapter 11:

They say "the show must go on". They say "work will take your mind off the pain". All I can say is I felt responsible because I didn't take the Cardinal and pick them up.

Mom and dad both died in the tragic crash of that plane. The F.A.A. told me the engine simply exploded and my parents were probably dead before they hit the ground. All I can say is I went through the motions and did what I had to do.

The news got out the plane was owned by Flagship. There was considerable interest why my parents would be flying in a Flagship plane. RJ put out a press release telling everyone Flagship was the record company's parent corporation and that seemed to satisfy the press.

In a fog, Chad and I went to California as the shows for Carnegie were rescheduled to a later date. There was no possible way I could sing any sort of song, much less attempt to act happy up on that stage.

When we reached California, Chad looked at me and said, "Babe, you'll probably hate me for this, but I'm going to go get the papers for the company so we have them signed. I feel awful as hell for this, but we bought the company and trusted things would be good. Now, we know we shouldn't have trusted and I'm grounding all those planes until they're inspected. There's no way we can sue ourselves. I'm so angry, upset, and hurt over this."

He went and when he got back with the papers, we read them over with a fine toothed comb and then faxed them to RJ who had lawyers prepped in New York. The lawyer sent a faxed copy back with added clauses in it which noted we would be taking possession of the vaults and have complete use of them for digital rights.

I signed the papers so forcefully they nearly tore. Anger was inside of me and I knew that Samuel L. Bell as his name was stated on the paperwork was responsible. If I could be responsible for fucking him with those papers, then it was a small portion of the feelings I had inside me. He'd fucked me out of my parents by his irresponsibility, and he damned well should know it.

Chad brought them over signed and we were in business to set everyone to raiding the vaults. RJ had crews in within the hour after we signed the papers.

I sat in our bedroom and stared out at the canyon below. Snakes were down there...the man said....but the life sucking king of all snakes lived up there. It was dark, depressing, and all I wanted to do was scream.

They say there wasn't enough of the plane left that wasn't bigger than a shoe box. When it obliterated itself at thirty thousand feet, it flew apart for two miles before it slammed into the field below. What I do know is we buried empty coffins and once again, I went home to California to sit in the bedroom.

A week after the accident, I heard Chad in the other bedroom playing some of the most saddest music I've ever heard in my life. Words came and the words which came were the song, "In Memory...".

Songs can't bring back my parents.

Words can't convey the sense of loss.

What I do know was music allowed me to express the feelings I had inside me. From that, came an understanding of one of the most misunderstood stars at this moment.

I called RJ and said, "Get me Britney's phone number."

"You don't want anything to do with her."

"I didn't ask that, I said I want her number."

He gave it to me and Chad stared at me the whole time I spoke with her. She agreed to come and as soon as she arrived, she ran into my arms crying.

Most people don't understand what she lost when she lost Justin. Yeah, it goes back that far. She lost security and she lost stabilization. She lost a sense of feeling she belonged to someone. In response, she reached out for a life preserver and she found a shark. He bit off and she still thought he was her savior. It wasn't until she saw she was losing life's blood that she found she had to let go in order to live. That's when he circled around and came up with the crushing blow. Her kids.

People look and point and they don't understand how someone so truly talented can apparently self destruct. What they see is the effect of trauma, and not the actual incidents which occurred. She's human for Chrissakes. She feels. She grieves. She loves. And, when she loses something dear to her, she takes the hit and tries to recover.

She actually did love Justin in her own way, but he didn't want what she needed to make her feel more complete. Apples and oranges don't always make the best bedmates when they're not emotionally compatible. One didn't want to grow up and the other did...and did it in the worst possible way.

What happened when she got there was a healing...an understanding...and a miracle. Brit got to voice what was inside of her and in doing so, we shared loss. Both finally had someone to understand the pain. She realized she needed someone who would not tolerate her life as it was, but would give her strength to put everything back in her life which would give her strength.

What was great was out of the times we spent together, the "Black" album came about. Chad and I in a moment of pure generosity gave away the rights to that album so she could regain the foothold she needed. She in return agreed to come over to our record label since "Black" fulfilled her contract. She went into her company, handed them the c.d., told them to publish it as it was, and that she would not promote it. They threatened lawsuit, but they also published it. It shot up the charts. She held all rights.

