“Obviously I’ve been talking to Elle. It was pretty much her idea. The second I told her I was looking to put together a band with you, she suggested Matt—”
“You told Elle… what? Before you even talked to me about it…?”
“Elle fucking loves Matt,” Summer went on. “She raves about him, says the guys rave about him, too. She already put a bug in Brody’s ear about it.”
“She didwhat?” I scowled at Summer. I definitely didn’t love that Brody, Dirty’s manager, knew about this before I did.
“Just a tiny little bug,” Summer said. “Elle says that Brody says we can go ahead and snatch Matt up at the end of the Dirty tour.”
I blinked at her. “You did all this before you even ran it by me?”
“I wanted to have something decent to pitch to you.”
“Okay. So you’re pitching me a supergroup, with Matt Brohmer?”
“And me!”
“Right. And what if this gets back to Matt, before we have a chance to discuss it, and we decide we don’t want him. Gonna make us look like pricks.”
“We’re discussing it now. And why wouldn’t we want him?”
I shrugged. “He’s solid. I’ve played with him a handful of times, over the years—”
“See? I knew—”
“Just don’t get ahead of yourself. Let me think about it. When I’m not fucking stoned.”
“Fine,” she relented.
“Brody’s not gonna say anything to him?”
“No. Elle just floated it by Brody like it was her idea.”
“And what about Elle?”
“She won’t say anything, Ash. Look, they all understand it’s an opportunity for Matt. He’s been looking for something permanent. And why would they want to get him interested if it doesn’t end up happening?”
“Okay. Just let me process this.”
“Sure. Of course.” She went silent. For three seconds. “We’re going with him, though, right?”
“I don’t know, Summer. I’m all high and blissed out onAngel Dustand Mike Patton’s voice.”
She grinned.
“And I haven’t even totally scraped my head around you and your supergroup idea yet.”
She dropped into her chair with a sigh. “Then just sit back… and let the music work it out for you.”
I did that. “Easy” was playing, and it made it easy to understand why she liked Mike Patton’s voice.
Summer had style and she had talent. She had classical music training and I knew she wanted to collaborate with as many other stars as possible. Launching a supergroup and expanding her musical repertoire, if it went well, would be a great next step for her.
She wanted it all, and she was going after it.
I’d be smart to align myself with her. Hitch our stars together, so to speak.
And she did rock.