Until then, I hadn't thought about anyone other than myself. Yes, I do say helping Brit was helping myself. Chad will tell you me helping her was helping me. He sure didn't think she'd carry it forward as she had. He would later find out how wrong he was in that assumption when she turned that album into the springboard that catapulted her into Russia. If one thing he misunderstood is the Russian people. Those people have a deep thinking ability to gain concepts which are emotional whereas the American people are more disposable with their thoughts...use it today and throw it away not thinking about it, caring about it, and certainly not thinking about it afterwards..

The Russian people absorbed the emotions of the black album and they began to understand her. She was asked to perform there and when she did, she found Petr. Petr in an instant brought love into her world to the depth she had never experienced it. What she gave, he returned and what she needed, he gave in abundance. The world saw what was a mere rose bud turn into a beautiful rose after she'd met him.

Two weeks after the accident, RJ gave us a call and said, "We're in LA and we're performing. You're to be there and there are no excuses."

At first I was pissed. Well, at first I exploded and Chad saw a side of me no one had ever seen until then. He held me and hugged me and said, "Babe, they love you and you've shut them out. How would you feel if it had happened to one of them and they'd shut you out?"

When I went to the venue, the first sound check was the hardest for me in my career. I knew there was no safety net of running home to my parents making things better. I had Chad, but even if things went bad with him, I always had my parents love to catch me. Without them, the raw emotions came out through my voice. The group saw a different version of me and from then on, when I sang the blues in a rap song, the audience was stunned. If I sang a happy song, or a love song, they were ensnared. They knew I was giving of myself in the performance they'd not seen until then. The smile was no longer painted on and the tears were real.

Chad describes the "me before" and the "me after" as being two totally different personalities. The "me before" was someone who wouldn't commit. The "me after" committed to such an extent, Chad found being totally drawn into my being.

Yes, that was primarily Chad and I's relationship. He was there, and for me he was disposable. I could always run away. After my parent's death, the running stopped and I turned around and gave full measure of what I had to give. He accepted and built a comforting cocoon around me.

A month after my arrival back on the stage, Chad and I released the cd "Call Me" which interestingly was inspired from hearing the song by Melanie Thornton and finding out she too had died in an airplane crash. Until then, I'd heard of La Bouche, but hadn't known she was gone. When I learned of her death, the song "Call me" brought about a different emotion of the light upbeat song she'd portrayed. Instead, it was more down to earth and was a song of friendship. The album was more of a whole memorial to Melanie from the very first bars of "You Won't Forget Me" to "In Your Life" which I broke open the home movies my parents had taken of me all the way up until I joined the group.

The album hit and we hung on for the ride. The first three weeks it was out, it sold thirty million albums and the last portion of the video "In Your Life" with me standing in that field crying singing "This is what it all comes down to..." hit people so hard they knew what it felt like for me to be in that field and the loss.

No, I didn't mention the numbers wrong..the best selling album of all time. They say there were enough hits on that album people instantly grabbed it. Everywhere we went, the album was mentioned and finally, Glade who was our new fan club Manager/President told us he needed an entire staff just to answer the mail, emails, and to accept the flowers of condolences sent belatedly.

RJ, after the accident was more understanding. He was more deeper. His little touches and gestures told me something in him had changed too. He knew I'd matured and he knew something in me had changed. He was cautious at first, and then he understood I was coming around and I was coming around more forceful than an F-5 hurricane. He was sharp and he guided me and the corrections were such the media everywhere were saying I was the one who was going to be a super power of one. They couldn't have been more wrong.

Chad and I knew each other more deeper than any two in a relationship could possibly know. He knew when to stand back and he knew when to come in and stand in front of me and tell me I was wrong. He would also come out swinging on my behalf. The whole time he would be giving someone a severe ass chewing, he'd tell them, "if I release Jordan on you, you'll think what I gave you was light, go get it done and you'll be happy he never had a chance at you."

What's interesting is Sam, our business partner in Flagship, came around and began to see what we were doing as his personal source of empowerment. Until then, he hadn't released a single movie and after he found we were respected in the world as a gay couple, he released one movie and it went to the black column after the first week of release. He then started to seriously release movies in which the main characters were gay, or they gave gays a favorable spotlight. They brought about a new acceptance in which we could do comedy, but we could do drama and have the world understanding.

The changes in Flagship were amazing. We went from being an underdog to not even being a contender, but being a champion. One day, it seemed everyone was giving us last rites and the next we were grabbing established media sources by the balls and wringing them until they had no option but to consider us their adversary to be respected.

The main factor was the news division. People might not admit it, but our news is biased to make us look good and the world to look bad. Not everyone in the world feels exactly that way about the US.. Until we pulled up on the scene, to get trusted content, you had to go to the BBC and even then, it was somewhat manipulated. It's a sad fact, but that's how it was. Then we arrived.

With our arrival, we had correspondents on the other side of the viewpoint telling the other side of the story. Whereas CNN would attempt to paint a leader as maniac, we'd be there interviewing them and telling the history that had led to that point. After a while, it was done enough, we were trusted and we were favored when it came to us versus them for the story. CNN realized this, and suddenly had to start playing on our field. It was a switch up and it brought about truth.

The advantage we had was CNN and Fox were entrenched in the US. We broadcasted in the US, but we were the ones out there in Australia, China, Russia, and in at least two hundred other countries giving the whole news not just the spun news. Their leaders embraced us and in return, it afforded us gains in our other business endeavors. No, we weren't always popular, but we gave the story.

What was great was Band came on with every last dollar he had in his bank account. He stepped up and said, "When this is over, promise me I'll have the best hotels in the world."

I gave my word and he threw in with us. It was tough and it was rough. There were times we made it by the skin of our teeth, but when the tide turned, it came back and we were riding it like we'd managed to with music.

Now, I'll get into another field we entered and it wasn't a real pretty contest.

In the music industry, it's pretty much a secret that if you're not selling records, you're not getting contracts. Earlier, I stated we were mainline and there were B grade artists. That's IF the music industry will even acknowledge you are an artist. What we learned was there was a whole industry of older stars who couldn't even get a contract. They'd float from label to label and they'd not be able to break into the hold the big labels had on the industry. These stars aren't little guys, these are stars who were big names. Stars that kept some of those companies afloat during rough economic times, and the companies turned their backs on them.

The deciding factor there was we went into our vaults and discovered a lot of acts and attempted to revive some of the songs. What happened was we were told to take the shit back to the vaults and to only bring it out as a end of career compilation or when someone died and the record stores would sell them, but stations would ignore them.

That is what happened and then, we decided to open up the airwaves and play oldies in a manner that allowed older acts to bring on their new releases. Where the strong surge of these happened was in Russia at first. I said earlier Russians are deeper thinkers and you probably thought that was something I don't know what I'm knowing a thing about. Well, we released folk music over there from the sixties and it outsold their pop music. We recognized the niche since baby boomers over here cut their teeth on it and we began playing it here. They switched the dials and revived careers.

The whole time this was going on, our group was performing. After the success of "Call Me", the group released "Greatest Hits Volume 1" and boxed the set. It wasn't like we stopped performing the songs on tour, we just re-released them so they'd be seen as new. Then, we followed it up with "Merry Go Round" which had Aetna refitted with a turntable so she'd spin at the same time she performed.

Basically, it was a gimmick, but what it did was it gave us a chance to actually go into the amusement parks as we had originally intended and become a draw for their smaller stages. Somewhere along the way, we'd lost track of what we'd wanted and thought we couldn't do smaller venues.

Well, what we found was we weren't escaping the grind and we weren't getting to do much but be prisoners to the tour. So, it came about as a wish of us to play at least one. Pru started booking us for matinées at neighboring amusement parks for afternoon concerts and the draw was so overwhelming, the parks were screaming for more. We weren't complaining because they allowed us to sell our merchandise and we found our merchandise sold incredibly well there since the park's items were so over priced. We basicly turned our sound check times into money makers by doing those matinées and the advance promotion gave us an upsurge in sales for the concerts later that night.

What we hadn't counted on was gaining a foothold into a younger pre-teen fan market. When it started to dawn on us, we didn't really know how to take it. I mean, by this time I was twenty years old and the idea of a six year old little girl thinking I'm anything near being a fantasy for her is a bit disturbing, but they bought everything we put out there. Our revamped version of the Swatch became the 'must have' item for that summer. Fortunately, we got the things for thirty five cents and we put them out the door for five bucks. They were wearing ten and twenty of the things.

In July, Chad got approached by a competing movie company to do a sound track for a new movie they were releasing. The confidentiality agreement they had was enough to really have him locked in a room with the movie and no one was allowed to enter or exit. He got the job done and for his effort, he got a Golden Globe and an Oscar for best sound track. I was really proud of him and he felt overwhelmed.

By Christmas of that year, the guys were all begging for a break. I was so caught up in the grind, I really didn't care. We spoke with Pru about scaling back our performances for a year and then the year after, we were going to do an all out frontal assault as our going away party. No press releases stated anything like that, but the guys agreed to two more years on those terms.

For the upcoming album session, we went to probably one spot in the world where we weren't able to be chased and were given a lot of isolation. Fiji. Yeah, sixteen hours by plane does tend to make the media want to leave us alone.

The one deciding moment for us was we were big enough stars that if Chad and I were seen someplace alone, we were swamped, but if four of us were seen together, the press and fans were out in force (and knew we were preparing for another album). That might be fun, but try sleeping in a little hotel in Barcelona with the narrow streets being as they are with the echoing of the bass from one of your songs vibrating off the walls. Our fans loved us enough to serenade us with our own songs on professional grade sound systems.

What happened was we weren't treated kindly by staff of the hotel, businesses in the neighborhood, and we were pretty much told to get the hell out and not to come back. We never had a chance to apologize.

So, we went to Fiji and we found solitude there which the natives seemed to not really care who we were and we could build a studio and record and write songs for the entire year.

What was great about those sessions was Kurt until this time was pretty much known but because of his sister's actions, we'd put him at arms length distance and not let him closer. It wasn't fair to him, but once bitten twice shy.

As I said, it was great because in Fiji, Kurt sang and we took on a whole new respect for him. His perspective was still fresh and his songs he came up with were unlike what we'd allowed ourselves to lean towards. He brought them out and the group gave him the ability to cultivate the ideas into a whole new genre of music. We recorded them and mixed them in with our other materials and when they began to receive airplay and promotion, the public took them and said we'd reinvented ourselves. He became a front man for the group and Bandy was along for the ride since the love songs he sang were only to him.

What was cool was Bandy had been the creative talent for their duo for the most part and when Kurt got a chance to step up, he did so with a renewed freshness that had them sell well over fifteen million for their duo album. Kurt in one word sparkled. Yeah, I say sparkled because the guy was showman extraordinaire. He even had diamond studs made for the spaces in between his upper front teeth and gums that when the lights hit him, they glinted and his clothing took on glittering elegance...even the tired worn out jerseys we still occasionally wore. Whereas "Call Me" had been my comeuppance by our fans, "Doh rah" planted Kurt on the map.

What got scary was in the background, we began to hear Wend's attempting to make his presence known. The way we handled it was we put a twenty four hour tail on him and if he came into the city we were located, we notified the police and called in extra reinforcements for the bodyguards. They kept us informed and then, if he made a move to be within a two block radius of us, he was arrested for violation of restraining order. He played the games and we countered. We went through the summer that way and fortunately, Pru got us into Russia for a tour that fall.

Russia is a country as I said where when you're on their good side, you have the keys to the kingdom. If you're on their bad side or they don't want you there, then there's not a chance in hell you're going to get in there. There's enough stopgaps in their security to make it happen. If we had the same measures here, there'd be no chance of an illegal alien.

The way it goes there is you have to have documentation to be allowed there. Then once you get there, you have to have a travel card that documents where you've been. In order to rent a car there, or a motel room, you have to show that documentation. If you don't have it, or you can't prove it, then the police are called and it's on your dime for them to forcibly take you back to whence you entered the country to be deported. If you don't have the funds, well, they'll let you sit it out in jail until someone can send you the funds.

For us, it was sanctuary from being bothered by him. However, since we were stars and faces known by everyone, the adoration of the fans wasn't as fanatical as over here, but they sure wanted to touch us, feel us, and let us know we were loved. What we discovered is us touching their hands over there is as powerful to them as an autograph over here. Everyone wants it and we could run the gauntlet and they'd have their hands out and not expect anything other than us to go by touching their hands. Amazing, but civilized. Not one time did we ever have our hair pulled, clothing pulled and bruising done there like we had over here. Yes, they hugged severely hard, but I'd rather have that then a fan that would hug me and then start taking me into a crowd like would happen here.

We performed over there and the whole while, we were adored. The mission over there however was we were forever on display and Chad's funny way he held his knife (think psycho) while he cut his steaks became the national rage over there. It got to the point fans would hold their ink pens that way when autograph session were allowed. Our security had nightmares over that...to which I'd laugh and say, "Imagine how a steak feels when Chad's coming at it!"

Chad would say, "That's the way I feel best doing it. If I did it the other way, it'd take me all night to eat."

"That's o.k, love, you just do it the way you want. Just remember you step into the shower first and we always bath together."

Everyone would laugh at us and what was hilarious was if I'd slip and be heard speaking to him in public. It seemed the press hung on every word we said to each other. Russian fans are like the way the US fans were for the Beatles back in the sixties.

One great thing which happened in Russia was the President/Premier insisted upon updating Cardinal with a newer version of one of their planes. I knew Cardinal had some miles on her, but didn't know how the pilots would feel. When I asked them their opinion, they insisted upon being trained for the new jet before we even ordered it. When they came back, I discovered the engines they had for the jet were making our jet an equivilant of a passenger version of a MIG 35. The pilots were so stoked about it they were talking about it for an hour. The side note to this was it hadn't been done before and the Russians wanted to be sure the engines didn't rip the ass off the plane before they sent us up in it. They did change the design and it put the engines on the wings. The difference between the Cardinal (a Gulfstream G4) and the Sukhoi Superjet 100 was space. The Gulfstream on paper would hold twenty one people, at times we were overloaded with twelve people. The Superjet Cardinal edition was it was rated for 70 and you could put a hundred people on the thing and it'd be still capable of hauling from one end of the country to the other.

Now, I'm not into mechanical things, but the pilots said this jet would go like a bat out of hell and was efficient. The way they compared the Cardinal to the C edition was like saying the cardinal was like a tootsie toy and the C edition was like a Tonka truck. One was superior over the other and they didn't even compare.

What I do know was when I saw the new Cardinal, it took my breath away. It was huge! It was like comparing a yugo to a Cadillac. When we stepped on board, The interior of the thing, I was told, met the new President's approval. All I can say was as soon as I saw it, I turned to their company manager and said, "We need twenty one of these for Flagship." His reply was "When?"

That's how geared up they were for the production of their planes. An order from Boeing over here for twenty one of their jets would be met with a .......well, you'll start getting them in about four years.... With this company, they said "When" and seemed eager to get them to us as fast as possible. When the manager told me, "We'll get you a date on that." I was prepared with a really outlandish date. I wasn't prepared for the speed in three months they gave me for the date.

Chad looked at me and smiled. He said, "You never even asked the price, you just gave that out like we're made of money. What if they're fifty million each?"

"You don't think they are, do you?" He now had me worried.

"I don't know, but the way this looks, I'd say it's not cheap. You do know the replacement for the Cardinal would be about forty million don't you?"

"That much?"

"Yeah, I priced one to get you for Christmas and then got told it'd take a year and a half."

"Wow, and we're getting these in three months. Do you think they just had them sitting around?"

"No, I think the speed they can put them together says they've got a good operation. We should look into investment possibilities."

As I said, I had no idea how much they were going to cost. When the manager got to me, he gave us a price of just under eighteen million each. They did have the air frames sitting constructed, but the engines and the interiors were custom. Niles and Red took a look at each other and ordered their own and then asked to speak with the person in charge with investing in the company. They were shown to the person's office and from what I hear, they invested a billion dollars into the company. For their investment, they received their jet compliments of the company.

One thing I didn't mention was Putin had a successor. Mr Putin still met us at the plane when we landed and he still doted upon us, but the successor rarely showed his face to us. Putin smiled when I asked about this and he made mention to saying he was still in control, but he couldn't be in control. He said, "You are head of your company, but if you couldn't be, then Chad would be there and he'd do as you ask, correct? Now, I have a question for you."

"O.k., what do you want to know?"

"What shall I do with your other band member I have locked in my jail?"

I turned to Chad and he stepped up close. Chad said, "Lose the key and tell him he's gotten too close. Find something to keep him there for a ten year sentence and we'll pay for his stay."

"You take this good car of your enemies?"

Chad said, "No, but we'll save that much by not having to have extra security on our staff."

"So, could I ask you a favor?"

Chad looked at me and said, "You've given us favors, so we'll give them to you."

"Could I reprogram this boy and see if he'll act more thoughtful towards you?"

Now, to me, this was something which was a moral dilemma. One thing is to have freedom of thoughts, and another is when those thoughts are geared towards hurting others, so I was really taken back by the request."

Chad said, "What you do with him while he's in your care is your concern. Make sure he's comfortable and make sure he doesn't threaten us and you'll be ok, but you'll never have our permission to hurt him, maim him, or kill him. We expect at the end of ten years to have him released into our care."

"That will be the ultimate test, won't it?"

The glint in his eye and the smirk on his face told me Mr. Putin was an adversary not to be under estimated, however whatever we asked for business wise, he gave us without question. Also, the love of the fans we had in Russia pulled us there time and time again.

What I haven't mentioned is Australia. Australia is a country which is awesomely huge. And yet, it's population centers are located primarily upon it's edges. Think of the U.S., with cities upon the edges and hardly anything in between and you've got Australia. Touring the country is like a huge circle as that's the only way it seems to make sense. We'd land and then "do the loop" as we affectionately codenamed the tour.

The fans in Australia are the greatest. They're respectful, kind, and where the rest of the world was treating us like another Beatles, Australians called our group, "their Boys". What was interesting was because Red and Niles were the youngest, whole festivals were created for them just to find them girlfriends. Maybe it's because they thought it was just a phase, I don't know, but Red and Niles really resented going to them. However, the promoters didn't understand the word "NO", so a tour date would be promoted with a call out for girls. The advantage of it was the girls brought families and the families all bought tickets, merchandise, and our concessions which weren't contracted like here.

One thing to note, is Chad and I were up in a helicopter touring and we were way out in the middle of nowhere outside of Alice Springs. Chad thought it'd be romantic to go for a helicopter ride and a picnic. So, when we saw a spot with some lovely hills, and really green glades, we planted it.

The smell of the grass and the wildflowers with the scenery were awesome, The print on our memories was such, Chad got the GPS coordinates from the pilot and told RJ to buy us the land if it ever came up for sale. Two weeks later when we were in Perth, we were in the dressing room and a man was brought in who told us he owned the land. We struck up a deal and we were leased for lifetime that location and as far as the eye could see. The condition was no fences and we were allowed to build whatever we wanted upon the land. Chad looked at me and the deal was struck. The price...not a thing. The man was a fan and knew enough of our situation to know there weren't many places upon this planet we could go for privacy.

One other side note is the television stations we had in Australia were devotedly watched. Our highest ratings anywhere were there and our news division was tops.

When we toured Europe, the reviews were up and down. Europe is a continent who accepts pretty much anyone, however politics is more divisive there. Whatever the US was doing affected our attendance numbers. One thing I can state with most accuracy is the fans in Europe are the most devoted ever. They remembered the Beatles and they remembered Elvis because they were still fans. Our fan clubs there would block off streets and our merchandise sold not only once, but several times to the same fan. They wanted it so they'd have it ten and twenty years from now. Also, performing there was awesome. Wherever we went, the concerts would be a big sing along. They might not be into karaoke, but they sure didn't mind singing with us.

One problem we had in Europe is our zero tol of alcohol. It seems the stuff runs the continent. In Germany, it's beer. In Italy and France, it's wine. In Spain, well, the stuff they pass as any of the above is terrible.

As I said, it was a problem because the fests there all revolve around it. We were told if we attempted to do concerts without having it, the attendance would be small. We attempted it and found out we had no turn out...just think of a huge arena and two hundred people in it. Can you say we lost our keesters on that concert!!! So, we opened the barrels and kegs and the fans came in. It was like a huge beer fest. Where we drew the line was any promotion or advertising of the stuff and we certainly turned down huge offers of our group endorsing it.

In September, we recorded Christmas releases. Chad and I for our duo released two different offerings. We agreed to promote his musical talents by selling his name on an instrumental release and then having the same music with us singing upon it. The press looked at it with arched eye brows and word cautiously trickled out we were splitting up.

All I can say is the fans bought it and whether it was due to the rumors or because it was appreciated, I don't know. What's humorous is Chad began getting fan mail telling him his name would be placed on the children conceived from his cd.

That took us through Christmas. For New Years, the group did Times Square in New York and publicly made the announcement the upcoming year and tour would be our last. The end result was a nation being so stunned it was like we collectively slapped their grandmas.

From My Keyboard To Your Heart,

Retta

RettaMichaels@Gmail.com

Copyright Notice - Copyright © December 2007 by RettaMichaels

The author, RettaMichaels copyrights this story and retain all rights. This work may not be changed or duplicated in any form, media, ( known or unknown) without the author's expressed permission. All applicable copyright laws apply.

Disclaimer: All individuals depicted are fictional, and any resemblance to real persons is purely coincidental

-- From My Keyboard To Your Heart Rhett

Here is a list of stories I've written and where to find them:

With Love - Nifty - Beginnings Section Rural Love - Author Heading - DeweyWriter.com Write Me A Love Story - Author Heading - DeweyWriter.com To Love Him - Author Heading - DeweyWriter.com Military Zone - Nifty - Military Section Evan - Nifty - Beginnings Section Jordan - DeweyWriter.com If I Could Give It All Back - DeweyWriter.com